For Immediate Release: Friday, April 7, 2000

Contacts:

A Measured Response to Crime: IACP's Call for a National Commission

“We stand at a critical point in our history where the public’s trust and confidence in law enforcement and the criminal justice system are in question,” Robinson said. “We need to do everything in our power to remove the doubt and improve the confidence in both institutions, and a national commission can take us a long way toward reaching that goal.”

Robinson said the IACP Board of Officers endorsed the commission concept during a meeting in early March that focused on public trust and confidence in law enforcement.

"The IACP leadership talked about the impediments to public trust and determined that a national examination, patterned after the kind of work that was accomplished by a national commission in the mid-60's, would bring all of the parties to the table,” Robinson said. “And the result would provide a report and recommendations that would give the nation a strategic plan for improving the criminal justice system and public confidence in it.”

Robinson added that the work of the commission could take some time and should be a priority for the United States Government in the new administration.

“We are, therefore, turning to both leading candidates in the presidential campaigns and asking them to support this concept,” Robinson added.

A copy of the IACP proposal for a commission is available.

The IACP is the world’s oldest and largest nonprofit organization of police executives. Established in 1893, the IACP has some 18,000 members in more than 100 countries.