Call for a National Commission

The events of September 11, 2001, fundamentally altered the traditional role of the law enforcement profession and have ushered in a new era of policing in the United States. In the aftermath of these attacks, as the nation struggled to comprehend the new menace confronting our society, law enforcement agencies realized that they now had a new and critically important mission. No longer could they focus their energies solely on traditional crime-fighting efforts. Now they would be asked to confront a new threat to their communities, perpetrated by individuals and organizations that had motivations and means of attack vastly different from those of traditional criminals. Accepting this challenge required law enforcement and other public safety agencies to reassess their operations and reevaluate their priorities.

Over the last seven years, a number of dramatic steps have been taken to confront the menace of terrorism, including the passage of the Patriot Act, the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, and the creation of a variety of programs designed to assist states and local governments in their efforts.

Unfortunately, despite these valuable initiatives, state, tribal, and local law enforcement executives have grown increasingly concerned with the lack of a central, comprehensive plan to guide national efforts to adjust to the realities of the world after September 11. This fractured approach has sown confusion among public safety agencies, delayed progress, resulted in the waste of limited resources, and in the end, left the United States far less secure than it needs to be. We cannot allow this to continue.

At the same time, the law enforcement community’s traditional crime-fighting efforts have suffered. Already tight state, county, municipal, and tribal budgets have been forced to absorb the costs associated with increased training needs, overtime, and equipment purchases.

Coupled with these pressures is the continuing need to ensure the protection of civil rights and civil liberties, which is central to a strong community-police relationship and therefore vital to our crime-fighting and homeland security efforts.

It is for these stated reasons that the IACP urges the next President to establish a national commission to conduct a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system and to provide the nation with a strategic plan that will guide an integrated public safety and homeland security effort in the years ahead.

Such a commission has succeeded before. In July 1965, President Lyndon Johnson issued an executive order establishing the Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. The commission and its recommendations marked the begin-ning of a sea change in our methods for dealing with crime and the public and built the framework for many of the exemplary programs that continue today.

Forty-three years have now passed since that commission completed its work. The International Association of Chiefs of Police now calls for the establishment of a new commission to address and solve the issues facing the law enforcement community and the criminal justice system in the 21st century.

The United States needs a strategic plan embracing the reality that protecting our communities depends on our ability to fight both crime and terrorism. It is the IACP’s belief that establishing a national commission is the vital first step in this process.

Therefore, we urge the next President to issue an executive order establishing this vitally needed commission within the first 100 days of his administration.

In this call for a national commission, the IACP leaves to the ultimate designers of the commission decisions about all of the logistics and administrative details that must be made. However, the IACP stands ready to provide assistance as called upon.

We also recommend the adoption of certain principles that would serve to guide the work of the commission.

• First, we believe the commission should include all of the elements of the criminal justice system in its examination.
• Second, we believe that the commission should comprise individuals from within and outside the criminal justice system and that, in the interest of hearing from every stakeholder in this process, every effort should be made to include individuals with the broadest possible perspective on the areas selected for review and concentration.
• Third, we believe that the commission must be given all the resources it needs to conduct a rigorous and thorough investigation and that it be given sufficient time to conduct an exhaustive review.
• Finally, it is our strongest possible recommendation that this examination be conducted in a thoroughly nonpartisan manner.

It is our hope that a commission so structured will allow us to focus this discussion on ensuring the safety of our communities and a continued partnership with them. We look forward to working with and supporting this commission when established.