--- title: Why Biden Is Ditching a Policing Commission description: Another commission confirming existing evidence about the inequalities baked into the criminal justice system isn’t going to change the reality. canonical: https://time.com/5955411/biden-police-reform/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-04-15T17:56:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T09:52:12.010Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Biden Is Ditching a Policing Commission og:description: Another commission confirming existing evidence about the inequalities baked into the criminal justice system isn’t going to change the reality. og:url: https://time.com/5955411/biden-police-reform/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03674365911c1419/698a18bcdb29872e22266793/Minneapolis-Daunte-Wright.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: DC Brief: Biden Policing Commission og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Biden Is Ditching a Policing Commission twitter:description: Another commission confirming existing evidence about the inequalities baked into the criminal justice system isn’t going to change the reality. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03674365911c1419/698a18bcdb29872e22266793/Minneapolis-Daunte-Wright.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Joe Biden Is Ditching a Policing Commission  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Apr 15, 2021 5:56 PM UTC  Sheriff officers stand guard outside the Brooklyn Center police station as demonstrators stand on the other side of the chain-link fence protesting the death of Daunte Wright who was shot and killed by a police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minn. on April 14, 2021. Sheriff officers stand guard outside the Brooklyn Center police station as demonstrators stand on the other side of the chain-link fence protesting the death of Daunte Wright who was shot and killed by a police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minn. on April 14, 2021.Kerem Yucel—AFP/Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Apr 15, 2021 5:56 PM UTC _This article is part of the The DC Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/newsletter%5Fopt-in?qs=3a19a0aa35903a2d9f214b74f69a37910b58de73cf3f2b89adc123fac024f0478c72f91010ae9d01f08f46c616068cab3e74726837cd2cce70dac3796e46c2b4) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox every weekday._ The facts aren’t in dispute. America has a [policing crisis](https://time.com/5876318/police-reform-america/). Police are more likely to search a Black driver’s car than a white person’s vehicle, even though illicit materials are statistically more likely to be in the non-Black person’s possession, according to one massive [study](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0858-1). Black people are more than twice as likely to be shot by police than their white neighbors, another [study](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/police%5Fmort%5Fopen.pdf) finds. Black and Brown people were twice as likely to die in police custody than white suspects, yet another [study](https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304559) finds. Which is why no one in Washington really bristled this week when the White House quietly dispatched with a campaign pledge to establish a commission on policing. A commission that confirms mountains of existing evidence — helpfully collected [here](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/opinions/systemic-racism-police-evidence-criminal-justice-system/#Policing) and [here](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/) by The Washington Post — about the inequalities baked into the criminal justice system isn’t going to change any of this reality. But action might. President Joe Biden’s top domestic-policy adviser, Susan Rice, quietly [called](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/us/politics/biden-daunte-wright-police-shooting.html) allies in the civil-rights orbit in recent weeks to consult with them on [shifting](https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/12/politics/policing-commission-biden/index.html) the White House’s focus away from another commission — which could take months to get going and well longer than that to produce recommendations that lack any bite — and moving that energy to a policing bill that has already cleared the House. Given a choice between affirming what is already plain as day or pursuing a law that could actually make a difference, activists had a pretty clear preference about which they’d rather see. The pressure to act is high at the moment, with the twin stories coming out of Minneapolis this week about the [trial](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/derek-chauvin-trial-2021-04-15-n1264152) of a police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd and a second [case](https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/daunte-wright-killing-minnesota-kim-potter-protest-brooklyn-center/) involving the officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop after she says she mistakenly pulled a gun instead of a taser. It’s tough to ignore wall-to-wall coverage of a criminal trial and night after night of protests, especially when both events’ underlying facts were documented on video. Nevertheless, a House-passed [bill](https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/03/politics/house-vote-george-floyd-policing-bill/index.html), titled the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, faces opposition from police groups and Republicans who say it goes too far. In particular, critics say it strips officers of their qualified immunity, [meaning](https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-qualified-immunity-and-what-does-it-have-do-police-reform) basically they cannot be held accountable for anything they do while doing their job. At the moment, the bill doesn’t have the support of 60 Senators needed to move to a vote, which means a procedural [hiccup](https://time.com/5946162/filibuster-reform-senate/) could derail the whole thing. That doesn’t mean its hopes are dead, though. Sen. Tim Scott, the [only](https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2020/08/21/how-tim-scott-only-black-gop-senator-navigates-loyalty-trump-vs-calling-him-out/) Black Republican in the Senate, is [working](https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/11/biden-police-oversight-commission-480931) with Rep. Karen Bass, a California Democrat and former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, on finding a compromise on policing. Bass wrote the George Floyd bill and is one of the sharpest negotiators on the Hill and, perhaps more importantly, has House Speaker’s Nancy Pelosi backing to maximize Democrats’ leverage for the possible. Time, though, is fleeting. Democrats have finally stopped cowing to critics who say it’s “too soon” to talk politics so close to a jarring story that captures the public’s attention. That’s put off federal action on police reform after high-profile cases before; it’s easier to stall any proposal the further from the headlines the topic [drifts](https://time.com/5180537/gun-control-donald-trump-meeting/). It’s why common-sense limits to guns, such as background checks, still aren’t law despite the public’s overwhelming support. When it comes to policing, even the most ardent defenders of police officers can recognize adding body cameras and restricting the use of choke-holds might be both smart policy and good politics. A Quinnipiac University poll [released](https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=3696) just today confirms this hunch. Importantly, the powerful 355,000-member [Fraternal Order of Police](https://www.npr.org/2020/06/08/872470076/the-fraternal-order-of-police-a-union-that-stands-in-the-way-of-police-reforms) union hasn’t [signed](https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/george-floyd-protests-democrats-police-unions-20200626.html) onto the George Floyd bill. In the 2020 election, the group [endorsed](https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/926329300/how-endorsement-of-trump-could-affect-legitimacy-of-police) President Donald Trump, who was unabashedly pro-police during the campaign, accusing Biden incorrectly of siding with calls to “defund the police.” In light of Wright’s death in Minnesota, Biden is again facing calls to do so but has [refused](https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/17/politics/defunding-police-biden-town-hall-trnd/index.html), as he did after Floyd’s death last summer. As a candidate at the time, Biden proposed the now-vanquished commission. As a longtime [ally](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/11/biden-police-reform/) of the police, he knew he couldn’t simply move his position. But he had to give a nod to the civil rights demonstrations unfolding in the streets and the rallying cry of the Black Lives Matter movement. Now in the White House, Biden had to face the unfortunate truth about most of these panels, commissions and task forces. Having been part of so many, Biden knows that they are among the biggest collectors of dust in D.C. Most commissions’ work sparks a discussion but seldom yields tangible results. For instance, the twentieth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is approaching, yet key recommendations of the 9/11 Commission [remain](https://www.lawfareblog.com/911-commission-report-pandemic-and-future-homeland-security) unfulfilled. A Biden Policing Commission would likely provide another roadmap to be ignored. Ultimately, Biden knows what needs done. Throughout the campaign, he worked aggressively with advisers to beef up on his criminal-justice fluency. In turn, Black voters [delivered](https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-race-and-ethnicity-virus-outbreak-georgia-7a843bbce00713cfde6c3fdbc2e31eb7) to him the White House. They may not have loved his reluctance to embrace some of activists’ demands, but they saw him as a man of integrity running against Trump. Now they’re willing to give him a break as he ditches the commission to lobby Congress to move. It’s on Biden to make good on his promise to a group he told in his victory speech: “You’ve always had my back, and I’ll have yours.” His team judged a commission as a delay they cannot risk, especially if the urgency is seen as slipping. Because the facts? They’re only growing on an already huge pile. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the daily D.C. Brief newsletter._](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/politics?source=dc%5Farticle) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5955411/biden-police-reform/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5955411/biden-police-reform/"},"headline":"Why Joe Biden Is Ditching a Policing Commission","datePublished":"2021-04-15T17:56:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T09:52:12.010Z","description":"Another commission confirming existing evidence about the inequalities baked into the criminal justice system isn’t going to change the reality.","url":"https://time.com/5955411/biden-police-reform/","keywords":["The D.C. 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