There needs to be a human rights commission in every city and town that reviews the data. There are human rights commissions in cities and towns in the USA already. That commission can ask to meet with the Chief of Police and the Mayor and Council to bring about change.
The Deaths in Custody Reporting Program (DCRP) (click here) collects data on deaths that occur while inmates are in the custody of local jails or state prisons. Local jail and state prison data are collected directly from jails and state departments of corrections. Arrest-related mortality data were collected separately from data on deaths that occur in prisons or jails. The arrest-related death collection was suspended in 2014. The DCRP provides individual-level data on the number of deaths by year, cause of death, and decedent age, race or Hispanic origin, and sex. These data are also used to produce facility and population mortality rates. The collection of individual-level data allows BJS to perform detailed analyses of comparative death rates across demographic categories and offense types and facility and agency characteristics.
BJS began the DCRP in 2000 under the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-297), which required the collection of individual data on deaths in the process of arrest, local jails, and state prisons. BJS continued the program after this legislation expired in 2006 and continues it with the reauthorization of the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013 (P.L. 113-242).
This is a reporting from "Mother Jones" in 2014:
December 17, 2014
By Allie Gross and Bryan Schatz
Over the weekend, (click here) tens of thousands of marchers rallied against police brutality, standing in solidarity with families who have lost loved ones to police violence. With public scrutiny zeroed in on deaths at the hands of law enforcement, one thing is noticeably missing: a federal record of just how many people die in police custody each year.
This, however, could be changing. Last week, Congress passed the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013. Currently awaiting Obama's signature, it mandates that states receiving federal criminal justice assistance grants report, by gender and race, all deaths that occur in law enforcement custody, including any while a person is being detained or arrested. This would include events like the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, says Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a sponsor of the bill, in an interview with Mother Jones.
The bill also mandates that federal law enforcement agencies annually gather and report these deaths to the US attorney general, who in turn has two years to analyze the data, determine if and how it can be used to reduce the number of such deaths, and file a report to Congress....
Local ordinances can be adopted as well. It would create an infrastructure that not only gathered information under the law, but, also sought input from community members. Human rights of Americans have never been more important.
Human Rights Commissions can do a lot more than track police activity, it can assist in understanding struggling students and economic failures. There is a lot to be done and it is time cities and towns organize under what works.
There are local chamber of commerce to discuss the working poor, health care and minimum wage. There are also issues of environmental justice that insures clean air and water. There are also issues of organizing unions to bring about equity in the workplace.
Now is the time to get started and make local economies work for everyone without the threat of violence anywhere.
