A ‘New Era in Police Reform?’ with Christy Lopez
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 August 2023
⏱️ 48 minutes
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Summary
On July 27, the Justice Department announced a sprawling civil rights investigation, also known as a pattern or practice investigation, into the City of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department. The announcement came just weeks after the department’s Civil Rights Division released a report of a similar investigation into abuses at the Minneapolis Police Department. Both investigations were motivated, at least in part, by the murder of black men at the hands of police—Tyre Nichols in Memphis and George Floyd in Minneapolis.
In a recent article for Lawfare about the Minneapolis report and another report looking at the Louisville Metro Police Department, Christy Lopez wrote: “As with past police investigations, the abuse these reports document is chilling, partly in its frequency and perhaps even more so in conveying how casually abuse can occur in policing.” And yet she remained hopeful, writing that the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department “heralded what could be a new era in police reform.”
Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sat down with Christy, a Professor from Practice at Georgetown Law and former Deputy Chief in the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, to talk about her extensive experience conducting pattern or practice investigations into police departments and negotiating consent decrees. They talked about the history of these investigations stretching back to the Rodney King beating, the common trends of police abuse that pattern or practice investigations find, and whether or not we’re in the midst of a broader reckoning with ideas of policing and public safety.
Please note that this episode contains content that some people may find disturbing, including graphic depictions of police violence. Listener discretion is advised.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair, that's patreon.com slash |
| 0:16.9 | LawFair. Also check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:34.2 | Even though our charge is to ensure that policing is constitutional and lawful, we're here to |
| 0:39.2 | tell you that you need to do more than just tell your officers to abide by the law, because |
| 0:44.3 | if that's all you're telling them to do, it leaves the door open for a lot of harmful behavior |
| 0:50.2 | and a lot of behavior that will cross that line from legal to illegal. |
| 0:57.0 | I'm Tyler McBrion, Managing Editor of LawFair, and this is a LawFair podcast, August 4th, 2023. |
| 1:04.5 | On July 27th, the Justice Department announced a sprawling civil rights investigation, known |
| 1:09.3 | as a pattern or practice investigation, into the city of Memphis in the Memphis Police Department. |
| 1:14.8 | The announcement came just weeks after the department's civil rights division released |
| 1:17.7 | a report of a similar investigation into abuses at the Minneapolis Police Department. |
| 1:22.8 | Both investigations were motivated, at least in part, by the murder of black men at the |
| 1:26.4 | hands of police, Tyrene Nichols in Memphis, and George Floyd in Minneapolis. |
| 1:30.8 | In a recent article for LawFair about the Minneapolis report, in another report looking |
| 1:35.1 | at the Louisville Metro Police Department, Christy Lopez wrote, as with past police investigations, |
| 1:41.1 | the abuse these reports document is chilling, partly in its frequency, and perhaps even |
| 1:45.2 | more so in conveying how casually abuse can occur in policing. |
| 1:48.9 | And yet she remained hopeful, writing that the civil rights division of the Justice Department |
| 1:52.8 | quote, heralded what could be a new era in police reform. |
| 1:56.8 | I sat down with Christy, a professor from practice at Georgetown Law, and former deputy chief |
... |
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