Black law enforcement officers call for change: Police must be guardians, not warriors

Ronald Hampton remembers walking around the streets of Washington D.C., working as a police officer, tasked with protecting a community.

"We didn't wear uniforms that look like army fatigues," said Hampton, who is now retired and serves as the chairman for reform committee of the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice.

He says as police have become more militarized, the mindset about what their role is in society has shifted – from guardians to warriors.

Reversing that mindset in departments nationwide is the core goal of the NABCJ's reforms.

"What has been successful is the idea that citizens have a role in the role of public safety in our community," Hampton told WRAL News. "In order to enhance that role, and for it to really be effective, the role of policing must be a guardian role, that we're there to protect."

In total, the NABCJ is proposing 16 reforms, many of which have been touted by other law enforcement reform advocates and activists.

The Durham-based NABCJ is comprised of current and former members of the criminal justice system, most of whom work in law enforcement. The mission: to achieve equal justice for Black people and other minorities. The organization released a list of reforms which includes creating a nationwide database for police misconduct, ending qualified immunity for officers and removing police from schools.

"In the development of these institutions and our society, policing was developed in the U.S. [as maintenance] of the issue of slavery," Hampton told WRAL News. "We haven't changed fundamentally the way these organizations operate."

The organization has been calling for equality for several decades, since 1974. The most recent reform initiatives are focused on police interactions with communities of color.

"The more we look out for each other, the better our community is going to be," Hampton said. "We have to have a change in philosophy, and paradigm shift in order for us to be successful in a safer community."

People of color are less likely than white people to call the police when they want to report a crime or need help, federal data shows. The same data – a survey from the Bureau of Justice – reports Black and Hispanic people are upwards of 2 times more likely to experience use of force by police than white people and, if force is used, people of color are more likely to perceive it as excessive.

Among the reforms the NABCJ members are calling for include ending qualified immunity. The group believes ending the practice will stop police officers from using it as a defense. Qualified immunity effectively protects all public officials, including law enforcement, from personal liability unless a court determines they've infringed on someone's constitutional or statutory rights.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act - which was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and is waiting to be heard by the Senate, would address qualified immunity as well as several other demands including creating a registry for police misconduct laid out by NABCJ.

In North Carolina, similar bills are being considered as well.

Still, Hampton said changing the way police interact with communities and how they see themselves fitting into communities they serve will be an effective way to change the role of policing in America.

"[When I was an officer,] racism was in your face and wrong, and it really hasn't changed," Hampton said. "What has happened is it has become more sophisticated, because outright racism and discrimination is outlawed. But legislatively outlawing practices does not change people's hearts all the time, so we had to deal with that."