Press Release: Chairman Mendelson Announces Appointees to DC Police Reform Commission
News Release — DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday August 3, 2020
CONTACT: Lindsey Walton
WASHINGTON, DC — Chairman Phil Mendelson is announcing the representatives appointed to the newly formed District of Columbia Police Reform Commission, as outlined in the “Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act of 2020” (Bill 23-825).
The Council has asked the Commission to examine policing practices in the District and provide evidence-based recommendations for reforming and revisioning policing. This includes:
- Looking at the role of sworn and special police officers in public schools
- Developing alternatives to police responses such as community-based, behavioral health or social service co-responders
- Reviewing police discipline
- Integration of conflict resolution strategies and restorative justice practices into policing
The Chairman wants the commission to exercise its mandate broadly, draw on the expertise of its members, and look at any policing issues that would be helpful to the Council. The diversity of representatives was selected for the range of community involvement or expertise in racial and social justice reform. The Commissioners are:
- Robert Bobb, Co-Chair, President & CEO of the Robert Bobb Group; former District government City Administrator
- Christy Lopez, Co-Chair, Professor and Co-Founder/Director of Innovative Policing Program at Georgetown Law
- Elena Bell, Interim Principal at Takoma Education Campus
- Robert Bennett, Senior Counsel at Bennett Doyle LLP; former federal prosecutor; and leading member of the defense bar
- Kent Boese, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner with ANC 1A
- Samantha Davis, Founder of Black Swan Academy
- Tina Frundt, Founder & Executive Director of Courtney’s House; national advocate on domestic sex trafficking
- Herb Gray, Founder & CEO of Life Enhancement Services, a nationally accredited provider of behavioral health services
- Emily Gunston, Office of the Attorney General and former Deputy Chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Special Litigation Section
- Ronald Hampton, Retired MPD Officer; former Executive Director of National Black Police Association, Inc.
- LaShunda Hill, juvenile justice reform expert; formerly at Georgetown Juvenile Justice Initiative and Pew Charitable Trusts
- Corwin Knight, Founder and CEO of the Hope Foundation Reentry Network
- George Lambert Jr., President and CEO of the Greater Washington Urban League
- Jeffrey Richardson, Founder and Principal of Enspired Muse Coaching and Management
- Naïké Savain, Supervising Attorney for the Children’s Law Center Guardian ad Litem project
- Sultan Shakir, Executive Director of SMYAL (Support and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders)
- Mignon Smith, former Assistant Principal at D.C. Prep and math teacher at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart
- Patrice Sulton, Director of D.C. Justice Lab and Senior Attorney Advisor to the D.C. Criminal Code Reform Commission
- Kurt Vorndran, a current member the Police Complaints Board
- A faith community representative still to be finalized
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It appears Chairman Mendelson is taking notes from the 2015 President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Similar to the participants who were selected to particpate on that task force, Chairman Mendelson has developed a commission comprised of various individuals who appear to be exceptional leaders in their respective fields. Unfortunately, unlike the task force, and likely to the detriment of the commission’s ultimate purpose, there does not appear to be a single law enforcement executive in the group. If the 2015 task force was co-chaired by a nationally recognized police executive, and the subsequent recommendations from the task force were worthy of emulating nationally and locally, how can no local police executive have been selected for this commission? My neighborhood’s police voice is paramount. The commission was a great idea yet the absence of potentially the most important perspective, at least one proven forward-thinking law enforcement participant, leads me to believe that the establishment of the commission is more a political show and a cowering to national pressure than an actual consideration for our neighborhood’s residents and our ultimate safety.
I share Chase McConnell’s reservation about the make-up of this commission. The lack of participation of individuals with law enforcement operational experience and practical knowledge makes it more likely the commission’s recommendations will include provisions that sound good, but that are impractical, or even downright destructive. The last thing the city needs is a slate of reforms which haven’t been thoroughly vetted by someone who understands “how the (policing) sausage gets made” – if you’ll forgive the expression. Let us keep in mind that the safety of DC citizens is at stake – and we’re all aware of the surging rates of violent crime including homicide in other cities.