The Leadership Conference Urges Congress to Make Public Safety a Priority
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: LaGloria Wheatfall, [email protected], 202.548.7160
WASHINGTON – Lynda Garcia, policing campaign director at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, will testify today before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary’s oversight hearing on policing practices. Garcia’s testimony underscores the importance of public safety for all communities and emphasizes the critical need to implement transformative policing practices to increase accountability and build community trust.
“By working together, communities and police departments can articulate a vision for a new era of policing that respects the dignity and humanity of all people – and can ultimately ensure that all people, of all backgrounds, are truly safe in America,” Garcia says in her testimony. “All people deserve to feel safe in their homes and their communities. Safety is a civil and human right, without which society cannot thrive and democracy cannot function.”
Garcia’s testimony cites recommendations for best policing practices and details the role the federal government has played in addressing unconstitutional police practices throughout our country’s history.
In March 2019, The Leadership Conference Education Fund launched the New Era of Public Safety: A Guide to Fair, Safe, and Effective Community Policing initiative and report to help build trust between communities and police departments, restore confidence, and reimagine a new paradigm of public safety.
Read her full testimony.
View the New Era of Public Safety: A Guide to Fair, Safe, and Effective Community Policing report here.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.