Summary:
- As with any job, there are performance expectations and evaluation processes. There must be fair protections for employees and employers. This applies to civil law enforcement employees and the taxpayers who employ them.
- Make standard liability insurance a mandatory requirement for officers who are issued weapons.
- Summarize officer performance into a "score".
- Desirable "scores" indicates officer satisfies policy compliance requirements and performance requirements, thus lower premiums.
- Unwilling or unable to acquire coverage would limit employability.

1. Purpose of Petition:
For the formation of a commission to study the implementation of "Civil Law Enforcement Accountability Reform" ("CLEAR"). A new system that aligns with the values and objectives of serving and protecting the public.
1.1 Law enforcement is not for everyone. Provide a means by which poor performers are precluded from holding positions that require carrying a weapon, overseeing detainees, or engaging the public. 
1.2 Evaluations are essential. 50-A and similar regulations that conceal, limits, or delays the complete service history of law enforcement employees for timely review must be overturned.
1.3 In the absence of consequences, there is no accountability. End "qualified immunity" and other procedural obstacles that shields law enforcement and government officials from legal actions that may be taken against them.

2. "CLEAR" Goals:
2.1 Encourage timely officer education, training, (re)certification, and evaluation.
2.2 Encourage compliance to agency's policies, practices, and procedures. It is incumbent upon agencies to make such performance expectations unambiguous for adoption and compliance.
2.3 Enable an unbiased/objective and transparent benchmark of officer performance, as well as performance improvement programs.
2.4 (Re)instill public trust towards law enforcement.
2.5 Reduce financial liability to taxpayers stemming from lawsuits and settlements due to officers' non-compliance to policies, poor judgments, or malice.

3. "CLEAR" Mechanisms:
3.1 A secure interstate system for law enforcement agencies to update law enforcement personnel information such as employment, performance, psychological evaluation, training, certifications, accolades, complaints, incident reports (bodycam videos), infractions, criminal and disciplinary records.
3.2 The formulation of a "score" system (ie. credit score, driver score) based on information in the "CLEAR" system.
3.3 Enable City and State law enforcement agencies to query the "score" of candidates as one of the factors for hiring, advancement, or transfer.
3.4 Enable insurance providers to offer a standard liability protection plan, and set rates for law enforcement personnel based on a "CLEAR Score" and other factors. An Independent committee or auditor/watchdog group to ensure fairness, transparency, completeness, security, and fidelity.
3.5 Standard liability insurance to be required for personnel who are issued weapons such as firearms, stun guns, tasers, batons, or mace. Officers may acquire liability insurance directly from an insurer or through their union. Employers may choose to subsidize or offer liability insurance based on favorable “CLEAR Score” and other factors.

Background:
Police violence against people of color has long plagued American streets. Tamir Elijah Rice, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Botham Jean, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks are a few of the recent victims of systemic racial injustice that will forever be part of America's history. And while protests have risen to try and change the future, police assailing protesters and reporters only serves to further highlight the urgent need for meaningful reform and galvanizes the calls for accountability. In this age when everyone has a camera in their pocket, for police departments to issue official statements such as "our officers feared for their lives", "she was resisting", "he tripped and fell" contrary to video evidence, challenges the assertion that the police should be trusted at face value. Police reports, corroborated by multiple officers, but, contradicted by video evidence suggests the level of misconduct is not limited to "just a few bad cops". When "internal investigations" concludes no wrongdoing or whenever district attorneys decline to pursue charges, the appearance of corruption and loss of confidence in the system is as broad as it is deep (ie Ted Stevens, Chris Epps, Michael Conahan, Mark Ciavarella). The thin blue line further amplifies a notion of "us" and "them". The story under the headline "57 Buffalo Police Resign" demonstrates the perceived power of the police union to threaten the welfare of a city to "protect their own" and escape culpability. The system is at best powerless to deal with bad cops; at worst creates and protects them. The usual course being paid leave, an internal "investigation", suspension, a hefty settlement covered by city coffers, and the offending officer quietly rehired or transferred to another department. Public trust has eroded. The people are demanding change that requires the examination and dismantling of institutionalized barriers of progress and justice.

Any system that uses mass incarceration for profit (or to advance politics or ideological views) is inherently evil. Money will influence policies. Unjust laws will be passed. People will be marginalized. Minorities will be criminalized. Police priorities will be self-serving. And courts will become rubber stamps.

#BlackLivesMatter 
#TamirRice
#PhilandoCastile
#EricGarner
#BothamJean
#BreonnaTaylor
#AhmaudArbery
#GeorgeFloyd
#RayshardBrooks
#endPrisonIndustrialComplex 
#endPolicingForProfit 
#endQualifiedImmunity 
#repeal50a
#overturnCitizensUnited