montana lawyer referral service

cops director ron davis: good morning, everyone.now we can’t bring the ag out like that. good morning, everyone. happy holidays toyou. you all ready to go? ok. this is a very good day, so it’s going to get a littlelively. i am looking forward to hearing from the ag and also the panel discussions. so first let me introduce myself. my nameis ron davis, and i’m the director of the office of community oriented policing services.and it’s funny i’m looking down to read to find out where i work, that i should haveknown already, at the cops office, we call ourselves the cops office. it is really my pleasure to call this meetingto order and to welcome you all here today.

it iss also my distinct pleasure to introduceand to welcome the attorney general, who is going to be kicking off the meeting. beforei bring the ag on board and we invite her in, let me tell you a little bit about her,if i may. i think she needs no introduction, but i think you should know that obviouslyour attorney general is the 83rd attorney general of the united states, and that sheis a lifelong prosecutor, and has been an outstanding advocate for survivors of sexualassault, domestic violence, and recognizes the need to ensure that law enforcement’sresponse to victims’ is free from bias. the attorney general continues to make clearthat these efforts can and must be done in close partnership with our colleagues fromlocal law enforcement who work tirelessly

to protect and serve our communities, as wellas advocates and service providers who help ensure that our work is informed by the experienceof survivors. one thing about this attorney general, shehas made it clear from day one that she wants these strategic partnerships; she wants towork hand-in-hand with law enforcement and the advocate community to make sure we arewhat’s in the best intrest of the country, so today is furthering that agenda. so ladiesand gentlemen, please join me, and it's an honor to announce the honorable attorney generalof the united states, the honorable loretta lynch. [applause]attorney general loretta e. lynch: thank you. good morning. thank you all. everyone takea seat. what a team. what a team, and i’m

so happy to be here. i want to thank you ronfor that introduction. i’m so pleased to be here today with so many of my colleaguesfrom the department of justice who have spent time working on this issue. you’re goingto be hearing from them later: vanita gupta, head of the civil rights division; bea hanson,head of the office on violence against women; and director [ron] davis who you just met.my warm-up act so to speak. i did tell him not to sing, so you know, you’re welcome(laughter). but ron is the head of our office on community oriented policing services. andthat particular trio should tell you the focus of the work that we’re all here to talkabout today. not just law enforcement, not just civil rights, but the focus on the victimsof sexual assault and domestic violence. and

why it’s important that all three of thosethought processes, all three of those advocacy communities, all three of those issues betogether at the table. but i’m really happy to be here with all of you. because the factthat all of you have come here today for this important discussion is so important. becauseyou are the advocates, the dedicated law enforcement officers, you’re the dedicated communityleaders that we lean on so much and that we need and that we have to have as part of thisvital discussion about how doj – the department of justice – can help our state, our localand our tribal partners – particularly our tribal partners – more effectively combatthis scourge of sexual assault and domestic violence. now those of you who work in thefield do not need the statistics, or the data,

or the information that we will be providingto let you know that sexual assault and domestic violence is a particularly heinous crime,that has an effect and an impact long after the initial crime of the blows, long afterthe violence. i think many of you also saw recent studies within the past year that talkedabout the long term adverse health consequences for women even years after they escape situationsinvolving domestic violence and sexual violence. and the fact that that is often the only factorthat can be attributed to the increase in these health concerns for women. but the physicaland the emotional trauma lingers for years. there are consequences for the survivors andwe also know that there are grave consequences for their loved ones – for children – whoare also victims as they are witnesses. and

we also know that this can not only harm thewomen involved, or the children involved, but the entire family unit, and in fact thecommunity. often the community is caught up in either supporting the family or supportingwhat tends to become a web of lies that are used to hide and conceal this violence. thiseats away at the health – not just the physical health, but the mental health of everyoneinvolved in this particular issue. now just because also the brunt of sexual and domesticviolence is borne disproportionately by women and lgbt individuals, as i’ve noted: itharms us all, it weakens us all. it weakens the fabric of protection that we try and buildaround vulnerable victims. and it weakens the communities that we need- that need tobe strong and vibrant to protect all victims.

now, as you will learn today, but i am certainlyhappy to reinforce, the department of justice is committed to doing everything it can tohelp prevent these crimes, to help investigate these crimes and to help prosecute these crimes– but that also includes working to ensure that our greatest partners in this effort,the state, local and tribal law enforcement leaders on whom we all rely, have the tools,training and resources that they need to fairly and effectively address allegations of sexualassault and domestic violence. because not only do we know that this is a widespreadproblem, it’s a problem that often hides in plainsight. it’s a problem that oftendoesn’t present as what it is because victims are either unable or are prevented from speakingup. and so the goal in the victim-centered

response – that i believe is the goal ofeveryone in this room – is how do we not only empower the victims to find a voice,but how do we train ourselves to recognize the victimology and reach out to them andhelp them find that voice. now as part of our ongoing effort – andin response to our many requests from many of our law enforcement partners – i am pleasedto announce that a new justice department guidance that is designed to help state, localand tribal agencies eliminate gender bias from their policing practices has been issued.this is the result of work, effort and dedication from everyone in this room and beyond. allof the organizations that you represent, and we thank you so much for these contributions.because we know that sometimes this bias – whether

implicit or explicit – can stand in theway of effective law enforcement and it can severely undermine law enforcement’s abilityto keep survivors safe and to hold offenders the accountable. for instance, we’ve seensituations where false assumptions about things like alcohol use, or the physical strengthof a victim’s partner or a victim’s sexual orientation can lead police officers to makejudgments about the truthfulness or credibility of a survivor’s account or the severityof the assault. and these assumptions can be wrong. and when they come at the beginningof a case in particular, they can send the case in a spiral of ineffectiveness and thevictim back into a spiral of despair and pain. and when that happens, justice is delayedand victims suffer, which is no one’s goal.

now the new guidance that will be discussedtoday was prepared in consultation with law enforcement organizations to best addresstheir needs and with the advocates who do such vital work in this area and are reallyon the frontlines of providing guidance and comfort, frankly, to victims who often haveno voice. and it is designed to help combat bias in a number of important ways. it containsguidelines for recognizing and addressing stereotypes and assumptions; it contains interviewtechniques that encourage victims to share critical information; and it contains recommendationsfor gathering and using crime reporting statistics to inform an evidence-based and data-drivenstrategy. taken together, this document is a blueprint that law enforcement can followas they develop victim-centered and trauma-informed

approaches to handling cases of sexual assaultand domestic violence. and we know that this approach can work – wehave seen its impact before. just by way of one example, in missoula, montana, after a2013 justice department investigation found that several local entities were failing tomeet their legal responsibilities in responding to sexual assault complaints, we reached fourreform agreements. these agreements were geared towards changing the community’s collectivepractices and policies. and thanks in large part to the extraordinary cooperation of themissoula police department, missoula has made tremendous strides. missoula is providingmore comprehensive victims’ services. missoula is working to promote trust among membersof the community and missoula is demonstrating

that real and lasting progress can be madewhen we make it together. now the guidance that we are announcing todayis an important addition to just a wide array of steps that the justice department is takingto assist our state, local and tribal partners on issues of domestic and sexual violence.i’m tremendously proud, for example, of our national institute of justice – ourresearch arm – we are working to help law enforcement better understand and addresssexual violence focusing on funding, research and data. our office on violence against women(ovw) – thank you bea [hanson] – provides grants and technical assistance aimed at strengtheningthe way that we handle these cases. and i’m just going to steal bea’s thunder for amoment and note that the office of violence

against women announced just today seven pilotjurisdictions that will receive funds and technical assistance through the sexual assaultjustice initiative. now the sexual assault justice initiative is designed to bolsterthe justice system’s response to sexual violence at the state and local level – wheremost of these crimes are prosecuted and investigated. and just this past september, i was tremendouslyproud to join vice president [joe] biden to announce that our bureau of justice assistancewould be offering $41 million in grants to 20 jurisdictions to help them eliminate orreduce backlogs in untested sexual assault kits. because of course without the evidence,we cannot build the cases. now these are tremendously important initiativesand the justice department is committed to

continuing to support them – but of course,we still have a great deal of more work to do. every time the victim is afraid to comeforward, every time a young lgbt teenager contemplates suicide as opposed to seekinghelp, every time a child witnesses their parent either inflict or be the victim of violenceis a step that we have to acknowledge and take, and it’s a responsibility on all ofus to find and address theses situations. and i want you to know that, in all our efforts– all of our collective efforts – the justice department is committed to workingalongside professionals like all of you assembled here today: from the law enforcement officerswho are the first to field the complaints and investigate crimes; to the service providerswho work so tirelessly to help these survivors

heal; and to the public officials who aretasked with creating stronger and safer neighborhoods. you know your communities best and the departmentof justice relies on you – we need you – to tell us what challenges you face, what trendsyou are seeing, and what assistance that you need. and we are ready to offer that assistance.now together, we can ensure that survivors get the support that they need. together,we can ensure that justice is faithfully served. and together, we can ensure that everyonewho has ever lived in fear in their own home can walk out of that door and stand in thesunlight. that is my commitment to you on behalf of the department of justice and asthe attorney general of the united states. so i thank you – all of you – for cominghere together today, but also for all the

work that you have done that led you to thismoment. this is a great moment. we are going to seize it. we are going to move forward,and we are going to help people. thank you so very, very much. [applause]head of the civil rights division vanita gupta: so i was given the very daunting task of followingour incredible attorney general. we should just call it quits and end the morning butwe won't because we have a lot of good- a lot of good coming forth. i want to thankthe attorney general for her words. she is always inspiring and always energizes us todo more. her leadership at the department of justice and her unwavering dedication tothese issues has simply been astounding and she takes very seriously our commitment toprotecting our most vulnerable citizens from

harm. so it's a pleasure to join you all thismorning. i feel like i know almost all of you in the room.as the attorney general just highlighted, gender bias and stereotypes – combined withmisinformation about sexual assault and domestic violence – can have a devastating impact– as well all know – on all stakeholders across society: from victims seeking protection,to police officers investigating crimes, to prosecutors administering justice.and in order to collectively advance the type of victim-centered and trauma-informed responseto sexual violence that is so vital to protecting public safety – we do need to proactivelyidentify and address harmful stereotypes based on one’s gender, gender identity, sexualorientation or race. we also of course need

to recognize and address the unique harm thatsurvivors experience at the intersection of discrimination on the basis of race and gender.because in america, we guarantee equal justice, dignity and fairness for all people – regardlessof what they look like, whom they love and with which gender they identify. today, thatsimple but unwavering belief continues really to define the beauty, identity and vibrancyof our nation. you just heard from the attorney general aboutthe justice department’s investigation in missoula, montana. there are folks in hisroom who helped lead that charge and that investigation, but i want to briefly illustratethe troubling trends that we discovered there with tangible examples that i think reallyshow why the leadership from the missoula

police department and others in the missoulahas been so incredible, and that we’ve seen such a transformation over the last two yearsas a result of their leadership and their work. stereotypes about women – as we allknow – and misinformation about sexual assault there prevented the police from conductingfair, impartial and thorough investigations. and in one instance, we found a female studenttold a missoula police officer that while intoxicated at a fraternity house, that herassailant held her up “like a sack of flour” and a “rag doll” as she resisted untileventually falling over and losing consciousness. the detective omitted many of these key detailsfrom the report and concluded that the assault was largely voluntary and identified the primaryoffense as “suspicious activity.” in another

disturbing example, two campus police officersresponding to a reported sexual assault in a residence hall used the term “regrettedsex” within earshot of the alleged victim – precipitously assessing her credibilitybefore conducting an investigation. this diminished the likelihood, from the outset, that sheor other sexual assault survivors would be willing to participate in the prosecutionof their cases. these stories from missoula illustrate theconsequences that can result when law enforcement don’t have the guidance or tools or trainingthat they deserve for responding to reports of sexual assault. without established protocolsand comprehensive training in place, gender stereotypes and bias can undermine the qualityof investigations and impede justice.

but the agreements we reached in missoulareally demonstrate the promise and potential for meaningful reform when law enforcementagencies collaborate and coordinate with the communities that they serve. and the leadershipof many law enforcement officials in this room and beyond – around the country, demonstratesthe shared and dedicated commitment to preventing and responding more effectively to sexualassault and domestic violence. and i will say again that the leadership that has beendemonstrated by the missoula police department and the community in missoula i think reallyserves as a guide for the nation – while still a work in progress, has really i thinkinspired all of us to share that story in rooms where we are talking about these issues.today’s guidance marks a critical step toward

helping state and local law enforcement agenciesacross the country incorporate key principles into clear policies, comprehensive trainingand effective supervision measures to more effectively protect victims of sexual assaultand domestic violence. these principles include utilizing trauma-informedinterview tactics that encourage a victim to participate – replacing prejudiced statementsthat assume what happened with neutral, open-ended questions to learn what actually occurred.they advise police officers to adopt a victim-centered approach that addresses the medical, emotionaland safety needs of victims, including referrals to appropriate services. and they urge lawenforcement agencies to train their officers in recognizing the potential for abusers toreport domestic violence complaints preemptively,

portraying themselves as victims rather thanperpetrators. these principles – along with several othersthat are outlined in today’s guidance and are illustrated with case examples – reallyreflect the lessons learned and feedback that we heard from all of you, from folks outsidethe room, from law enforcement, from advocates, from service providers – those on the frontlinesof doing this work, as well as from the settlements that we have reached in the civil rights divisionwith police departments in missoula, new orleans and puerto rico. following each of these cases,an array of stakeholders – from law enforcement leaders, to victims, to civil rights advocatesto service providers, really requested the justice department issue informative and detailedguidance.

and really it is because of you – survivors,law enforcement leaders, service providers and advocates – it is because you raisedyour voices; and because you led the productive conversations about the very complex challengesthat we’re facing on these issues. and because you contributed thoughtful and innovativeideas; today we are taking a significant step toward preventing the crimes of sexual assaultand domestic violence that deserve no place in civilized society. i applaud each of youfor your steadfast efforts so far. and i commend you for your leadership on this vital work.we are going to be relying on you to help push this out to generate- to use the guidanceto generate conversations in rooms all over the country like this one. and i am deeplygrateful to the partnership that the civil

rights division has had with the office onviolence against women and the cops office with this important initiative. we heard fromall of you recently at a convening where we got a lot of input into the guidance, andwhat would be most useful to support law enforcement as they do their very difficult jobs in thefield everyday, and we’ve incorporated that plus the input of advocates – many of youare in this room – and we are grateful for that input. i look forward to all that weare going to be able to achieve on this front to protect all victims of domestic violenceand sexual assault in the future. so thank you so much. [applause]principal deputy direcor of the office on violence against women bea hanson: thanksvanita, my name is bea hanson, i head up the

office on violence against women. like vanitasaid, i’m also intimidated to be here with the attorney general. she sort of said itall. and i’m just so thankful for her leadership and for making sure that the guidance cameto fruition. i also want to thhank vanita gupta and ron davis who are really my partnersin doing all of this. a high point of my tenure at the office on violence against women hasbeen forging these true partnerships between the civil rights division and the cops office,and it’s- and really working with the extraordinary staff of the civil rights division and thecops office. and also it’s an honor to join all of you that are here today, distinguishedpanelists and guests that are here this morning. since the passage of the violence againstwomen act (vawa) in 1994, the justice department

has worked to improve the criminal justiceresponse to violence against women, particularly through grant funding administered by ovw.over the past 20 years, vawa funding has yielded dramatic results in many jurisdictions acrossthe country. it has transformed the way these communities respond to sexual assault anddomestic violence. thanks to vawa grants, law enforcement and victim service providersare working together as never before. we now have specialized law enforcement and prosecutionunits, and improved training for police, prosecutors and judges. today we have pioneered interventionsand innovations such as enhanced offender monitoring, domestic violence courts and theuse of evidence-based lethality assessments to curb domestic violence homicides.the justice department and our partners in

law enforcement, prosecution, and victim servicesand elsewhere should be rightfully proud of our accomplishments – we should all be proudof the accomplishments that we’ve made. but, we also know that our progress has beenuneven, and many communities still struggle to implement effective responses to sexualassault and domestic violence. as you already have heard this morning, thecivil rights division has engaged in ground-breaking use of their enforcement authority to holdjurisdictions accountable for failing to meet their obligations to respond to violence againstwomen. and, while the civil rights division’s investigations have exposed how gender biascan undermine the police response to sexual assault and domestic violence, these investigationshave also paved the way to progress and reform.

they highlight how collaborations betweenlaw enforcement and victim service providers and advocacy organizations and other promisingpractices can create meaningful change in both law enforcement agencies and communitiesas a whole. through our many partnerships with state,local and tribal law enforcement agencies, the civil rights division, ovw and the copsoffice recognized that many agencies are actually seeking assistance and support for their effortsto improve their response to sexual assault and domestic violence. the guidance beingissued today is intended to reflect and further our partnerships with police leaders, lineofficers and detectives who are dedicated to policing in a way that is free from bias.to support them in keeping their communities

safe. it also reflects our partnership withadvocates and service providers who make sure that we hear – and listen to – the voicesof survivors. in a few moments, you will hear from our panelof law enforcement experts and advocates about how this guidance can be implemented on theground and some promising practices they have witnessed in their work in the field. i wantto thank them for the advice they provided to the department while we have been workingon the guidance. i also want to thank those of you in the audience who attended the roundtablediscussion we had this summer, that was co-hosted by the cops office and the police executiveresearch forum, to review and discuss the draft guidance. your insight, criticism andexperience were invaluable in creating this

final document of guidance.before turning the discussion over to the panel, i’d like to briefly share with youthe eight fundamental principles to prevent gender bias in policing that are set forthin the guidance. i realize that they may seem elementary to many of you. and, indeed, theseprinciples are only a starting point or a floor for police departments who are lookingto strengthen their policies, protocols and training.so i’m just going to run through them quickly. principle 1 is to recognize and address biases,assumptions and stereotypes about victims. principle 2: treat all victims with respect,and employ interviewing tactics that encourage a victim to participate and provide factsabout the incident.

principle 3: investigate sexual assault ordomestic violence complaints thoroughly and effectively.principle 4: appropriately classify reports of sexual assault and domestic violence.principle 5: refer victims to appropriate services.principle 6: properly identify the assailant in domestic violence incidents.principle 7: hold offenders- excuse me, hold officers who commit sexual assault or domesticviolence accountable. principle 8: maintain, review and act upondata regarding sexual assault and domestic violence.what these guidelines ask of all of us is to continue and to deepen our relationshipsbetween law enforcement and advocates, between

all members of our communities. i want tothank all of you for your commitment in supporting victims, holding offenders accountable andkeeping our communities safe. i look forward to continuing our partnerships; identifyingand testing promising practices through projects such as the new sexual assault justice initiativethat the attorney general announced earlier; and ensuring that vawa funding provides communitieswith resources and technical assistance as they work to improve their responses to sexualassault and domestic violence. together, we can truly address the crimes of sexual assaultand domestic violence with sensitivity, expertise, collaboration and justice. thank you. [applause]director davis:: we are ready to start the panel, but before i want to share a coupleof words. in addition to being the director

of the cops office, my background is 30 yearslaw enforcement. and during this project, i think it was aboutlast august, when we brought the convening together, the cops office along with perf,the police executive research forum, and i saw all the law enforcement officers and theadvocate groups, and we started to talk about the issue. i have a confession to make. ireally sat there and i started thinking about my response to sexual assault victims, andto domestic violence, and to a lot of the issues that we are talking about, going back30 years into law enforcement. i started thinking about what i did i miss, i started thinkingabout what stereotypes i had. i started thinking about the judgment calls that i made and howcounterproductive they probably were and that

those were the times of the day, and thatthere are so many lessons learned now that there really is no excuse. and so for me now,this is a reconciliation, if you will, i can reconcile that. i can correct that by makingsure now that the field really understands the impact that it has.and i think back to my 30 years, that i have to start with an apology. because i thinkthat is the first way to start it, to apologize for how we have responded and have we allowedthese stereotypes and mostly implicit bias to influence the decisions we make. and sonow leading the cops office, it was an honor for us to partner with you to really talkabout this. and i really want to thank vanita and beafor the way that they did it. my field is

a very good field, we have honorable men andwomen who serve it, but i think we engage and adopt things better when people respectour input and opinions as well. and to bring people to the table and to hear all sidesof it, we really started realizing there really only is one side. but until you meet, youdon't know that. so i appreciate the way it was done. i think it was very respectful forthe industry. and i think the industry is going to respond in kind, in the way thatwe now distribute this, the way we implement this, and the way that we strive to do better.the model for my office and the copes office, i have said is, the cops office is here tohelp the field advance the field. and i said that coming from the field, you know, wheni got to d.c., i always tease my staff, i

started searching the building, looking behinddoors, into closets, under desks, looking for those magic answers. the answer to thoseproblems we all have. and bottom line is, we don't have them. we do not have them ind.c.. you have them. you are out there every day, on the ground working with victims, workingwith survivors, working with offenders, holding them accountable. you have the solutions toit, so any guidance that did not engage you would be, in my opinion, very incomplete.so i also want to think the advocacy groups for engaging and making sure that we havea full response. and i close with a thought that also my staffgets tired of hearing me say it, but its one of my favorite phrases. and that is, we havethis opportunity right now with everything

that is going on in this country, we’retalking about trust. and if you think about it, it applies across the board. i have theability to serve as the executive director of the president's task force which is a fancyway of saying i had a front seat to history, to watch these 11 individuals on the taskforce really build the issues. and there are some specific recommendations from the taskforce that addresses the issue of gender bias. but if you think about it, it is not onlya specific recommendation but there are two or three major pillars that address it. buildingtrust and legitimacy. you cannot have trust and legitimacy if implicit bias is reallyinfluencing the way that you investigate crimes. community policing and crime reduction. youcannot effectively hold people accountable

for violence if you are biased in your responseand how you investigate it. that is not community policing because you are not respecting thecommunity. this guidance will go to training education. make sure that we empower and educatethe officers to do a great job. so this task force, the president’s response, reallyties perfectly into what we are doing today. but to me, what comes out of it, during thismoment where trust seems to be so important, this moment where it is a question of whetheror not we should earn the trust, or that we have earned trust, although i think we areheading down that way, is keep in mind this phrase. that to me, public safety, the waywe should redefine it today, is public safety cannot just be the absence of crime. it mustinclude the presence of justice. and until

i started working on this project, i thinkjustice to me, was a process. and so i had to expand the definition as justice for thesurvivors and victims as well. and that means starting from the moment the officer getsthe call, or actually when the victim makes the call, to the moment that the offenderis prosecuted and held accountable. and so i want to thank you for the education youhave given me. it is now my responsibility to make sure we share this with the field.and together, i think we can make sure that this is something that will make the definingmoment, as the attorney general said this is one of her priorities. and so i’m reallyexcited about today. and i want to thank you for all the work that you have done, and mostimportantly all of the work you are about

to do. thank you guys. [applause] becky monroe: thank you, and now i am pleasedto introduce the next panel who will come to talk about how we are going to effectivelyimplement the principles in this guidance. so i would like to ask the panelists to comeon walk on up. and as they are coming up i will introduce them. and i want to say, thesepanelists are remarkable not only because they represent leaders from law enforcementand advocacy, and work with service providers every day, but they are people who providedextraordinarily important input to this guidance and who worked with us throughout this processto make sure it would be as effective as possible. our moderator is tom tremblay. tom is a retiredpolice chief from burlington, vermont, and

he was also the commissioner of the vermontdepartment of public safety and most recently he worked as a monitor for the departmentof justice on some of our most important police cases. lisa madigan is the attorney generalof the state of illinois. and we are pleased that attorney general madigan could be withus today. carol tracy is the executive director of the women’s law project. major sabrinatapp-harper, with the baltimore city sheriff’s office. lisalyn jacobs, who is vice presidentof the legal momentum. julie goldscheid, professor of law of cuny school of law. and john firman,director of strategic partnerships for the international association of chiefs of police. i want to ask you in welcoming the panelistsand we look forward to a conversation with

all of you about how to make sure we effectivelytake this guidance and make sure it does the work it was intended to do. thank you. [applause] tom tremblay: thank you, good morning. it’sa pleasure to be here. i would like to thank the department of justice for asking me tomoderate this panel. it is truly an honor to be a part of today's conversation becausethis is historic. this is historic guidance. i know these challenges. i know these challengeswell following 30 plus years in law enforcement. i also spent two years as an independent monitorfor the department of justice agreement with the missoula police department and the universityof montana police department, as the attorney general and director of civil rights divisionsaid. it was a pleasure being a part of that

process. and real quickly, in missoula it has beendescribed as transformational. and the transformation started with again a courageous conversationby the missoula police department around examination of gender bias, the potential for gender bias,in its response to domestic assault and sexual assault. it also included a community coordinatedresponse – a true community coordinated response – which created policies and standardoperating procedures, complete with full multidisciplinary team input on these policies. the universitypolice department, the city police department, sharing in policy language for consistencyin its response. over 5000 hours of training on sexual assault in the city of missoulaand the university for its police department

– for both police departments. a real connection– a real commitment to creating training and assistance to supervisors, making suresupervision is a key part of any transformation. data collection and analysis. looking at yourdata. no police chief wants to believe there is a concern for bias of any kind in its departmentbut it really starts with understanding and examining the potential, looking at the data,and then analyzing the data for trends. a creation of a special victims unit. again,this is all within two years. the missoula city police department recognized they neededa specialized unit. and again, the courageous leadership that they exemplified in followingthis guidance resulted in going beyond the guidance of the creation of a special victimsunit. a multidisciplinary special victims

unit that includes advocacy involvement fromstart to finish – to include advocacy involvement in police interviews. i think one of the most exciting lessons outof missoula is the external review panel in which four advocates in the community wereespecially trained to understand the policies. and then provide additional information andguidance and feedback to officers who responded. the external panel review members – fourcommunity members with advocacy background – provide feedback to officers on all felonysexual assault cases. they review every case. community safety and accountability auditthat focuses specifically on sexual assault and the gaps in sexual assault, which alsoidentified a potential for a societal bias

around these crimes. and again, the communityis addressing this, not just the police department. and then finally, memorandums of understandingbetween local police, university police, the university and the prosecutor's office, tomake sure there are no gaps in the system, to make sure there is clear communicationbetween all of those involved in ensuring justice for these crimes. missoula is a great example of what a communitycan accomplish when police departments use that helpful guidance and take leadership.a leadership role to better protect and vindicate the rights of domestic violence and sexualassault victims. the work in missoula has been described as transformational. whiletoday's guidance from the department of justice

can be considered the same, transformational,the guidance was created as part of the department's partnership with local, state, tribal andterritory law enforcement agencies. as we know, effective law enforcement leaders andprofessional organizations are constantly striving to raise the bar. that’s what goodprofessionals do. that is what good organizations do. our noble profession, the maintenanceof the public's trust, requires law enforcement agencies to examine the potential for genderbias and their response. today's guidance and the eight powerful principles that aredescribed to prevent such violence will assist law enforcement agencies and communities acrossthe country. it’s truly an honor to be a part of this event, and to assist and promotethis historic guidance. i would like to invite

each panelist to share their initial thoughtsand reflections on this new guidance, and how they and others can use this in theirwork, in our collective work, to improve law enforcement response to sexual assault anddomestic violence. after we hear from all the panelists and time permitting, we willturn it over to those in attendance were any questions you might have. and i would liketo start with illinois attorney general madigan. illinois attorney general lisa madigan: tom,thank you very very much. let me start by saying thank you, really to everybody in thisroom. there has been a tremendous amount of work done to bring forth today's guidance.and in particular, i want to say thank you to attorney general loretta lynch and thedepartment of justice, but i also want to

say thank you to the civil rights division,thank you to the cops office, and thank you to the office of violence against women. itis just incredible work that has been accomplished today.and i want to say that i particularly appreciated being a part of this, even a very very smallpart of it as a state attorney general. because whether or not the attorney general is thefront-line criminal prosecutor in her state, we are always looked upon and are always playinga significant role when it comes to developing law enforcement policy and practices and legislation,in particular. we also do a tremendous amount of work inillinois, and many ag offices around the country, to fund crime victim service providers. andso we have a very deep and meaningful relationship

with them and seeing what they have to contendwith on the frontlines in domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers. and so forover 10 years in the state of illinois, i have been working on law, policy and programsto prevent and respond to sexual assault and domestic violence, and to provide servicesto those survivors of those terrible crimes. and i have to say, it has been many – formany years, it has been very frustrating because these crimes are so prevalent. as you know,the statistics are absolutely alarming in terms of the number of women, the number ofchildren, the number of men, people in the lgbt community who are impacted by sexualassault and domestic violence in our country. and yet, too infrequently, i think we haveseen over the years, these crimes do not seem

to be prioritized. victims who come forwardare not believed. they are not taken seriously, and unfortunately they didn’t receive justice.and because they did not receive justice, they have felt re-victimized. once they feelre-victimized, we have a circumstance where there is not cooperation because there isno trust, and so we don't have successful prosecutions. so instead of reducing and curtailingthe amount of crime taking place in homes and in our communities, we have seen justthe opposite that the crimes continue. so i think that this guidance is very important,and does not come a moment too soon. in fact, i will give you an example from earlier thisyear. we conducted a series of summits at universities around the state of illinois.and we had one member of law enforcement who

actually said that when he was at the academyhe learned that 80 percent of allegations of sexual assault were false. and to me, thatstory demonstrates the just incredible need and importance for this guidance. and so i very very much appreciate all ofthe work that this guidance does and i want to highlight, you know, five things quickly.number one, it provides, and often times this is not a discussion we had, but it providesthe legal justification, the legal basis to make sure that we are addressing gender biasin policing. two, i think the recommendations that go through the research-based best practices,in terms of victim sensitive, trauma-informed interview techniques are incredibly important.one of the things that i have learned over

the years, possibly the most important thingwe can do is when somebody comes forward, is to believe them and to listen to them andnot to blame them. if we want to establish trust, if we want to get the necessary information,if we want to have a successful prosecution and reduce crime. i also think it's very importantto talk about the need to always write reports, always take reports. and to make sure thatwe are connecting survivors with the services they need, so that they can rebuild. as tomand others have mentioned, sexual assault response teams, very very important to makesure that everybody, all the stakeholders can come together. and i would also say this.law enforcement that i have worked with in illinois, they are hungry for this guidance.every single summit that we have ever had

was oversold. law enforcement coming forwardreally wanted to know what the best practices are, what they can do to reduce sexual assaultand domestic violence. and when implemented, these strategies, this guidance will absolutelyincrease survivor participation because it will increase their trust. it will lead tosuccessful prosecutions. and that will lead to increased public safety overall. so i wantto end by applauding law enforcement in illinois and around the country who have truly pioneeredsome of these common sense strategies, and they have proved how effective they are whenit comes to being able to reduce crime in communities. so it can be done. and again,thank you to department of justice and everybody involved for this very important guidance,and for the training and resources needed

to implement it. together, we will be ableto pursue justice for all. thank you. [applause] >> definitely some key issues identified inthat as well. director tracy, your thoughts? carol tracy: thank you. and i, too, wouldlike to thank the department of justice for issuing this guidance. because as attorneygeneral madigan just said, too often, sexual and domestic violence issues had been marginalto public policy, particularly in law enforcement, in spite of the prevalence and severity ofthese crimes in our homes, schools, communities. in fact, the obama administration is to becommended for elevating the critical nature of appropriate public response to sexual anddomestic violence. this guidance is unprecedented for its acknowledgment of historic and contemporarybias associated with gender-based crimes.

it's inclusion of the important knowledge-basedof the impact on the behavior, and its embrace of the important principles of modern policingas outlined in the 21st century policing report. it provides a coherent framework and a blueprintagainst which we can assess needs and measure progress.i’m the director of the women's law project in philadelphia. we are a pennsylvania-basedpublic interest law center devoted to improving the legal, economic and health status of women.we work on intersectional issues connected with reproductive rights, violence againstwomen, and gender discrimination in employment and education, using high impact litigation,public policy reform, and community education. our policy work on sexual violence began 15years ago in the aftermath of an investigative

report by the philadelphia inquirer that allegedthat our philadelphia police department’s special victims unit was not investigatingabout a third of cases reported to it. we let and advocacy effort that included callingfor a reinvestigation of the cases, which then commissioner [john] timoney agreed todo. the allegations proved to be correct. commissioner timoney displayed remarkabletransparency and leadership throughout the investigation in both admitting and describingand releasing the data of his investigation, and putting inappropriate management , supervisoryand accountability structures within the department. and ultimately, he turned to the advocacycommunity and asked us to review their sex crimes case files, because he saw the publichad lost confidence in the department. this

innovative approach turned the confrontationinto an extremely productive collaboration that continues to this day under the currentleadership of commissioner charles ramsey. what i know from years of experience, andworking in women's rights, is that cultural norms about the role of women in society,though changing, still have very deep roots and are quickly manifested in victim blaming.rape victims are profiled as liars, from campus to cosby, and domestic violence victims asperpetrators. women had been viewed legally and socially on one hand as the property ofmen, and on the other, as responsible for male behavior. and it would be full heartyto suggest that police are immune from this bias, any more than prosecutors, judges orthe jury pool, and society at large as we

know it. so it takes a lot of hard work toundo centuries of deeply ingrained attitudes and beliefs. and of course, this kind of bias,gender bias is exacerbated when racial bias is added to it. where bias is explicit, andit is explicit throughout this country, it has to be rooted out. there can be no placein 21st century policing for explicit gender-based or racial bias. acknowledging the deep seedsof implicit bias is a bit more challenging and complex, but it is absolutely necessarywhen responding to the diversity and changing norms of 21st-century america and again kudosto the department for taking on this issue. i also want to acknowledge how hard the workis. we review 400 to 500 cases over a four-day period, and i never look over to it. i hatereading the circumstances of violent human

behavior. and i’m only reading paper. i’mnot interviewing traumatized victims, and i’m not interviewing people suspected ofcommitting these hideous crimes, while needing to maintain the necessary neutrality in thatinterview. i have enormous respect for the police who do this, and do it well, day in,day out. i understand that some get burned out – vicarious trauma is real. some makemistakes. and also, that some simply should not be doing this work. and that is one ofthe reasons that our case review is effective, because our eyes sometimes catch problemsthat get lost in the chaos of the day to day work in the department. we’re proud of the work we do in philadelphia;but we don't in any way think we are done.

there are plenty of principles that are outlinedin the guidance that we need to work on more fully. we know also that our issues are notunique to philadelphia. many other police departments have been subjected to scandaland scrutiny, and i applaud always the efforts of the investigative journalists that haveuncovered this. but i have also learned that critical importance and effectiveness of leadership.you know, supervision is everything. i believe in that. leadership is everything. communityengagement is necessary, and transparency really works. so i urge police departmentsto fully engage local community to work with rape crisis and domestic violence programseven more fully, to be transparent about their data and their issues and problems. we can’t– no one can solve the problem alone. in

many cases, we know that police response shouldactually be the last resort to dealing with issues of sexual and domestic violence. frequently,it is the only resort, and it has to be good. adopting the principles of the guidance isa strong starting point. and i’m hopeful that the philadelphia police department willbe the first to fully implement it. [applause] >> great, thank you, carol. you may know theexternal review panel, which was created in missoula, montana, and had great success,was modeled after the good work you are doing in philadelphia. thank you for that. nextis major tapp-harper. >> hello. i would first like to thank thedepartment of justice for having me on the panel and for including a uniformed law enforcementleaders on this discussion. during my experience,

one of the things i have noted, from a law-enforcementperspective, frequently, law enforcement professionals have not often been exposed to individualsin certain communities. more specifically, in marginalized communities. they just donot know what they do not know. frequently, they are just not informed. so it is not thatthey are trying to hurt anyone. and what this guidance does, in particular, is it provideslaw enforcement leaders with an additional tool to assist with development of policyand training. i believe that, first and foremost, in law enforcement, everything we do beginsand ends with training. and it would be critical for this guidance to be integrated at everylevel of training. more specifically, at entry level, at in service, at supervisory, andat command level training. what i mean by

being at entry level, is of course recruitedlevel training. i think that it should be there. at in service training, particularlybecause this is when police officers can become very cynical. at rollcall training also wouldbe a good idea. at supervisory training, because supervisors need to be reminded to followup and monitor the behavior of what the officers are doing. also at the command level becausethat is often where i am finding that the training is missed. you may hit the bias trainingon all the other levels, but then frequently the commanders have absolutely no idea onwhat is going on at all these other levels in the organization. i would also think itwould be a good idea for the guidance to come in at the command level, and also for it tobe implemented as part of the policy and organization.

additionally, as a part of promising practices,community involvement i think would be an excellent idea. i worked with the transgendercommunity in the northern district to help and assist me in training. once again, i wouldadd, i do not think that people are trying to hurt anyone, but some of the comments thatcould be used and could be offensive and harmful about the transgender community, i want themto come in and assist me with the training to help to drive some of this informationforward. it was very helpful, and not only that it helped to forge relationships withthe officers within the district. months later they ended up giving us information that assistswith criminal activity , and this was information that we would not have known otherwise, hasnot these relationships been gained through

the training. it was not just effective forthe officers in one way, but it was also advantageous for us in another way. i think that that isa very promising practice for community involvement as well. i also think that the in-servicetraining can also remind the veteran off the service of the importance of aggressivelyinvestigating these types of cases. sometimes, when they have years on, they can sometimesforget how important it is to continue to aggressively investigate these types of cases.one of the other things that i wanted to mention about that whole community piece is also theinterfaith community as it relates to sexual violence. i think the community liaison shouldbe used to get this guidance information out. many times the community interfaith leadersare the first point of contact for individuals

who are in this type of situation. if we cansometimes large some type of relationship with them -- forge some type of relationshipwith them, and have it in the training as well, i think that can be beneficial also.principle seven, that says hold officers accountable, i think is an important element as well. myoverarching themes would be two things, training and accountability. they would be my primaryfocuses as it relates to the uniform section of law enforcement. thank you. [applause] >> great. thank you, major. thank you, verymuch , major. major tapp-harper is just one of many who got us to this point. ms. jacobs,your next. -- you are next. >> thank you. good morning. i think i wantto echo where vanita started which is that

when you find yourself in the presence ofsuch a brilliance – and a star-studded panel, and it starts out with the attorney general,and our brilliant colleagues here within the department, and i say within the departmentbecause i am a proud alum. twenty years ago i was about six months into my job here. andduring those five years, i became an alum of two of the three offices that have helpedto lift up and get this guidance out. both the office on violence against women and thecivil rights division. ron we can talk offline if you know- i’m looking for a hat trick.you know how that is. but i want to start by offering my profound thanks to the attorneygeneral, to the civil rights division, to the cops office, to the office on violenceagainst women for working with us to help

get this guidance out. it has been a longprocess, i think it’s been a useful process, and one that has enabled us all to sort ofshare our own perspectives and to arrive i think at a common sense of where we need togo forward. i think it is terrific that i have followed not only, as i said the brilliantfolks within the department but my colleagues here on the panel because they have done alot of work already. i can almost go ok (gestures to the people sitting next to her). but ithink it was so important that major tapp-harper started talking about what happens when lawenforcement goes into a community with which they are not familiar, and they do not knowwhat they do not know? i think this guidance is going to provide a terrific opportunityfor people to be able to sit down, whether

it is community advocates - i think the structureof vawa, particularly the stock grants which we already have that coordination going onwith law enforcement and advocates will provide some instant entrã‰e in many places for peopleto take this guidance, to sit down and talk about it, and make it real. i think the principlesthat are articulated are stellar. they are the right ones. they are going to move thisdiscussion in the right direction. and i thank, particularly vanita for what she said, andcarol for what she said, and i think it came up in major tapp-harper’s comments as well,because i think that when law enforcement does this work, and i think when you lookat the data you know that the bulk of the response, the bulk of the work they are doingoften is in his response to this kind of violence.

they encounter people at their worst, andthey also encounter people who are complicated. so they may encounter and an lgbt couple,but that lgbt couple may also have sort of the overlay of- they may already be suspiciousof law enforcement. they may feel like their relationships are not going to be respected.and then there may be an additional overlay there, whether or not you're dealing withrace, with lgbt status, with a trans person, because i think when we look at these multiplelayers of who we are, and i say this as a woman of color, things get more complicated.and so, i look forword to working with the people in this room, with the national taskforce, which if folks are not familiar with that it is this umbrella group that workson reauthorization of violence against women

issues at the federal level. i had the privilegeto be on the phone with them twice yesterday to talk about this guidance. there was somuch excitement, so much interest, there was frustration they did not already have it.is it up? is it on the web? can we get it? but i want to lift up particularly that ournative sisters were very interested in the guidance for obvious reasons. when i was here20 years ago, part of what i was doing was listening to them talk about what the challengesfor them looks like. the geographical distance, the presumptions they felt that were oftenlaid upon them in terms of stereotypes about lazy natives, or drunken natives, etc. howthat intersects with gender. i look forward to working with everyone on these issues.and so i look forward to working with everyone

on these issues, and i want to say that whilei am so excited about doing this, obviously the challenge is somewhat daunting. one ofthe things that many of us have looked at and heard about this year is a survey thatthe national domestic violence hotline did. and i’m just going to leave us with a fewthoughts about that. they talked to about 640 survivors of domestic and sexual violencewho called the hotline for help – half who had reached out to law enforcement for help,and half who never did. of the half that reached out to law enforcement, maybe about 20% ofthem said that they would never do it again. that they were afraid, that they were threatenedwith arrest, maybe that they were arrested. and of the half that had not reached out,there were sort of similar numbers. maybe

about 25% who said they would not reach outbecause they were afraid that male law enforcement did not understand women, that male law enforcementdid not understand issues of race and immigration status. so i look forward to working collectivelyto bring to bear all of the groups that work on this, to lift this up, and to get it implementedbecause it is so sorely needed, and thank you again for your hard work on this. [applause] >> thank you, ms. jacobs. professor goldscheid,your thoughts? >> thank you. well i want to echo the thanksto the panelists, to the department, to the office on violence against women, to the copsoffice, for all the work that has led to this day. i am honored to be here. it is a littledaunting to follow all of the speakers this

morning. as has been said, i almost thinkwe should go and start getting to work because there is so much to be done. but this is reallya memorable day, as it has brought together a lot of the work that we’ve heard aboutand a lot of the work that has been done and gone on. i want to commend in particular thedepartment for its work in developing the guidance and also for its work in respondingto complaints and investigating complaints on the ground, and for working with locallaw enforcement on the ground to eliminate gender bias in policing. and i am in particularreferring to the investigations that we’ve heard about- some of which we heard aboutthis morning, others of which you all know about. the guidance importantly identifiesreally critical principles that i will repeat,

you have heard about them. and importantlycalls on law enforcement officers to translate those principles into policies, training andsupervisory protocols. i think that is a point of departure for all of us to think aboutafter today. i thought it would be helpful to reference a recent survey of service providerswho work with domestic and sexual violence survivors that was conducted by the universityof miami school of law, the aclu and cuny law school. this is really a complement tothe survey of hotline callers that lisalyn mentioned. because the report really remindsus of why we're here today, the challenges we faced, as you mentioned, and the work thatremains to be done. despite all of the critical and good work that has been done over thelast few decades, an overwhelming majority

of service providers still report that policeeither sometimes or always do not believe survivors or blame them for the abuse. manyhave raised concerns, as you won’t be surprised to know, about gender bias, and also raisedconcerns biases against african-american women, latinas, native american women, muslim women,women of other ethnic backgrounds as well as general bias against immigrants and lgbtqidentified people. there is widespread concern remaining about the ramifications for survivorswith criminal records, who are sex workers, those with histories of mental illness ordrug addiction. and there’s a deep concern in communities about collateral consequencesof law enforcement involvement. including with child protection services, with fearsthat calling the police will trigger immigration

or deportation proceedings. fears that arrestwill lead to loss of housing or welfare benefits. or that the survivor herself would face arrestas a result. at the same time that we still face these challenges, service providers talkedabout many useful practices. they talked about the importance of leadership from the top,and i think we have heard some really stellar examples of that that we can all aspire topromote. it suggested that periodic reviews, similar to the ones we have heard about, fromthe community, can be very helpful. they talked about how community-based practices such ascoordination among law enforcement, advocates and service providers, particularly to addresshigh risk individual cases have been really useful. how multi-disciplinary response teamsthat coordinate efforts for multiple governmental

agencies have been really helpful. and alsohow task forces, coalitions and partnerships between service providers and law enforcementto explore systemic issues and promote good policies can really make a difference. onething we know after all of these years of work is that domestic violence and sexualviolence are really complex problems and they require nuaned solutions. and as i said, icommend the department for bringing us together to take the next step in those regards- inthat regard. the report, interestingly, highlighted that a majority of service providers werenot aware of the department of justice's oversight authority. while of course that authorityand the capacity of the department is limited, i think that tells us that we have a realopportunity for public education here. so,

what are some things that we might do goingforward, what are some ways the guidance might be used in communities? well, public educationmaterials might be disseminated with a summary of the guidance, including information abouthow to lodge a complaint where that might be appropriate, how the process of startingan investigation might work, again where appropriate. the guidance can be a starting point for localconvenings along the lines of what we’ve heard about. to have conversation betweenlaw enforcement, community partners, service providers, advocates, survivors, to talk abouthow to improve practices and policies. it can support the kind of training we have talkedabout both on gender and other forms of biases affect policing, but also about the collateralconsequences that i mentioned. they will require

a nuanced response but they are criticallyimportant for us to pay attention to. i have no doubt that local advocates and local lawenforcement will come up with many other creative strategies that will respond to the needsof particular communities. i look forward to being a part of those conversations, andi really want to say thank you for your work on this. [applause] >> great, thank you so much. director firman,one of the major themes that we continue to hear from all the panelists is leadership,and certainly the international association of chiefs of police - the largest law enforcementassociation - deals a lot with leadership . we would love to hear your thoughts on thisguidance.

>> thank you, and good morning. it is reallygood to be last. [laughter] because my distinguished colleagues here have really i think raisedall the critical points that we need to hear about the guidance. but i wrap up by sayinga few very short things. first of all i want to thank everybody in this room. i think everybodyhere is clearly passionate and devoted to improving the way we respond to sexual assaultand domestic violence in america. and i just want to thank everybody here. i will of coursepick on and especially thank vanita, ron and bea because iacp for all the good work wehave ever done, we’ve done the best work when we do it in the collaboration with thedepartment of justice. i thank you so much. this guidance is just one more example ofhow important your work is, so thank you.

simply put, some 18,000 police agencies thismorning, and some 800,000 first responders got up and went to work, and all night longthey were already at work, and they’re responding to these crimes – sexual assault and domesticviolence. they are terrible crimes, they are complex crimes, and the bottom line is thatthe decisions those officers will make and have made are life-changing decisions forthe people they engage and encounter, so this is serious business for all of us, and certainlyfor the iacp. we’ve spent over two decades working with the office on violence againstwomen and others to come up with best practices, policies, protocols and training on theseissues. and i want to, and i have to and i must and i will tip my hat to aviva koreshwho has led that charge at iacp for so many

years, thank you so much for being here. andshe’ll be critiquing my presentation in the back of the room later. but the bottomline is, that this bias issue is there, it is real, it exists everywhere. and all i canthink of is that – this is the troubling point today – thats all that good work,all those policies and protocols and procedures are derailed- are entirely derailed and uselessin the face of bias on the part of police officers. so what we have to do is changethat, and change it aggressively. and the president’s task force, which ron so admirablysupported, that task force says culture will eat policy for lunch any day. i think we haveheard that phrase over and over again. we have to get at the cultural issues and makesure that every officer has implicit and explicit

bias training, and that every officer understandsthe potential for bias that they hold and we all hold. so, that’s the work to be done.so i think i can make it clear today that the iacp fully adopts and endorses this guidance,and certainly our president terry cunningham will be speaking about that later. but thepoint being that action has to be taken. the action we commit to this morning for you isthat with our 25,000 some members and our reach around the country, we need to get outand revamp- and i think what we’re talking about here is that we need to revamp and takea hard look at everything we have already done, and then embed this new guidance intoeverything that we are working on currently. whether it is a unique training program thatwe are doing, or whether it is with a state

association or whether it is with individualagencies. we have got to embed this and make sure that it becomes a focal point of allthe policies and protocols out there. because again, without it in there, we run the riskof failing in all those calls that officers are responding to. ron davis, and i’ll pickon ron just one more time, spoke to my class- i teach a class at american university, andron recently said to them- and it really caught my attention. he said he finds himself ina time of profound opportunity for change in policing in america. i thank you. thatgot into my head as well as my students. we are there. and this is a profound moment forchange. and my hope is that we all work together to make that change very successful. thankyou. [applause]

>> excellent, we have about 10 minutes leftand i just thought i’d summerize before i push out to the participants here to hearany questions that you might have for the panelists. there were some major themes inthis, and the first was an examination. an examination of what we don't know as majortapp-harper said. of what we don't know we don’t know. and really looking at that andexamining that. the second major theme was leadership. that every one of the panelistsmentioned the important role that leaders play in police organizations around theseissues. and certainly training being a part of that. and i again point to something thatmajor tapp-harper said, training at all levels. that we cannot excuse folks from trainingon these important issues, and that this cannot

be a one-time conversation, but rather a continuousconversation as mr. firman said. make sure we’re integrating this into all the trainingthat we’re doing i think is key. transparency, community involvement, trust and collaboration.key parts of everything that this panel talked about and many examples of that. and i, too,have had many outstanding opportunities to collaborate with community partners in advocacyand whatnot. i do believe in the creativity that can come from communities. because thecommunity knows itself best, and by bringing all the community together we are going tosee better collaboration, more trust and culture being a piece of that conversation. certainlyhas to occur. we also heard accountability. and accountability is not just accountabilityfor offenders but accountability for police

officers. the women and men in our professionwho do this very difficult work, the majority of the women and men in this profession arein it for the right reasons but when those don’t meet up to the high standards of ourprofession they have to be held accountable, especially as it relates to violations ofdomestic violence and sexual misconduct. and then lastly, we talked about change or transformation.and i think that has been a theme for the day as well in all of the people who havecommented today, this is a time for change. it is an opportunity for transformation. wehave seen it in places like missoula that has been spoken about, and we hope to seeit – we will see it in the continued efforts for transformation across our country regardingthis guidance. so with that, i would certainly

like to hear from anybody in the audiencethat might have a question or comment for the panelists, if that is something you areinterested in. if not, i will use the remaining minutes to ask questions of the panelistsmyself. any thoughts? questions? yes? >> i am mary claire landry from the new orleansfamily justice center. and i just want to take this opportunity to really support thisguidance. we have been at this for eight years. new orleans has been under consent decreefor a number of years. we have been at the forefront of the advocacy movement to reallymake these cultural- deep cultural changes. and i am here to say that it is working. weare making strides. we still have a long way to go, like we have mentioned here, but ijust commend the incorporation of advocates

at every level. it is the thing that i thinkmakes the difference. i think that it is the fact that we have consolidated all of thesedifferent systems under one roof and really work day in and day out to communicate, toshare, to do case reviews, to talk about the cultural impact on survivors and what thatmeans in the long-term, issues around the training in trauma, i think. so i’m justhere as a testament. we continue to get inspector general reports that devastate us and affectthe police morale, but it is critical that we continue to support them, to help themfind the solutions, not just to blame them. and to really work at this day in and dayout. so i want to thank all the departments, i want to thank the civil rights division.although it has been a hard process for us

as a community, it really makes the differencewhen the mayor, the systems, the police chiefs really embrace this as an opportunity to makethese deep cultural changes. and it won’t happen without that so thank you. >> thank you mary, and it is nice to see youagain. good efforts being made certainly in new orleans. i’ve been pleased to be apartof that as well. major tapp-harper, i’d be interested to know your thoughts- manyyears experience in law enforcement, two major departments. how do we operationalized arethese things? how do we in law enforcement operationalize this guidance and these coreprinciples. major tapp-harper: i think it starts withleadership, and it simply has to start at

the top. with the commitment from the leaders.you just have to simply say i am just going to make it happen. and i plan to personally,you know, speak with the leaders at my organization and integrate this into our policy and ourin-service program. so i'm going to make it happen. [laughter] i mean you just do it.[applause] >> hear, hear. there is an opportunity thatleaders have. you have an opportunity. leadership is about action, and so we certainly can appreciatethat. ms. jacobs, you have written about violence against women of color and the ways that intersectionof gender and race can make women of color, including transgender women of color, invisiblein our criminal justice system. can you share a little bit more about what you mean aboutthat? you talked about it a little bit in

your opening comments, but how does this relateto that? and how do we continue to look at all kinds of biases around these issues? ms. jacobs: sure, and thank you for the question.i think we sit at such a moment of great opportunity, particularly this week, right? at the endof last week we saw the holtzclaw decision come in. we saw that jury hold accountableformer law enforcement who had chosen a particular universe of women to prey on. and it getsprecisely to the point that i have been making about how multiple layers of people’s identitycome into play. he chose women who were powerless. he chose women who were black, who were poor,who had substance abuse issues. some of whom had been prostituted. and he chose them becausehe viewed them as invisible or disposable,

and expected that law enforcement and prosecutionwould do the same thing. i think we have a perfect model in what happened out there forwhat we need to see with this guidance, right. law enforcement stepped forward, did the rightthing, held their own accountable. did the investigation, gave the prosecutors the toolsthat they needed. and they demanded accountability, and that jury and many of us – myself andothers – were very concerned. it was an all-white jury that was going to be lookingat crimes committed against “imperfect victims.” no victims are perfect, but again, the choicehad been made by the former law enforcement officer to prey on people who were least likelyto be deemed credible. and who did not – to my point about people who don’t call lawenforcement – they didn’t reach out to

law enforcement except that last victim whenthe law enforcement person made a mistake. they did not reach out because they did notexpect to believed. so what law enforcement did in that issue is the bedrock of restoringtrust. they saw those victims. they said we see you, we hear you and we are demandingaccountability for you. and that, combined with some of the things that major tapp-harperwas talking about, pulling in communities of faith, looking at how culturally appropriate/linguisticallyappropriate responses can be brought to bear is how we are going to get our arms aroundit and how we are going to get this worked done. thank you. [applause] >> well said. we have time for one final questionfrom the panelists. actually, can we take

a question from the audience, please? themicrophone, thank you. >> good morning. thank you very much, thishas been phenomenal. one of the things that i have really been working hard on – i dowork with the air force – and one of the- is what you all talked about and really touchedon this automatic default when it comes to sexual assault cases believing that it isnot true. i call it- when i do trainings i call it the myth of false reports with respectto sexual violence. and i guess my question goes to what types of checks and balancesdo we need to implement in order that this automatic default isn’t gone to. it is abouta cultural change and it is about as you said leadership at every level. we cannot havea training go by where they sit in the classroom,

and sit and nod and everything, and then goby the water cooler and start talking about this is this and this is that. there are individualsthat i know, growing up in law enforcement and being a cop, there are individuals inthere not only the official leaders but the unofficial leaders who can be change agents.and we have to find ways it seems to me to make them change agents. we have to make policyhave teeth. and so that there is nowhere for that individual to hide. i like calling itturning the lights up, because when you turn the lights up, the roaches scurry, right?mark wynn would tell us all the time to make that stove hot because a thief won’t steala hot stove, right? and those types of things, a lot of time to me that there are elementarytypes of things that we employ. but this is

a top leadership issue, but it is also thatfirst line supervisor who sees their men and women day in and day out and has the abilityto really ensure some accountability. how do we make sure they are doing that? >> anybody, carol, do you want to start? >> well, you know i do think that the auditprocess we have in philadelphia is a good model. clearly the military has also beento visit us to see if it can be replicated. because it does root out problems, and itdoes lead to policy changes. and quite frankly, when you think about the philadelphia policedepartment's work being reviewed by feminist lawyers, just imagine what that reaction waslike. but it is one where they learned that

it is useful. that we see things that theydon't. and sometimes, some of the things that happened, there was one year when a groupof individuals put in a pile problems that we had. and it turned out we all had identifiedone officer, not knowing it, because the participants in this are women’s law project, women organizedagainst rape, support center for child advocates and the children's alliance. so we had allidentified one individual whose interviews had turned into interrogations. now eitherthat officer needed to be relocated to a different position in the department, or maybe thatofficer was burned out. there are times when we will see a case and the captain or lieutenantwill say gee that is odd, we do not expect that from that one, something’s wrong. socommunity oversight – sunshine you know

– it works in so many other arenas and itis not that difficult. we have a huge volume in philadelphia. we have got over 5000 casescoming into the special victims unit. we are trying to figure out how to do this more effectivelyin domestic violence where we have 150,000 911 calls coming in. we don’t- none of ushave enough resources, so i think that this- these projects, perhaps, you know data drivespolicy, policy should be driving and data should be driving more resources to do thiskind of work. because i think that the practices that are developed around sexual and domesticviolence, the community engagement and involvement around it and the transparency around datacertainly are models for all other kinds of police investigation. you know we- you knowi urge people to look at this process. none

of us get paid for it. you know there’sno- we all volunteer our time to do it. and the police they say things like – when weinterview the lieutenant over the problems we have in the case – they walk away andsay it is not that bad. so it is not the only, but it is an idea of- it’s an accountabilitymeasure. it is needed. >> absolutely. thank you carol. i really dothink that external review is the future. i really do. when we talk about accountability,when we’re talking about collaboration and advancing public trust, external review, certainlyagain, is the work i have seen in philly and in missoula, has been instrumental. mr. firman,one last comment? would you like to comment on this as well please.

mr. firman: very much so. iacp’s motto isserving leaders of today and developing leaders of tomorrow. i think dave you raise a reallycritical point that we need to make sure that – especially young officers who make theirfirst mistakes, who show their bias, who do it wrong, are held immediately accountableby first line supervisors - sergeants, lieutenants, captains – and they are told at that point,they are not dismissed from the job or transferred, at that point they are educated. they aretold that was wrong. you did that wrong, and let me explain and show you how to do it right.so we need those guys, the midline supervisors, men and women modeling great behavior to bringup a sea young people who know how to do this right. and those midline people become ourfuture police chiefs in any event, so we want

them to know what to do.>> very well said. that ends our time. >>(off camera)there were a couple of morepeople who i think wanted to speak about this. major tapp-harper: i just wanted to say, reallyquickly. you know, as a district commander, i did my own integrity test. so i did nothave a whole bunch of time on my hands. so if i would hear a call for service go out,i would just stop past the call and say, you know, how was the call for service? you know,how did the officer do? you know just get additional information as to how the callfor service was. that gave me a lot of latitude as a district commander to deal with a lotof issues at my level. so mr. firman made an excellent point. so i do not know how youmay integrate that into what you do, but just

an idea. i did my own integrity tests. >> any other closing comments from the panelists? ms. madigan: let me say that in terms of whateverybody has said very, very effective and important strategies; the leadership, thetraining and the accountability piece. i can tell you what we have seen in illinois thatis very, very effective is having survivors speak and having law enforcement and otherpeople listen to them about their experience. very powerful. in addition, i would say thatbringing together everybody, so you talk about it (gesturing to carol) in terms of the audit,i do not know how open most police departments are going to be to feminist lawyers doingthe audit, but they are open and i have seen

great success when you bring law enforcement,prosecutors, advocates together to do those case reviews on a weekly/ monthly basis. andthen there is immediate accountability. there is an identification of problems, solutionsthat can be implemented very quickly. and i’ve seen that to be about one of the mosteffective models when dealing with these very difficult and challenging issues. >> very good point. any other closing comments? ms. goldscheid: it is very intimidating tohave what might be the last comment but i guess the only thing i would like to makesure that we all keep in mind as we close this really inspiring discussion, is to keepsurvivor safety, autonomy and dignity in mind

as our goal as we think about what we areaiming for and what we are hoping to accomplish. that that should be front and center. >> yes, very well said. very well said. thatbrings our time to a close. i would like to close with a couple of final words. inspirationand opportunity, that is what we have. so this is exciting, and historic and i lookforward to continuing this conversation around the country with all of you. thank you verymuch to my panelists and thank you very much to the department of justice. [applause] >> thank you. i think along the lines of themesi wanted to echo major tapp-harper in terms of commitment. and i think you’ve seen commitmentfrom the very top of the department of justice.

to all of our state and local law enforcementleaders who are here, as well as advocates, that we are taking this guidance and we'regoing to use it and we're going to make it sure it is implemented effectively. so thankyou all for coming today. thank you all for your commitment. i also wanted to note, interms of commitment, we wanted to recognize that the office of the vice president hasjoined us, carrie bettinger lopez is here, as well as kimberlyn leary from the councilof women and girls from the white house. we have support for getting this implementedalso from the top of the administration. please join me in thanking our moderator and ourpanelists. [applause] let's go get to work. thank you.