Breonna Taylor’s killing is not only a tragedy, but a great injustice.

The Kentucky Attorney General, despite having the power to contribute to repairing this unconscionable wrong, has failed. The Kentucky attorney general announced that no criminal charges will be filed for Breonna Taylor’s death against the individual officers who were responsible.

Beyond the failure to seek justice for Taylor and her family, the Kentucky AG ignored the full scope of his authority to address police brutality against Black communities.

Instead, it’s fallen to the Taylor family to seek reforms through a far-ranging civil settlement with the City of Louisville.

That burden should not be theirs alone. State attorneys general can and should do much more to end police brutality and racist policing.

We at Public Rights Project spell out how they can do that in a new guide, The Power and Potential of State Attorneys General to End Police Brutality. 

Cases involving police rightly get a lot of media attention – but the charging decisions made by AGs is precisely an opportunity where change can begin. But they can also do much more.

Advocates and activists need to push state attorneys general to initiate civil investigations and bring lawsuits against police departments for systemic misconduct, which lawyers call “pattern and practice” cases.

The federal government has brought these kinds of cases and entered into consent decrees with local police departments in the past. And this has led to significant and transformative change and addressed use of force, discriminatory policing, recruitment, training and misconduct investigations.

But state attorneys general have even more tools at their disposal. State AGs are typically elected officials with a broad mandate to pursue the public interest in their work. They engage on issues ranging from opiates and environmental protection to consumer fraud. Their extensive authority, high profile and broad platform provides them with the ability to effectively advocate for and push necessary policy changes.

They could use their existing power under state law to leverage their role as chief law enforcement officers to extend their oversight to police departments.

We believe AGs should urge Congress to pass legislation giving them clearer authority under federal law to change how entire police departments work.

This moment is a call to action – here are ways advocates and AGs should quickly get engaged to end police brutality:

• Decriminalize minor offenses including marijuana possession, disorderly conduct and loitering. Criminalizing such offenses does not contribute to public safety and provides unnecessary police discretion to stop, harass and arrest Black people.
• Issue advisory opinions finding that certain police practices like pretextual stops and consented-to searches violate the law. These opinions also could significantly curtail the type of no-knock warrants officers sought to utilize to enter Taylor’s home. Although these opinions do not automatically become the law of the state, courts often treat these opinions as persuasive authority when similar issues are presented. These opinions also may provide the impetus that police chiefs, city attorneys and others need to make policy changes, amend collective bargaining agreements with police unions or otherwise take needed action.
• Use their authority to push for more police transparency. Depending on the state, the attorney general may have access to data on police stops and arrests, which they can make public. Additionally, all state AGs receive complaints from the public, which are likely to include complaints about police misconduct. If they are not prevented from doing so, AGs should make such complaints public, as well as what actions they have taken, if any, to investigate those complaints.

Transforming police departments will require AGs to take bold actions. Breonna Taylor deserved more life – and she deserved more justice in death.

Other attorneys general can honor her memory by ensuring that they do their part to police the police.

LiJia Gong is counsel for Public Rights Project, a national nonprofit focused on closing the gap between the promise of our laws and the lived reality of our most vulnerable communities by helping local law enforcement offices build talent and capacity.

Suggested citation: LiJia Gong, The Kentucky Attorney General Failed, but Other State Attorney Generals Can and Must Step Up, JURIST – Professional Commentary, October 9, 2020, https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2020/10/lijia-gong-ky-ag-failed/.

This article was prepared for publication by Brianna Bell, a JURIST Staff Editor. Please direct any questions or comments to her at commentary@jurist.org.