Standards On Police Accountability
A resolution to enact uniform standards that protect workers, consumers, and the general public.
Category: Regulation Area of Effect: Legal Reform Proposed by: Isaris
The World Assembly,
Recognizing the importance of a police force in the prevention and detection of crime, as well as the maintenance of public order,
Shocked by cases of law enforcement officers abusing their authority to cause harm to those they have sworn to protect and serve, and
Determined to ensure that such incidents occur less frequently around the world,
Hereby enacts the following:
- For the purposes of this resolution,
- a "locality" is defined as a political subdivision of a nation;
- "local" is defined as belonging to a particular locality;
- a "body-worn camera" is defined as a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording device;
- an "onboard camera" is defined as an audio, video, or photographic recording device affixable to a vehicle;
- a "police force" is defined as an organization engaged in the enforcement of law on behalf of a national or local government within its jurisdiction;
- a "law enforcement officer (an LEO)" is defined as an employee of a police force—
- who has lawful authority to make arrests or apprehensions; and
- whose responsibilities are mainly engaging in or supervising the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution of, or incarceration of any person for, any violation of law, or protecting government officials against threats to personal safety.
- Member states shall provide a penalty for assault, battery, and homicide committed by LEOs in the line of duty within their national legal codes that is at least equivalent to that provided for the same offenses committed by civilians.
- Such a penalty shall not be enforced on any LEO who committed such an offense in self-defense, in the defense of another person or persons, or in the defense of their community at large.
- Any person convicted of such an offense shall not be permitted to serve as an LEO in a member state unless a mental health professional has concluded upon evaluation that they do not pose a danger to themselves or others.
- Member states shall require police forces within their jurisdictions to conduct evaluations by mental health professionals on any person applying for employment at a police force. No person shall be hired to a police force in a member state who has been deemed to pose a danger to themselves or others upon evaluation by a mental health professional.
- Member states shall require LEOs within their jurisdictions to undergo an annual evaluation by a mental health professional. Any LEO deemed to pose a danger to themselves or others shall no longer be authorized to carry deadly weapons until a mental health professional has concluded upon a subsequent evaluation that they no longer pose such a danger.
- Member states shall provide access to recourse against police forces and LEOs for civilians who are, or are family members of, victims of police misconduct within their national legal codes.
- Member states shall provide police forces within their jurisdictions with body-worn cameras and require LEOs within their jurisdictions to equip body-worn cameras, and provide police forces within their jurisdictions with onboard cameras and require those forces to affix onboard cameras to any vehicles owned by said forces if such technologies are available to the member states.
- Member states, if domestic funding cannot be obtained, may apply to the WA General Fund as a source of the funding required to provide police forces within their jurisdictions with body-worn cameras and onboard cameras. Monies allocated to member states from the WA General Fund to fulfill these mandates shall only be appropriated for those purposes.
- Member states shall provide a penalty within their national legal codes for the destruction or discarding of any recording produced by a body-worn camera equipped by an LEO or an onboard camera affixed to a vehicle owned by a police force within their jurisdictions within less than one calendar year of its production or that is evidence in a criminal proceeding, and require police forces within their jurisdictions to maintain any recording produced by such cameras in good working condition and undamaged until it may be lawfully destroyed or discarded.
- Member states, where such political subdivisions exist, shall strongly encourage local police forces within their jurisdictions to make a good faith effort to hire a majority of their employees from within the communities those forces are policing, and strongly encourage police forces within their jurisdictions to adopt community outreach policies that focus on building trust with the communities those forces are policing.
- Member states shall require police forces within their jurisdictions to adopt training policies that discourage the unnecessary use of force—especially lethal force—by LEOs as a method of conflict resolution and obtaining compliance from civilians.
Hello world. As was eluded to by my inquiry in the Q&A thread, I have drafted a proposal on the subject of police accountability. I'd first like to say that I do not wish this to be viewed as a knee-jerk reaction to recent events in the United States. It is accurate to say that those events initiated my desire to draft this proposal but its content is rooted in ideas surrounding police accountability for decades. Some of the policies that I am proposing here are already in place in many locations around the globe.
I am not a very experienced author but I have worked with a mentor to (hopefully) make everything here legal and sensible for the varied nations of the NS world. Any feedback, advice, or constructive criticism would be appreciated. I must also apologize as I am not overly familiar with the etiquette here surrounding IC and OOC speaking. I will try my best not to be rude and I hope you can overlook any gaffes on my part.
Edit: Regarding the concern of law enforcement officers absolutely needing to use force to perform their duties, I think that is covered under the context of §2a as preventing crime and/or arresting criminals can be argued to be "in defense of their community at large". (Edit 2: I would also argue it's currently covered by §2a of GA#374, which allows for exceptions for immunity necessary to ensure government employees or institutions [i.e., law enforcement officers or police forces] can carry out essential functions that would not otherwise be possible.) I also think that defining assault is problematic as each nation may have a different idea of what constitutes the crime of assault. If something like "aggravated assault" would be more palatable to the GA community, I would be willing to make that change, however (perhaps even dropping battery along with that). Also, I've decided to keep the Category and AoE I originally decided upon as law enforcement can be argued to be part of the legal industry. The main aim of this proposal is to reform law enforcement to provide more justice to all, not to increase police budgets or military budgets.
Draft #1
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Edit 3: I acknowledge that the draft is very "wordy"; however, I appreciate the formality of wordiness and I also have put a lot of effort into ensuring there is as little room as possible for loopholes. I understand that there will be opposition to this by some based on IC reasons and that's perfectly fine, but please don't base your opposition on the fact it's a bit overbearing in spelling everything out. It's my philosophy that wiggle room is easy for nefarious actors to interpret to allow them to do something against the spirit of the law and I don't want that to happen here. As I've had to cut down for the character limit, I have no plans to add anything further and I think I've addressed everything I wanted to with this proposal. If there are any other edits, and that's a big if, they'll be about format, spelling, or word choice that doesn't change the fundamental interpretation of this proposal.
Draft #5