1 To free from, as if from a leash.
2. To throw, shoot or set in motion forcefully.
“Unleash.”
When President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week called “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens,” the presidential proclamation did not make policing stronger in any measurable way. Instead, Trump’s directive essentially freed law enforcement from accountability, responsibility and even the law. In fact, this is essentially the opposite of police reform.
Researchers, criminologists and policing experts know as a matter of fact that police don’t prevent, fight or solve crimes. Although we know white people kill more police, law enforcement officers are more likely to kill Black people. Cops stop, search and use force against Black Americans, despite the fact that white people use more drugs and possess more contraband. Yet, for some reason, the vast majority of Americans actually believe the police act in the public’s best interests.
The public won’t demand change because they actually believe the cops keep them safe. Politicians depend on public interest; most are not willing to invest their political capital in taking on police reform. And since law enforcement agencies do not benefit from being held accountable, they won’t even try to do it.
So, how exactly do we change law enforcement and policing in America?
Well, we asked two experts.
Wes Lowery is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and the journalist behind The Washington Post’s Fatal Force database, which tracks people who have been shot and killed by police. The author of They Can’t Kill Us All and American Whitelash, Lowery was the first person to contact Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, and helped focus the country’s attention on a police killing in Ferguson, Missouri.
Elie Mystal is the justice correspondent for The Nation and author of the New York Times bestseller Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America. Aside from being one of the most sought-after legal analysts in America, the winner of the 2025 Hillman Prize for Analysis and Opinion hosts the podcast Contempt of Court, and he pens the weekly Nation newsletter “Elie v. U.S.”
ContrabandCamp unleashed these award-winning journalists on America’s policing problem. They imagined what it would look like if law enforcement officers enforced the law and crime fighters fought crime.
And if you’re wondering when policing was great …
Same.
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