Not a single police department in 20 largest US cities compliant with international rights laws, report finds

University of Chicago study warns law enforcement authorised to commit ‘state-sanctioned violence’ without significant reform

Use-of-force policies in police departments in 20 of the largest cities in the US failed to meet even ”minimum standards” under international human rights guidelines, according to a report from the University of Chicago Law School.

The report from the law school’s International Human Rights Clinic, highlights American policing’s difficulty balancing power with maintaining basic human rights, and the chasm between law enforcement in the US and elsewhere.

Officers are too broadly given discretion for lethal force, effectively authorising “state-sanctioned violence” and “the exercise of arbitrary brute force, a common tool of tyrannical and despotic governments,” the report says.

The report’s release following widespread protests and demands for dramatic police reform in the wake of police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshared Brooks and other black Americans.

Researchers graded 20 police departments against international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, “the two fundamental international instruments protecting human rights, establish the rights to life, equality, liberty and security of person, freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and freedom from discrimination”, the report says.

Law enforcement relies on the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, and a Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on protection of the right to life during law enforcement, according to the report.

But in a review of department policies from 20 American cities, the university survey found that none has a use-of-force policy that meets those standards.

“Police departments grant their officers deadly discretion, allowing the use of lethal force to capture an escaping suspect or to prevent the commission of a felony, regardless of whether the suspect poses a threat of any kind,” clinic director Claudia Flores told the university. “Clear constraints on police discretion are critical to protecting the human rights of all people — especially members of marginalized or disempowered communities.”

Accountability measures also are largely absent, the report discovered.

All 20 departments in the report had internal systems to report lethal force, but only the Los Angeles and Chicago police departments also required external investigations.

Those two cities rank highest among the list of international compliance measures. At the bottom is Indianapolis, which allows police to use deadly force in the event of a felony “without limiting or specifying the relevant felonies or the kind of force or threat of force involved in the commission of the felony,” the report says.

Body-mounted camera footage and viral witness images showing police killing people in custody “provide grim illustrations of the power law enforcement officers have over the people they are sworn to serve and protect and the deadly consequences when they abuse that power”, she said. “Police lethal use-of-force policies provide the primary source of guidance and accountability for officer discretion to use force in any given situation — and police in this country have a great deal of discretion.”

The report recommends federal, state and local lawmakers, as well as the departments themselves, adopt immediate and concrete measures to force compliance with international law.

Stunning aerial shots show global Black Lives Matter crowds on 6 June

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Stunning aerial shots show global Black Lives Matter crowds on 6 June

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  An aerial photo made with a drone shows a large group gathered in Union Park to protest the arrest of George Floyd, who later died in police custody, in Chicago, Illinois

  EPA

• 2/21

  A large group marching and chanting in Chicago, Illinois

  EPA/Tannen Maury

• 3/21

  Protesters gather along the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum and Eakins Oval during a protest

  AP

• 4/21

  Demonstrators try to block a freeway during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York

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• 5/21

  Thousands of demonstrators march across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California

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• 6/21

  Demonstrators gather at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington

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• 7/21

  Demonstrators march down Flatbush Avenue toward the Manhattan Bridge chanting slogans

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• 8/21

  Protesters take part in a demonstration to protest in support of the George Floyd protests in the United States, and also to commemorate a similar circumstance in France when Adama Traore, a 24-year-old Frenchman was killed in 2016 by police, during an rally in Champ de Mars next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris

  EPA

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  Demonstrators attend a protest in Berlin, Germany

  FABRIZIO BENSCH/REUTERS

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  Demonstrators protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Sydney

  RON SHAMGAR via REUTERS

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  Demonstrators attend a Black Lives Matter protest to express solidarity with US protestors in Sydney 

  AFP via Getty Images

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  People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens, UK

  PA

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  People wearing masks hold placards during a protest march over the alleged police abuse of a Turkish man, in echoes of a Black Lives Matter protest, following the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis, in Tokyo

  REUTERS/Issei Kato

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  Demonstrators attend a protest against police brutality in Frankfurt

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  Demonstrators attend a protest against police brutality at Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany

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  People stand in silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds in tribute to George Floyd during a protest against racism and police brutality in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

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  Thousands of people demonstrate in Cologne, Germany

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• 18/21

  Demonstrators hold placards as they attend a protest march to the US Embassy in London

  AFP via Getty Images

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  Demonstrators cross the River Thames via Vauxhall Bridge as they march to protest outside the US Embassy in London

  AFP via Getty Images

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  Demonstrators gather for a protest against racism and police violence in Lisbon

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  Boxer Anthony Joshua is seen on crutches with demonstrators in Watford, Britain

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Researchers recommend that the Department of Justice collect, store, analyse and make public all data on police actions and eliminate qualified immunity, which shields law enforcement from constitutional violations, including the use of lethal force.

Law enforcement also should be required to de-escalate scenes and eliminate all “techniques, tactics and technologies that pose a risk of death or serious bodily harm, such as chokeholds, neck restraints, tear gas and rubber bullets,” the report says.

It also suggests departments reevaluate whether armed officers are necessary in public events.

“True police reform must start in the policies and practices of police departments themselves,” report co-author Brian Citro told the university. ”In light of the recent police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Manuel Ellis and others, the failure of police policies to sufficiently constrain the use of lethal force and ensure real accountability should alarm every one of us.”