July 12, 2022

Dear Senator Kaine and Representative Beyer:

We at CEO Action for Racial Equity (CEOARE) applaud you both for your leadership and dedication promoting transparency and accountability in policing by introducing the Cost of Police Misconduct Act of 2021 (S. 540 and H.R. 1481 respectively).  In April of 2021,¹ CEOARE wrote to Congress to reaffirm our support for meaningful, bipartisan police reform, and today we are doing the same. Our coalition is specifically focused on advancing a national police misconduct registry, used by all law enforcement agencies across the country, that will support critical measures to rebuild trust and credibility between law enforcement and the communities that they serve.

CEOARE believes this legislation is needed for several key reasons.  The lack of centralized information on police misconduct and officer terminations, coupled with state laws and police union contracts that often shield records from view, enable officers disciplined or fired for misconduct to find work in other jurisdictions. These officers present a greater risk of being fired again or accused of misconduct.² In addition, the costs of police misconduct are staggering, too, yet largely unknown to the public and rarely tracked by police departments or city officials who approve such taxpayer-financed settlements.³ A first step to addressing both problems is providing all levels of government and community members with transparency into misconduct allegations, disciplinary outcomes and settlement records to inform solution-oriented patterns and practices.  We believe S. 540 and H.R. 1481 will establish a meaningful framework for collecting and publishing such data.

With the creation of the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (the Accountability Database) in President Biden’s recent Executive Order 14074, we are now closer to having a national registry that incentives state and local law enforcement participation, in addition to requiring reporting by the federal agencies.  The Accountability Database establishes a solid standard reporting framework, which the states can model to support their data collection and interoperability with the federal database. In addition, data made available through the database can also highlight trends and useful insights that build the case for additional state and federal legislation. The Accountability Database sets a foundation by which states and the federal government can build from, by acting on insights gleaned from the data and showcasing the positive effects for all stakeholders involved in public safety. However, legislation is still needed to enable the permanence of the Accountability Database and to require state and local law enforcement to participate.

As business leaders, we have a responsibility to our employees and customers to help make sure that they live and work in protected and secure communities. We are also using our voice to stand alongside the millions of Americans calling for meaningful police reform, and we appreciate that action is needed. All Americans deserve to live in safe, strong and healthy communities where trust and accountability are the norm.

Thank you for your enduring commitment to police reform and sponsoring meaningful legislation to advance transparency in policing.  CEOARE strongly supports the passage of S. 540 and H.R. 1481.

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Sincerely,

CEO Action for Racial Equity

CEO Action for Racial Equity is a Fellowship of over 100 companies that mobilizes a community of business leaders with diverse expertise across multiple industries and geographies to advance public policy in four key areas — healthcare, education, economic empowerment and public safety. Its mission is to identify, develop and promote scalable and sustainable public policies and corporate engagement strategies that will address systemic racism, social injustice and improve societal well-being.

Citations

[1] CEO Action for Racial Equity, “Letter to Congress to Advance Meaningful Police Reform,” CEOARE,(October 6, 2021). Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://ceoactionracialequity.com/insights/ceo-action-for-racial-equity-letter-to-congress-to-advance-meaningful-police-reform/.

[2] Ben Grunwald and John Rappaport, “The Wandering Officer,” The Yale Law Journal 129, no.6 (April 30, 2020): 1676, 1682, https://ssrn.com/abstract=3589544.

[3] See, e.g., Keith L. Alexander, Steven Rich and Hannah Thacker, “The Hidden Billion-Dollar Cost of Repeated Police Misconduct,” The Washington Post, March 9, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigation/interactive/2022/police-misconduct-repeated-settlement.