Preempting Police Reform: A Roadblock to Social Justice

Read the new white paper, Preempting Police Reform: A Roadblock to Social Justice, by Professor Nestor Davidson, Professor Rick Su, and Marissa Roy (with special thanks to Professor Richard Briffault and Research Assistants Nicole Diaz & Laura Jetter), by clicking here.

The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many other Black lives spurred a long-overdue reckoning in 2020 about the extent to which racism and inequities were infused into nearly every aspect of our nation’s laws and infrastructure – particularly policing and the justice system. 

Many local governments responded by advancing meaningful police reform. Across the nation, local elected officials took steps to increase not just police accountability and transparency, but also access to appropriately funded services public health and human services. 

Unfortunately, many state legislatures retaliated against local communities, instead advancing preemption measures that undermine local control over critical processes such as budgeting. As our nation continues to examine the systems of inequity that have allowed racism and white supremacy to flourish, it’s important to understand that police budget preemption is not a coincidence: it’s reflective of efforts to use preemption as a tool to take political power and local control away from BIPOC communities, immigrants, women, and workers in low- wage industries.

Nine states proposed at least 24 bills this year that would preempt local governments from controlling their own municipal law enforcement budgets, and four states – Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and Texas – have enacted those bills into law.

A new white paper from LSSC explores in more detail how some state legislatures are using preemption to undermine local control of police budgeting, accountability, and management. The trends identified offer important lessons for what advocates need to be anticipating and planning for in advance of 2022. But the white paper also highlights potential pathways forward – Maryland, for example, recently repealed a “bill of rights” for police; while the GOP-led legislature in Louisiana lowered the number of days in which police officers under investigation are barred from being questioned.

Racial justice advocates are successfully driving reforms in communities across the country, and local elected officials have responded by enacting policies that center equity and local control. Many of these policies could serve as a blueprint for more meaningful reform nationwide. For that to succeed, we must continue calling out and combatting the efforts of some legislatures to erode the power and independence of localities and deny the policy choices of racially diverse, metropolitan centers.