Write to your city government and urge it to provide full funding for citizen review of police officers accused of human rights violations. If your city, county, or town does not have citizen review of your police, call for the creation of an effective civilian review unit. Police officials should do a better job at holding officers accountable if there is community pressure and knowledge about police investigations and disciplinary actions.

Write to your city government and urge it to require your police department to create and utilize "early warning" or "at-risk" systems to identify officers who are the subjects of repeated complaints or civil lawsuits alleging misconduct. A small percentage of officers often taint an entire police force because police superiors do not act to hold them accountable by supervising, disciplining, or dismissing them when appropriate. An effective early warning system could make a difference.

Write to your state legislators and governor urging the creating of a special prosecutor's office to handle the investigation and prosecution of police officers accused of brutality or corruption. As it is, local prosecutors are often reluctant to pursue cases against officers they typically work with, and federal prosecutors are under-staffed and similarly reluctant. Special prosecutors' offices in each state could go a long way toward prosecuting officers who commit criminal offenses; in turn, effective prosecution should act as a deterrent for officers who now believe they can avoid criminal prosecution for brutality in most cases.

Write to your U.S. Representative or Senators, urging them to condition federal funding to police departments on those departments' reporting on incidents of excessive force by their officers and on respect for human rights. Specifically, federal assistance should be conditioned upon the recipient police department providing data on excessive force to the Justice Department. In 1994, the Justice Department was instructed by Congress to produce an annual report on excessive force used by police, yet four years later no such report exists. Federal aid should also be conditioned on the development of an effective "early warning" system to identify "repeat offenders" on the force. Furthermore, any police department the Justice Department determines as exhibiting a "pattern or practice"of abuse and which fails to implement reforms as agreed to with the Justice Department should have all federal aid terminated. Just as the U.S. is supposed to condition foreign military and other assistance on a country's human rights record, the federal government should not provide assistance to departments where officers are allowed to commit abuses with impunity.