Mayoral Pledge to End Police Violence

In cities across America, neighborhoods populated by people of colorplaces where residents strive to
live, learn, work, play, and pray in peace and harmonyare being treated as military combat zones by
local law enforcement. Youth of colorparticularly Black youthwho should be growing up in
supportive, affirming environments are instead presumed to be criminals and relentlessly subjected to
aggressive police tactics that result in community mistrust, unnecessary fear, needless arrests that often
have long term financial and human collateral consequences, injuries, and countless deaths.
Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teen shot multiple times and killed by a Ferguson, Missouri police
officer, is just one of 93 known unarmed Black men and boys who died at the hands of police in 2014. The
pattern of systemic racial bias is too frequent to be a coincidence.
Mayors are in a unique position to take leadership in transforming how police departments interact with
their communities. The customizable template below consists of a mayoral pledge with important
principles and actions that model community-centered policing. Concerned citizens should organize and
urge the mayors of their communities to sign the pledge and take proactive and bold leadership to build
community trust and help prevent police violence against communities.
Police violence is an urgent problem in our city. In 2014, at least [# of civilians] were killed by police in
[name of city], [#] of whom were [Black/Latino/etc.].1 It is time for our city to take action to minimize
the chance of further deaths of people of color at the hands of police.
I, Mayor [name of mayor] of [name of city], commit to a new vision of public safety based on trust,
legitimacy, accountability, respect, and the sanctity of all lives. I pledge to immediately take the
following actions to end the police violence epidemic and help ensure that NOT ONE MORE person
unjustly dies at the hands of our police force:
1. Ensure Police Are Accountable to the Community: Police departments are funded by the public
and should be accountable to the public. Therefore, our police department will not investigate
itself, but will instead establish enforceable, impartial accountability measures in instances
where police brutality, racial profiling, and/or improper use of force are in question. This
includes establishing effective and independent review boards broadly representative of the
community, not just police interests. The actions, investigations, and publication of all relevant
information, evidence, and policy recommendations of the review boards will be transparent
and publicly accessible. Our police department will also ensure that data and summary
information relating to suspected police brutality and racial profiling are properly collected and
made publicly available.
2. Invest in Rigorous and Sustained Training: Documented studies demonstrate that implicit racial
biases influence how officers interact with community members and suspects, and that these
perceptions and behaviors can be deadly. Law enforcement personnel will be required to
undergo racial bias training in addition to building skills that exemplify problem-solving
strategies, conflict mediation techniques, de-escalation tactics, and understanding mental
health considerations. Training programs offered by community-based organizations will be

Please retrieve data from http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/cities

prioritized. Officers will become adept at being responsive to community needs and voices, and
achieving consistency and continuity in engaging community while enforcing the law.
3. Ensure Police Reflect and Respect the Community: Police department personnel should be
representative of the communities they protect and serve. Therefore, our police department
will adopt personnel practices that result in the hiring and retention of diverse law enforcement
professionals who are culturally sensitive, speak the communities languages, and are residents
of their patrolled communities. The police department will implement and monitor diversity
hiring and retention guidelines to further community trust and partnerships.
4. Preserve Life and Avoid Excessive Force: Police will only use force in a manner that preserves
the lives and safety of all residents of our community. Police department personnel will do
everything in their power to de-escalate situations and use alternatives to deadly force. The
police department will not rely on military equipment and tacticsincluding the use of SWAT
teamsto police everyday problems or peaceful protests. We will reject the transfer of military
equipment into our police departments and seek to return or otherwise eliminate existing
military weaponry in our inventory.
5. Use Technology for Oversight While Protecting Privacy: Pending community approval through
a democratic process, our police department will implement body cameras and/or other
technology that helps to investigate and hold officers accountable for misconduct, such as
profiling due to a persons race, class, religion, gender, housing status, physical or mental ability,
or sexual orientation. The technology will only be used when legitimately apprehending
suspects with probable cause, and information gathered by the use of technology related to
police violence will be made publicly accessible immediately.
6. End the criminalization of communities of color: We will de-prioritize and, where possible,
decriminalize the enforcement of non-violent quality of life or broken-windows offenses that
frequently consume too many resources and end up criminalizing too many young people. We
will eliminate police department quotas and reduce municipal fines and fees to remove financial
incentives for police officers to focus on minor offenses.
7. Shift Public Investment to Communities: Our citys over-policed communities are the same
neighborhoods most in need of infrastructure improvements, access to healthy food, affordable
housing and transportation choices, good jobs, and important city amenities. The city budget
will reflect a shift toward providing essential services to these communities. Further, each and
every city department, such as Housing, Community Development, Transportation, Planning,
Parks and Recreation, and Public Works, will take responsibility forand work together to
improvepublic safety.

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