Post-Ferguson Police Training in the United States Continues to Ignore Human Rights

• In Event: Academy and In-Service Training for Law Enforcement

Abstract

The United States is a vocal advocate of comprehensive Human Rights training for law enforcement authorities, including police officers, prosecutors and jurists in “societies in transition.” The United States Agency for International Development guide for providing “Assistance To Civilian Law Enforcement In Developing Countries,” required its employees to consider a “Criminal Justice Sector Assessment Rating Tool,” that asks “Is human rights training incorporated throughout the training curriculum for officers?” In 2001, David H. Bayley identified “The Norms of Democratic Policing” in his Democratizing the Police Abroad: What to Do and How to Do It? including “Police must protect human rights, which he defined as “freedom of speech, association, and movement; freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention, and exile; and impartiality in the administration of law.” Amnesty International, documented the fact that Ferguson police ignored international human rights norms in its October 2014 report On the Streets of America: Human Rights Abuses in Ferguson. Neither the report of President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, nor the DOJ settlement agreement with Ferguson mentions human rights training as a goal since both ignore the obligations undertaken by the federal government pursuant to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Author

• Andrew Rudyk, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY