What if, a long time ago, the federal government noticed many of the problematic and abusive police practices about which we complain today—practices including excessive force, discriminatory harassment, false arrest, coercive sexual conduct, and unlawful stops. In response, the federal government passed a law to rein in such abuses, and assigned the Justice Department to keep police departments around the country on the straight and narrow. Then everybody patted themselves on the back and...business as usual.
That's what Stephen Rushin, a law professor at the University of Illinois, says happened with Law Enforcement Misconduct Statute 42 U.S.C. § 14141, passed in 1994. This law, according to the Department of Justice:
allows us to review the practices of law enforcement agencies that may be violating people's federal rights. If a law enforcement agency receives federal funding, we can also use the anti-discrimination provisions of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,,,
The problems addressed in our cases include use of excessive force; unlawful stops, searches, or arrests; and discriminatory policing. We have looked at bias based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, and sexual-orientation. We have also addressed unlawful responses to individuals who observe, record, or object to police actions.
But a funny thing happened on the way to enforcing the law—basically, it wasn't. In "Federal Enforcement of Police Reform" a paper published in the Fordham Law Review few weeks ago, Rushin argues that the law has been used in some high-profile cases in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Washington, D.C., but that's just a tiny subset of possible applications.