POLICE REFORM

“Whenever public authority… fails to seek the common good, it abandons its proper purpose and so delegitimizes itself.”

This quote is from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2005), no. 398 was incorporated in a letter from Bishop Coakley, Bishop Dorsonville and Bishop Shelton Fabre, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, United States Catholic Conference of Bishops calling for police reform. Their letter to the members of the US Congress support police reform proposals related to the need to collect data on the use of force, need for training towards de-escalation, work to end racial profiling, doing away with chokeholds, using body cameras, and greater accountability and means of redress regarding those who exercise public authority.

Please contact your NYS local Catholic bishops and request their support of police reform in NYS consistent with spirit and letter of the USCCB Bishops letter.

The USCCB press release on this letter and the actual USCCB letter on police reform is attached:

USCCB Letter to US congress on USCCB | Press Release on Police Reform