WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), Vice Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee, today led a roundtable with Clergy United to Transform Sandtown (CUTS), a Baltimore-based group of community leaders, to discuss strategies for strengthening criminal justice and policing.
Prior to the meeting, Mikulski announced that the full Appropriations Committee has approved her proposal for three criminal justice reforms as well as funds to strengthen community and police relations be included in the fiscal year (FY) 2016 CJS spending bill.
“Though recent riots in Baltimore happened in my hometown, it easily could have been any of America’s hometowns,” Senator Mikulski said. “I’m proud to join our community clergy leaders to work on strategies to restore trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. And I believe the reforms and resources I’ve fought to put in our law books will protect the rights of our communities while also protecting the rights of our police officers.”
Senator Mikulski’s first reform requires local law enforcement to submit officer training information to the Justice Department when applying for grants. Police departments will report how their officers are trained in the use of force, identifying racial and ethnic bias, de-escalating conflicts and engaging with the public.
The second reform encourages local law enforcement to provide detailed crime data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Data collection from all the states will help police everywhere fight crime while increasing accountability for shootings.
The third reform requires the DOJ to develop a strategy for helping states upgrade their IT systems so all local departments have the capability to submit critical crime information. Currently some states are unable to transmit data.
Finally, at Senator Mikulski’s request, the FY 2016 CJS funding bill also includes $98 million to directly strengthen police-community relations and $295 million for juvenile justice programs like mentoring services, delinquency prevention programs, and teen courts and detention alternatives.
8 comments:
Interesting!! Everyone always is talking about the split of religion and government, now they B.Milulski is going to meet with 'people of faith', 'clergy' to work things out in Baltimore. A bit ironic if you ask me.
I went to public school in Baltimore County and the Bible was in school, prayers in the morning, pledge to the flag; all was going well until O'Hara came along. That was the beginning of the downward spiral in America. Out went prayer, the Bible, discipline; the result is what we have been seeing in Ferguson, MO and Baltimore City, and elsewhere around the country. Moral decay.
No need to respond, I am stating my humble opinion just like everyone else!
Appropriations means throwing more money into welfare. Nothing will change until black folks start being responsible for their actions and lifestyle.
If you want to restore relations with the people and cops, how about holding cops accountable for murder and brutality and then you will see a change...
OR BETTER YET, how about you get the cops to treat us as their own, where as they will rush in anything to save you, they will all show up at the scene for you 30 deep, they will even use their police car to get you to the hospital to save your life if no ambulance was near... Or how about around the clock security when some crazed lunatic goes around killing people like Chris Dorner, yeah I bet you all forgot about him... Instead you get beat down or shot and the cops, instead of rendering aid, let you lay there on the ground bleeding out, and to add a golden nugget to it, they handcuff you while your dead or bleeding out...
4:16 The cops stood down in Baltimore and I saw 3 police cars destroyed by black kids. Are you saying that those actions are acceptable? If you are, you are part of the problem.
me too, 3:42! Babs is the Chairwoman of Vice - POSER
The focus seems to be on officers, what about the corruption by police administrators and the fraud committed with grant money through phony crime stats????
And what about the community changing their relationships with the police and other authority figures. Not everything is the fault of the police. 4:16 PM what were you or yours doing wrong to have such a hateful, negative view of police?
Politians need to get off the Police's back. Did I miss something or is there no mentioning of eliminating the Gangs (BGF, Bloods, Crypts, Nation of Islam and the New Black Panthers). Where is eliminating the Drug problems, corruption in the Politians, misuse of funds and misappropriations of funds. STOP THE TAX PAYER WELFARE.
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