To the Editor:

On Monday, May 25, George Floyd of Minneapolis was the latest victim of wrongful police killings. May Mr. Floyd be the last. Change is possible. 

A decade ago, with one of the worst problems of excessive force and killings of unarmed people nationwide, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department implemented body cams and trained police in de-escalation techniques. By 2014, there were no deadly force incidents involving unarmed suspects and a decrease of police shootings by 36 percent. 

We in the Jackson County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have an ongoing dialog with our county sheriff and police departments, and we salute their interest in better policing. We join the national NAACP in supporting the end of pretextual stops and stop and frisk tactics. We urge congressional candidates to commit to enacting national standards for police accountability such as the End Racial and Religious Profiling Act (ERRPA) and the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act (LETIA), which provide enhanced oversight for police departments. We also support local law enforcement training on implicit bias and effective data collection on traffic stops.

As a community, let’s enable law enforcement policy development to eliminate wrongful police killings.

Enrique A. Gómez PhD

President, Jackson County NAACP

Sylva