A significant early success of our Mobilizing for Equality (MFE) initiative was our collaboration with the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School to review police practices in Madison, Wisconsin—the scene of protests and violence in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer.
The Quattrone Center is a nonpartisan national research and policy hub concentrating on identifying potential improvements in the criminal legal system. Working alongside our MFE Law Enforcement Policy Working Group, the Quattrone Center produced a commissioned review of the policing practices in Madison, concentrating on its response to protests in the wake of the George Floyd tragedy.
Over a period of six months (representing more than 3,000 pro bono hours) our cross-practice Morgan Lewis MFE team gathered and analyzed thousands of data points. The Quattrone Center, working with Morgan Lewis and a diverse group of community and law-enforcement stakeholders, incorporated the results into its Sentinel Event Review report on policing practices in Madison, a review requested by the city’s police chief.
The report identified specific incidents occurring during the police response and violence that erupted in Madison following the Floyd tragedy and looked at contributing factors. The document provided nearly 70 recommendations on evaluating the resources available to police and suggested improvements such as expanding protest-facilitation training for all officers and naming community representatives to enhance communication with protesters.
More than 50 Morgan Lewis lawyers and eData technology and operations team members supported the project by reviewing thousands of pages of police reports and policies; analyzing 700-plus hours of video footage (closed-circuit TV, body camera, drone, and publicly available video) and audio from the Madison police and dispatch of the incidents in question; interviewing Madison officers; presenting at stakeholder meetings; and helping draft the final Safety Evaluation Report. Our critical contributions to the report will help Madison residents and police work together to safely exercise and protect the First Amendment freedoms of the community.
To read more about this matter, see reporting in The Badger Herald and The Daily Pennsylvanian.