If law enforcement agencies cannot keep people safe, then they should not exist in their current form. But in Arkansas, we lack even the most basic safeguards to hold police accountable. Policing remains among the rare professions without a statewide licensing board empowered to receive and act on complaints from the public. There is also no independent review process in Arkansas for the use of deadly force.
This is unacceptable. Add your name to demand justice and systemic reform to policing in Arkansas.
Instead of terrorizing communities of color and criminalizing poverty, Arkansas should be reinvesting those dollars in services that would make our neighborhoods safer and stronger – like substance abuse treatment, mental health services, early childhood education, and affordable housing.
To Arkansas State Officials:
The killing of Lionel Morris and the failure to hold the officers accountable is another tragic example of the need for systemic reform to policing in Arkansas. We demand:
- A statewide licensing board to receive complaints from the public about police misconduct.
- An independent review process for deadly and excessive force by the police.
- Prohibiting police from enforcing a range of non-serious offenses, including issuing fines, and making arrests for non-dangerous behaviors.
- Reinvesting savings from the current policing budgets into alternatives to policing that will keep local communities safe and help them thrive.
- Implementing common-sense, iron-clad legal constraints, and other protections on the rare instances in which police officers do interact with community members.
- Ending qualified immunity that provides police special protection against lawsuits.
