ME Commissioner and IHR Council Special Envoy to UNOG Affairs Amb. Dr. Haissam Bou-Said received a formal letter from Congresswoman Ann Wagner on Police violations in the United States of America.
The letter came after an intervention of Amb. Bou-Said at the Council in June during the HRC 43, where the Floyd`s issue was raised heavily during the debates.
Mainly Wagner quoted that George Floyd’s tragic and unjust death has ignited a powerful movement to improve policing efforts and race relations across the county, which I strongly support. For the past few weeks I have engaged with the St. Louis regional community in conversations about accountability for the use of force, transparency, and public safety. I believe Congress should act to ensure all people are treated with dignity and respect by law enforcement, no matter the color of their skin.
she added that For these reasons, I voted in support of the JUSTICE Act, a wide-ranging reform package drafted by Senator Tim Scott (SC) that makes lynching a federal hate crime, takes action to stop the use of chokeholds, equips officers with body cameras, scales down no-knock warrants, and establishes reporting requirements to improve transparency and accountability for the use of force. We are blessed to have so many brave men and women serving as police officers, and I believe the JUSTICE Act will help them better accomplish their mission to be guardians of the people in the neighborhoods they serve.
Moreover she stated that there are many reforms on which we agree, such as banning chokeholds, enhancing officer training, making lynching a federal crime, and improving information sharing among departments. In fact, police departments in the St. Louis area have already adopted many of the evidence-based reforms that are being called for today. We have led the nation in maintaining the gold standard of police accreditation, CALEA accreditation. The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) is the national accrediting authority for law enforcement. CALEA was created in 1979 by the four major law enforcement membership associations: the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Sherffs’ Association, and the Police Executive Research Forum. CALEA accreditation is a voluntary process by which police agencies demonstrate that they have adopted policies on a wide range of practices in policing, and I am incredibly proud of the St. Louis region police departments that have attained this distinctive stamp of approval.
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