Maya Wiley (’92), President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, authored an article for The New Republic discussing how President Biden’s proposal to fund local police departments diverges from other impactful criminal justice reform strategies, and calling for accountability measures to ensure fairer and safer policing (“100,000 New Cops? There Are Far Better Ways to Fight Crime.” Aug. 5). “His plans for policing are, in some important ways, at odds with his reform agenda, and he has not publicly justified the number of new hires. We do not need 100,000 new police officers. . . . Everyone should ensure that residents are safe from crime. . . . But we don’t address that by arbitrarily throwing money at more policing that we do not need and that is not guaranteed to keep Black and Latino communities safe from police violence. Real solutions are balanced and accountable solutions.
