Eric J. Miller 89 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1607 The enforcement of criminal law by the public police is justified as enforcing civility: codes of public conduct that ensure civilians can walk down the street feeling confident about their safety and security. Civility is, however, a socially contingent phenomenon, one that often reinforces demands to... Read More

Julian A. Cook, III 89 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1568 The tragic death of Elijah McClain—a twenty-three-year-old, slightly built, unarmed African American male who was walking home along a sidewalk when he was accosted by three Aurora, Colorado police officers—epitomizes the problems with policing that have become a prominent topic of national conversation. Embedded within... Read More

Jordan Blair Woods 89 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1527 In the wake of national calls for police reform and nationwide protests of police killings of unarmed people of color, and unarmed Black men in particular, there is a renewed focus on the relationship between masculinity and police violence. This Article, prepared for a symposium on... Read More

Stephen Rushin 89 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1512 This Article, written as part of The George Washington Law Review Symposium on “Addressing the Crisis in Policing Today,” examines how American police departments can improve their recruitment and retention of women. Women currently make up a mere 13% of all police officers in the United States.... Read More

Frank Rudy Cooper 89 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1452 Recent uprisings over the failure to hold police officers responsible for killing civilians—from Ferguson, Missouri to nationwide George Floyd protests—show the importance of excessive force as a social problem. Some scholars have launched racial critiques of policing as resulting from explicit or implicit racial bias. Others... Read More

Cynthia Lee 89 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1362 When a police officer’s use of deadly force kills or seriously injures a civilian, that officer may face civil liability or criminal prosecution. In both civil and criminal cases, a critical question that the jury must decide is whether the officer’s use of force was reasonable or... Read More

Kate Weisburd 89 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1357 The year 2020 was a year of reckoning. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with the protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and against police violence toward unarmed Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples, revealed our collective, but also differing, vulnerability to violence, sickness, death, and economic... Read More