Why Police Reform Will Get Stuck in Partisan Gridlock: UVA’s Lawless LIVE

Why Police Reform Will Get Stuck in Partisan Gridlock: UVA’s Lawless LIVE

University of Virginia Political Science Chair Jennifer Lawless appeared on GoLocal LIVE, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order incentivizing police reforms — and now Congress is slated to take up legislation. 

“I think if you’re an optimist you can say the needle was moved a little big in that the White House at least spoke about the importance of police reform — if you’re more of a realist I think you can look at the executive order and say that nothing really has to changed, because almost all of the modifications that were proposed by the president are incentivized,” said Lawless. 

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“There are incentives for police departments not to use chokeholds, there are incentives for police departments to spend more time community policing — but that just means they’re eligible for more grants,” said Lawless.  “It doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s any kind of penalty if they don’t engage and I think ultimately that’s what’s going to be the problem for Congress. We know that Democrats want explicit requirements and enforcement  — the Republicans are more in line with what Donald Trump wants.”

“For example, Donald Trump said during his [recent] press conference that we’re ending chokeholds, and the next sentence was then unless the police officer thinks that it’s necessary to protect him or herself. So you know we’re basically back to square one in terms of what the executive order means,” said Lawless. 

“Symbolically, it was an important thing to do,” said Lawless of Trump’s executive order. “In terms of real action, I think we’re going to be stuck in partisan gridlock.”