Comparing the Composition of Obama’s “Task Force on 21st Century Policing” to Trump’s “Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice”
Following Ferguson and the civil unrest from a number of high-profile deadly force incidents in the latter half of 2014, Barack Obama convened the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Holding meetings/sessions in 2015, it represented the first national-level commission dedicated to issues of American policing since the 1960s. The Task Force, with its final report that can be found here, ultimately arrived at 6 pillars that needed to be addressed: “building trust & legitimacy”, “policy & oversight”, “technology & social media”, “community policing & crime reduction”, “training & education”, and “officer wellness & safety.” Select departments across the country began using the pillars and recommendations as a blueprint for improving their organizations, even posting their progress on agency websites.
Less than five years later, another presidential task force was created. This time it was Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr’s turn. However, Trump and Barr’s commission has been marred by controversy. At least two members resigned from the commission in protest, including Ramsey County (Minnesota) District Attorney John Choi and Wyandotte County (Kansas) District Attorney Mark Dupree. In his letter of resignation, Choi stated, “it is now patently obvious ... that this process had no intention of engaging in a thoughtful and open analysis, but was intent on providing cover for a predetermined agenda that ignores the lessons of the past, furthering failed tough-on-crime policies that led to our current mass incarceration crisis and fueling divisions between our communities and our police officers.” Dupree echoed similar concerns, stating that he believed the commission’s work was “smothered by a pernicious political agenda.”
When the commission was set to release its draft report in the early fall of 2020, a federal district judge (John Bates – a George W. Bush appointee) ruled that the Trump administration must delay the release since it violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which requires that committees be “fairly balanced” in the viewpoints represented. You can read the full ruling here. Judge Bates went on to state: “The Commission’s function is to improve policing, including relations between law enforcement and the communities they protect. Yet the Commission does not include a single member who represents elements of those communities, rather than law enforcement.” He continued: “Indeed, the Court is hard pressed to think of a starker example of non-compliance with FACA’s fair balance requirement than a commission charged with examining broad issues of policing in today’s America that is composed entirely of past and present law enforcement officials.”
A federal judge has since ruled that the commission’s report can move forward with its release as long as it includes a disclaimer/statement that FACA was violated and the commission was not fairly balanced. According to Miriam Krinsky, Executive Director of Fair and Just Prosecution, the “strong disclaimer will be a clear message to all of the lack of legitimacy reflected by a process that blatantly ignored federal law.”
The Trump/Barr Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice’s draft report was released in November 2020. It can be found here. The disclaimer at the beginning reads, “Although the Commission which prepared this Report was subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (“FACA”), 5 U.S.C. app. 2, a United States District Court judge has found that the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Commission’s officers violated FACA in forming and operating the Commission. In particular, DOJ and the Commission did not comply with FACA’s requirements to ensure the Commission’s membership is fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented, file a charter, select a designated federal officer, or provide timely notice of meetings in the Federal Register. For additional detail, the remedial order of the United States District Court that issued this decision is attached to the Commission’s Report.”
In light of these developments, I set out to explore the composition of members and those providing testimony in listening sessions in both Obama’s and Trump’s/Barr’s efforts. I quickly, and I mean quickly (I did this for “fun”), examined the lists of participants and their official titles/backgrounds and coded them accordingly. Most were easy to code, as they neatly fit into distinguishable categories: current/former law enforcement, researchers and academics/professors, representatives from civil rights/community organizations, district attorneys/prosecutors, and so on. A few were more difficult and I made a judgement call (those in question are denoted later with asterisks). The pie charts below represent what I found.
There were some stark contrasts between Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policy and Trump/Barr’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice. Obama’s Co-Chairs and Members did have more of a balance between practitioners, researchers, and representatives from civil rights/community organizations. On the other hand, the concerns of Judge Bates, among others, are evident. Trump’s/Barr’s commissioners are exclusively current/former law enforcement and District Attorneys/prosecutors.
I did the same thing for the composition of people providing testimony in the listening sessions.
Here, the differences between the two efforts are not as pronounced. There is some representation from both researchers/academics/professors and civil rights/community organizations in Trump’s/Barr’s commission; however, it is below the representation provided by Obama’s Task Force.
I thank Ryan Reilly at The Huffington Post for consistently reporting about these developments. For those interested in reading more, please consult the following link.
Here is where I found the information on the Co-Chairs and Members, Commissioners, and those participating in the listening sessions:
And here is my coding of both federal efforts (asterisks denote difficulty coding):
Obama’s Co-Chairs & Members (n = 11)
Current/former LE, practitioners (n = 5; 36%): Ramsey, Alexander, Rahr, Smoot, Villasenor
Researchers/Research Orgs, Academics, Law Professors (n = 2; 18%): Robinson, Mears
Civil Rights, Community Orgs, Community members (n = 4; 36%): Lopez, Packnett, Rice, Stevenson
Obama’s Public Listening Sessions (n = 121)
Current/former LE, practitioners (n = 52; 43%): Beary, Canterbury, Peralta, Stanek, McHale, Medlock, McDonald, Primas, Beck, McCarthy, Monroe, Whent, Aziz, Harrell, O’Connor, Miller, Rainey, Van Houten, Cohen, Talucci, Aden, Batts, Blackwell, Magnus, Melvin, Bethel, Thomson, Turner, Crawford, Smith, Ciechanowski, Johnson, Tucker, *Winegar, *Danielson, Ortolano, Schofield, Flynn, Hutchens, Jacobs, Layton, Lipman, Orr, Castor, Demings, Eastman, Bryant, Thompson, Magaw, Pasco, Smith, McDonnell,
Researchers/Research Orgs/Academics/Law Professors (n = 30; 25%): Eberhardt, Ogletree, Tyler, Walker, Alpert, Wexler, Bueermann, Keesee, *Lewinski, White, Spiker, *Stevens, *Geller, Jones-Brown, Rosenbaum, Skogan, Kennedy, Hansford, Decker, *May, Scrivner, *Brown, Duport, Miller, Ramey, Violanti, Goff, Nagin, Sherman, Travis
Civil Rights/Community Orgs, Community members (n = 31; 26%): Perez, St. Germain, Winkler, Ifill, Kumar, Murphy, Reddy, Robinson, *Buchner, Charney, Brown, Gorenberg, Miller, Grewal, McKesson, Jones, Brown, Coleman, Gonzales, Luckey, Peart, Reynolds, Bones, Fowler, Harley, Ritchie, Sarsour, Friedman, *Serpas, *Floyd, Bernhard,
DA/prosecutors (n = 3; 2%): Gill, *Schrier, Zakhary,
Politicians (mostly mayors) (n = 4; 3%):Johnson, Nutter, Rawlings-Blake, Freeman-Wilson,
Other (n = 1; 0.8%):Scott Greenwood (Attorney)
Trump/Barr Commissioners (n = 18)
Current/former LE, practitioners (n = 12; 67%): Keith, Bowdich, Clemmons Jr., Evans, Frazier, Gualtieri, Hawkins, Lombardo, Ramsay, Rausch, Samaniego, Smallwood
Researchers/Research Orgs, Academics, Law Professors (n = 0; 0%)
Civil Rights, Community Orgs, Community members (n = 0; 0%)
DAs/prosecutors(n = 6; 33%): Sullivan, MacDonald, Moody, Parr, Price, Washington
Trump/Bar Working Groups/Testimony (n = 182)
Current/former LE, practitioners (few = broader: probation, corrections): Gross, Nooner, Yoes, Faris, Casstevens, Juday, Martin, McMahon, Shimko, Barnes, Penzone, Brown, Redd, Sena, Koutoujian, DeLacy, Blasher, Skinner, Anderson, Thomson, Chittum, Neudigate, Hart, Mateo, Hawkins, Jones, Cohen, Stirling, Craig, Ruocco, Partridge, Amon, LeValley, Roessler Jr., Kauffman, Louderback, Newman (chief of security-school), Canady, Waybourn, Lemmer, *Lowden, Hardy, Brown, Wetzel, Sanders, Perkins, Johnson, Cunningham, Bourgerie, Bradshaw, Brueggemann, Johnson, Napier, Harrison, Moir, Keller, Letteney, Dannels, Glick, Lake, Rourke, Blake, Denke, Blasher, Ranalli, Sult, Kruithoff, McDonnell, *Serpas (can also be researcher-Loyola U), White, Gabliks, Chitwood, Register, Adkinson, Hughes, Bourgeois, Niski, Gualtieri, Stawinski, Brown, Cosme, Young, Acevedo, *Marvel (PORAC), McHale, Cook, Slaughter, (n = 87; 48%)
Public defenders: Burkhart, Wilson, Martinez, Martinez (n = 4; 2%)
Judges: Lilly, Irwin (Judge, juvenile court) (n = 2; 1%)
Researchers/Research Orgs, Academics, Law Professors (n = 24; 13%): King, Robinson, Humphreys, *James (NAMI), *Gamette (forensics), Garrett, Bruegge (Physical Scientist), *Hounakey, Koufos, Duwe, *Wright II, Sheer, Yankowski, Alpert, Cordner, MacDonald, Engel, Mangual, Heriot, Turley, Fridell, Klinger, *Pannell (Director, Police Training & Edu-LAPD), Sheppard,
Civil Rights, Community Orgs, Community members: Bernard, Gonzalez, Bilyeu, Griffith, Alexenko, Clark, Davis (superintendent-school), Iorio, Salem, Phipps, Clark, Johnson, Guy, Khalif, *Hutson (President-NACOLE), Guardiola, Gilzean, Hayes-Greene, Turner, Harrison, Hutchins, Ballabon, Moline, Shareef, (n = 24; 13%)
These = LE-related groups: Solomon, McCarthy, Samuels, Castellano (n = 4; 2%)
Unknown/difficulties to code (public officials?) (n = 6; 3%):Snook, *Ashmen (hearing 2, part 2); *Brinkman (Director of the Office of Criminal Justice Programs, Tennessee Department of Administration and Finance); *Allis (National Congress of American Indians); *Addington (Director-B of Indian Affairs); *Korthuis (Association of Village Council Presidents); *Reimer (Nat Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers)
DAs & US Attorneys (AGs) (n = 28; 15%): Patterson, Marbut, Fox, Stuart, Herdman, Nelson, Terwillinger, Sini, Hertel, Vance Jr., Mosler, Jinks (DOJ Office of Legal Policy), Kyker, Pak, Parsons, Laurenz-Bogue, Schroeder, Shores, Alme, Dunn, Rutledge, Olsen, Blodgett, Meese III., Mukasey, McSwain, Scott, Trutanich,
Medical Doctor (of PDs) (n = 3; 2%): Coyne, Eastman, Miller,