WASHINGTON – Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, submitted written testimony today to the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice highlighting the need for transformative reform of policing at both the federal and state levels.

The U.S. Department of Justice had invited civil rights groups to a forum in a last-ditch effort to legitimize the Commission, but the groups have cited the department’s failure to address the pandemic and offered policy solutions to respond to the fatal police shootings in recent weeks.

The Respect for Law Enforcement Working Group should evaluate the Department of Justice’s abdication of its responsibility for ensuring accountability of law enforcement agencies for systemic civil rights violations,” said Gupta in her submitted testimony.

In her testimony Gupta outlined specific recommendations this Commission should take, including:

The following groups also submitted written testimony:

The Leadership Conference and more than 450 other civil rights organizations recently called on congressional leadership to swiftly begin to rectify the legacy of white supremacy and anti-Black racism that has led to police violence with impunity against Black people across our country.

The Leadership Conference Education Fund, sister organization to The Leadership Conference, previously launched the New Era of Public Safety initiative featuring tools to increase trust, fairness, justice, and mutual respect between police departments and the communities they serve.

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