We’re building a database of the most useful resources related to community-led police reform: what it looks like, where to start, and who to partner with. We’ll be building this page up as our experts highlight the resources and organizations they recommend and use. We’re also producing ELEFA Academy guides on many of the topics below! Return to this site for updates.
Currently, ELEFA’s police reform database includes useful tools, research, and other organizations dedicated to making policing safer, more effective, and procedurally just. These resources are here to help you start thinking about what you and your community can do to drive meaningful reform.
At ELEFA, we believe in empowering the public to be drivers of reform. To help invested community members lead the drive for change, we’ve created course materials on some of the key elements of safe, effective, and procedurally just policing, and guides on how to get there.
Our Community Guide is designed to help foster a dialogue between stakeholders interested in reforming mental health policing in your community. The guide introduces an ecosystem approach; offers proven solutions and straightforward first steps; and discusses how solutions can be resized or fitted to a variety of communities. Supplemental materials and video content help reinforce learning on this topic.
Learn about what constitutes a police use of force; why police use force; what regulations govern it at the state and federal level; and what modern departments are doing to move towards policing that prioritizes the safety of everyone involved. We interview experts and provide guides on what a good force authorization policy looks like.
The Stanford Center for Racial Justice has developed a model Use of Force policy. The team of lawyers, former prosecutors, and other experts have read through and synthesized best practices from existing research as well as policies from Police Departments around the country. It is currently in its beta release.
The US Department of Justice, in collaboration with the National Policing Institute, have developed a Federal Interventions Dashboard. This tool tracks Civil Consent Decrees and settlements between the Department of Justice and local/state policing entities. It provides location maps, timelines and descriptions of the different interventions into policing by the DoJ, and can be a useful tool to learn what your community or others are doing to improve policing standards.
NYU Policing Project’s SAJE assessment is a new tool created with the purpose of defining, measuring, and standardizing the characteristics of better policing. The tool measures the success of a department based on 100 metrics split into four categories: sound, accountable, just, and effective. The pilot department is Tuscon, AZ Police Department (TPD).
The Vera Institute of Justice’s mission is to reform the criminal justice system and end mass incarceration through research into evidence-based solutions.
The Police Executive Research Forum is dedicated to research and policy guidance on policing in America.
The Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project is a national hub for training and technical assistance. ABLE training comes at no cost and fosters a commitment to peer intervention among officers.
Campaign Zero is an advocacy network focused on criminal justice reform so that deaths from police interventions can reach zero.
The NYU Policing Project litigates and drafts model legislation to help improve police accountability before an incident occurs. Their 30×30 Initiative addresses the under-representation of women in policing.
The National Police Accountability Project (NPAP) is dedicated to holding police officers accountable in cases of misconduct.
Julie is a licensed clinical social worker by training. She’s spent over ten years overseeing services at the intersection of criminal justice and behavioral health. This includes police training, jail diversion programs, specialty courts, like mental health courts, drug courts, and 24/7/365 crisis centers that offer law enforcement an alternative drop-off response rather than arresting people experiencing mental health crisis.
Julie currently serves as ELEFA’s lead for mental health crisis response for our Montgomery County project. She also currently serves as Associate Monitor responsible for Crisis Intervention as a member of the monitoring team for the Chicago Police Department Consent Decree. She formerly served as a Team Supervisor for Crisis System Solutions, and Senior Vice President, Community Health, for the YMCA of Great Kansas City.
Jackie Proctor has over 20 years of administrative services experience. She has supported corporation executives; partners across several law firms – currently, Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hampton. She has managed the Summer Associate Program and Fall Associate Recruitment; conducted staff interviews; managed practice group retreats; and managed meetings. She brings with her a criminal justice background.
Jerry L. Clayton is a 30+ year Public Safety Services professional, currently serving his fourth term as the Sheriff of Washtenaw County. Sheriff Clayton leads an organization of approximately 420 staff, serving a population of over 358,000, covering a 720-square mile geographical area.
Jerry has received international recognition for his expertise and work in the Criminal Justice profession. In 2016, he was invited as a representative of U.S. law enforcement Barcelona, Spain. In 2017, at the invitation of the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights, Sheriff Clayton was the representative from the United States and a presenter at an international conference on law enforcement and bias-based policing in Geneva, Switzerland. In February of 2018, Sheriff Clayton participated in a US-UK exchange in London, England, focusing on Building Leadership for Fair and Effective Policing.
John L. Salomone, Jr. is a graduate of Georgetown University (B.A., 1990) and North Carolina State University (M.A., 2000). He was commissioned in the United States Army in 1990 and served 21 years on active duty, nearly half of it overseas. He served combat tours in Somalia (1993) and Iraq (2005-2006), deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (1992), served on the Korean Demilitarized Zone (1996), in Germany (2004, 2007), and in England as an exchange officer to the British Army (2007-2010). He taught for three years as an Assistant Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His final army assignment was as Chief of Plans and Operations for the 377th Theater Sustainment Command, where he led a team managing over 38,000 soldiers providing logistical support to all contingency operations conducted by the US military across Central America and the Caribbean. John retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2011.
In 2012, he was hired by Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans to startup and lead a new city department to manage police secondary employment, which the Department of Justice called “the aorta of corruption” in the New Orleans Police Department. The federal judge overseeing the New Orleans Consent Decree subsequently called the program John established and led “the first success” of New Orleans police reform.
Barbara Harding is a trial lawyer, former federal prosecutor, and legal strategist. She is currently a partner at Nelson Mullins. Her practice focuses on complex multi-jurisdictional, class action and mass tort litigation, as well as commercial and business disputes. at former Federal Civil Rights Prosecutor. She represented City of Charlottesville Councilors in a successful effort to remove Confederate statues. Additionally, she partnered with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection to prevent militia election interference. Currently, she is leading Nelson Mullins’ Pro Bono Partnership with ELEFA in Minneapolis.
Sheila is principal at Maith Consulting, bringing clients her 25+ years of developing strategy, executing programs, and achieving maximum impact. Her work includes organizational consulting, workshop development, and executive coaching. Sheila previously served in key roles at the Federal Reserve Board, on Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s Labor Committee staff, and at the Fannie Mae Foundation. Sheila earned a joint degree from Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government. She has an AB degree in public policy studies magna cum laude from Duke University, where she was an Angier B. Duke Scholar. She holds a certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University.
Lisa Fink has worked on the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) Consent Decree since 2017, performing significant policy and procedure, training curricula, and assessment report drafting and collaboration, as well as managing other BPD projects. Ms. Fink currently supports multiple police departments with reform-focused technical assistance and policy creation.
Prior to 2017, Ms. Fink served for over a decade in community-based work in Baltimore, MD. Ms. Fink worked as an advocate for Spanish-speaking crime victims, as the founding Director of a child visitation center for families affected by domestic violence, as a paralegal for immigration cases, and as a facilitator of restorative justice interventions with youths being diverted from the criminal justice system. Ms. Fink has a Master’s Degree in Intercultural Communication from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish and Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis. Ms. Fink served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador.
Eric Melancon has been providing direct assistance and leadership on managing federal consent decree compliance matters for the past six years at both the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and the Baltimore Police Department (BPD).At NOPD Mr. Melancon served as Deputy Chief of Staff from 2017-2019 and managed several projects that were tied to consent decree compliance efforts to include: false alarm management, burden reduction, enhancements to technology, implementation of Early Intervention System upgrades, and civil service issues.
At BPD Mr Melancon served as Chief of Staff from 2019-2022 and provided direct support for the implementation of several departmental improvements including: Records Management System upgrades, promotional process improvements, overhaul of overtime and fiscal management policies, development of executive compensation planning documents, and oversight over government affairs and public information and communications sections.
Michael Harrison, is a two-time police commissioner, having led the two most troubled police departments in America through federally-mandated consent decrees. As a subject matter expert and the only police chief in the country to lead two departments in adopting mandated reforms, Harrison is uniquely equipped to teach and train in the areas of constitutional policing, professional development, executive mentoring and coaching, organizational behavior and cultural transformation, law enforcement discipline, police use-of-force, strategic planning, team building, and general management for law enforcement agencies.
Michael’s specialty is building community trust and police legitimacy through the creation and delivery of policy, training, supervision, management and discipline. A leader in coaching, mentoring and teaching, he has instructed organizational leaders on how to bring about community trust of police personnel by building bridges between policing organizations that don’t exist or were broken and in need of repair. His teaching process focuses on establishing and leveraging relationships with key stakeholders within government and community and the appropriate navigation of conflicting and competing interests.
Arlinda Westbrook served as Deputy Superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department and the Deputy Chief of the Public Integrity Bureau (PIB) for over 12 years. Arlinda was the first civilian director of the PIB appointed in May 2010, making her one of only three civilians in the country serving in that position. As Deputy Superintendent, she oversaw and was responsible for the impartial and consistent management of the disciplinary process: including the assignment, supervision and review of all disciplinary investigations and hearings, maintenance of disciplinary records, and coordination with outside agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Independent Police Monitor (IPM). Arlinda is an experienced senior attorney with an in-depth knowledge of Municipal Law, contracting and procurement procedures, labor relations, and civil litigation. is currently a City of New Orleans Project Manager for the New Orleans Police Department Consent Decree. Subsequent to serving as Deputy Superintendent, Arlinda the Mayor as the liaison between the City of New Orleans, the New Orleans Police Department, the Consent Decree Monitors, and Judge Susie Morgan. She served in this capacity until she retired in September 2022.
Arlinda is a wife and a mother of three young men. She received her B.A. in Political Science from Howard University and her Juris Doctorate in 1994 from Loyola University’s School of Law.
DAVID L. DOUGLASS is a graduate of Yale College (1981) and Harvard Law School (1985 cum laude). David has built a distinguished legal and public service career. After graduating law school, to preserve affordable housing in Boston’s South End, he co-founded a community development organization that developed Langham Court, an award-winning 90-unit mixed-income development. He has served as an Assistant United States Attorney and as a Department of Justice Civil Rights Prosecutor. He has conducted investigations into system failures by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and the United States Secret Services.
Beginning in 2013, he has served as Deputy Monitor of the team selected to oversee the reform of the New Orleans Police Department pursuant to the consent decree between the City of New Orleans and the Department of Justice. It was in the course of this work, that he realized that consent decrees could be used as a model for collaborative, rather than coercive reform. That realization led to the founding of ELE4A. David is currently Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Sheppard Mullin.
DEPUTY CHIEF WILLIAM MURPHY has over 30 years of experience in law enforcement. Murphy was the former Deputy Chief and Commanding Officer of Personnel and Training Bureau. Personnel and Training Bureau (PTB) was comprised of Personnel Group, Personnel Division, Recruitment and Employment Division, Police Training and Education, and Training Division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). In March of 2015, the Department reorganized and PTB was renamed Police Sciences and Training Bureau. Deputy Chief Murphy’s responsibilities remained with Training Division and Police Training and Education.
Murphy has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and a Master of Public Administration degree from California State University at Long Beach. He also attended the Faculty Development Workshop at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he studied Behavioral Science and Leadership. Murphy has authored articles on law enforcement in The Police Chief magazine and The Homeland Defense Journal. He was an adjunct professor in the Extended Education Programs at the University of California, Los Angeles and California State University at Los Angeles.
CHIEF MARY ANN VIVERETTE was sworn in as the first woman President of the IACPs in its 113-year history in 2006. She retired in 2007 from the Gaithersburg Police Department (MD) after serving the city for 28 years, with twenty-one of those years as the Chief of Police. She led the agency through organizational change, while embracing the diversity of the community, and while facing the dramatic changes the population faced. In addition to serving on the Maryland Chiefs of Police Training Committee for over a decade, as a pioneer woman police chief, was often called upon to speak on issues affecting women and minorities in law enforcement. She conducted dozens of training sessions on the recruitment of women and minorities over a fifteen year period and has served as an Investigator with the Department of Justice. Also under her leadership, the department was presented the United States Conference of Mayors national Community Policing Award for excellence.
Chief Viverette holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Law Enforcement/Criminology from the University of Maryland (1986) and a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Maryland (1998). She has over a decade of experience on numerous Boards and Committees; including: the IACP Civil Rights Committee and Diversity Coordinating Panel, three of CALEA’s Standards Review Committees, and the Maryland Chiefs of Police Training Committee. Chief Viverette has over twenty-two years of experience as an Assessor and Team Leader with the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). Chief Viverette served as a CALEA Commissioner for five years and was Vice President of the CALEA Board of Officers during her tenure. Chief Viverette has served as a Court-Appointed Federal Monitor for the New Orleans Police Department since 2013. Her main areas of focus include direct oversight of Sexual Assault, Child Abuse and Domestic Violence investigations, Public Integrity Bureau Administrative investigations, the Crisis Intervention (CIT) and Officer Assistance Programs, Performance Evaluations, Promotional and Recruitment processes, Patrol operations supervisory audits, Academy classroom monitoring and ride-along inspections.
