Law Enforcement Leaders Examine the Direction of Criminal Justice Policy in the Age of Trump
The Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School will host “Policing in the Age of Trump,” a panel of national law enforcement leaders for a discussion of criminal justice policy and strategy under the new administration on April 13, 2017. The event begins at noon in Room 127 at the Law School and is open to the public.
On the day of his inauguration, President Trump published the issue brief “Standing up for our Law Enforcement,” promising to restore “law and order” to the United States while ignoring a decade of empirical research on ways to promote public safety and reduce the crime rate. In response, Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration produced the report “Fighting Crime and Strengthening Criminal Justice,” a document that outlines the “preferred policies,” of 200 current and former police chiefs, sheriffs, federal and state prosecutors, and attorneys general from all 50 states. The report urges Congress and the new administration to focus its criminal justice strategy on five target areas for intervention: prioritizing efforts to fight violent crime; enacting federal sentencing reform; increasing mental health and drug treatment; bolstering community policing; and expanding recidivism programs in prison.
The discussion will include Ronal Serpas, Former Police Superintendent in New Orleans and one of the leading authors of this report; Ron Davis, Former Director of the U.S. Department of Justice and Office of Community Oriented Policing and former police chief of East Palo Alto; Jim Johnson, Former Undersecretary for Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Treasury who is currently running as the Democratic candidate for governor in the State of New Jersey; and Dean Esserman, Former Police Chief of New Haven and Providence, Rhode Island. The panelists will discuss the tensions and possibilities that exist between the two perspectives presented in the White House brief and the Fighting Crime document.
Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration is a community of current and former law enforcement officials who seek to reduce crime and increase public safety through “data-driven and innovative practices.”
The Justice Collaboratory brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and researchers at Yale University and elsewhere to work on issues related to institutional reform and policy innovation and advancement.
The panel is open to Yale students, faculty, and the New Haven community and will allow time for questions and public discussion. A livestream will be available here.
Please RSVP for this event by Tuesday, April 11 by visiting http://rsvp.law.yale.edu/. Lunch will be served.
