Jackson Free Press

WHEREAS, the Lumumba Administration's vision for the City of Jackson, Mississippi ("City of Jackson") centers around goals focused on creating a safe, welcoming and inclusive City with exceptional employees, infrastructure, and services; an ethical, transparent, and fiscally responsible government; and thriving neighborhoods, communities, and businesses; and

WHEREAS, there is an urgent need to address issues of police violence, institutional racism, and the need for the transformation of our justice system; and

WHEREAS, police officers nationwide have shot and/or killed by other means (i.e. chokeholds) nearly 1,000 people annually since 20151; and

WHEREAS, nationwide, African Americans are killed by police officers at more than twice the rate of white Americans2; and

WHEREAS, the City of Jackson has experienced deaths and other harms through the use of excessive and/or deadly force by police officers; and

WHEREAS, in light thereof, there exists an immediate need to examine and amend the City of Jackson's use of force policies and procedures.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, I, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, pursuant to the authority vested in me, do hereby amend the City of Jackson Police Department's use of force policies and procedures as follows:

Require sworn officers with the Jackson Police Department ("officers") to de-escalate situations, where possible, by communicating with subjects, maintaining distance, and otherwise eliminating the need to use force; and

Ban the use of chokeholds, strangleholds, hogtying, knee on neck, or any other use of force that limits a person's ability to breathe, preventing the unnecessary death or serious injury of community members; and

Require officers to intervene and stop excessive force used by other officers and report these incidents immediately to a supervisor; and

Restrict officers from shooting at moving vehicles, a particularly dangerous and ineffective tactic; and

Develop a Use of Force Continuum that limits the types of force that can be used to respond to specific types of resistance; and

Require officers to exhaust all other reasonable means before resorting to deadly force; and

Require officers to give verbal warnings before shooting at a person unless there are extenuating circumstances where giving a verbal warning is impossible; and

Require comprehensive reporting where officers have to report each time they use force or threaten to use force.

SO ORDERED this the 19th day of June, 2020 at 2:43 p.m.