Over the past few months, hundreds of thousands of Americans have signed petitions on our We the People petitions platform related to community policing, in the wake of the police-involved deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and others. This week, we invited these petition signers to join a White House call about improving community-police relations.
Yesterday's conversation participants included:
- Roy Austin, Deputy Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs, Justice, and Opportunity
- Brittany Packnett, Member of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing
- DJ Patil, U.S. Chief Data Scientist
- David Wilkinson, Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation
During the call, they highlighted new steps we're taking to improve community-police relations through the use of open data, demilitarizing local police forces, and other recommendations from the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
The participants also answered some questions that petition signers submitted in advance of the call — questions such as what we can achieve by looking at police data on a national level, or how we can change the view of the community to one where police are seen as "guardians" instead of "occupiers."
If you missed yesterday's call, you can listen to the full discussion below. (And if you want to be in the loop about future events like this, make sure to visit We the People and add your voice by creating or signing a petition.)