Resolution 988 by House of Representative Mass-D Ayanna Pressley condemns all acts of police brutality, racial profiling, and the use of excessive and militarized force throughout the country.  This resolution was enacted on June 1st, 2020 to strengthen efforts to promote police accountability for individual law enforcement officers and police departments.

We believe that, as a community, a revitalized policing system that promotes police accountability would be built on the foundation of nonviolent de-escalation techniques to better serve and protect its citizens.

As a result, we are calling on the following policy changes: 

Repeal Rockford Police Department’s Responding to Resistance and Reporting Responding to Resistance policies and suspension of use of force, with the exception of bodily harm to an officer. Instead we seek the use of de-escalation and techniques based on the 8CantWait model. 

Create a Mental Wellness Officer role who must be a LCSW, LCPC, or PsyD. This role will partner with patrol officers to serve and protect without weapons, using the co-responder model established to be effective in systematic reviews of literature. 

Require officers to wear body cameras and microphones whenever they are on duty, with no exceptions. This ensures that all actions committed by Rockford Police Department officers are held accountable. By recording every interaction, this will provide hard evidence that will either back up the claims and complaints made by the citizen/US resident or it will vindicate the officer of wrongdoing.

Support the Ending Qualified Immunity Act. In response to heinous and unjust acts of police misconduct, including the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Justin Amash have introduced legislation to end the doctrine of qualified immunity. The legislation codifies that the qualified immunity doctrine is not grounds for defense for officers that violate the law. Specifically, this bill would amend Section 1983 to explicitly state that the qualified immunity doctrine invented by the Supreme Court does NOT provide police officers that brutalize or otherwise violate civil rights with defense or immunity from civil liability for their actions and clarify Congress’ original intent for Section 1983 and note the history and necessity of this protection. 

We call for the Police Benevolent & Protective Association, Police Commissioners, the Mayor of Rockford, Police Chief, and the Mental Health Board of Rockford to enact these new measures and policy changes immediately to ensure the public safety of our community. 

Written by Said With Silence Sponsored by Action 4 Change