Mariame Kaba in 2014, and republished in We Do This ‘Til We Free Us, offers a quick and timeless guide to assess reforms:
1) Proposals and legislation to offer reparations to victims of police violence and their families.
2) Proposals and legislation to decrease and redirect policing and prison funds to other social goods.
3) Proposals and legislation for (elected) independent civilian police accountability boards with power to investigate, discipline, fire police officers and administrators (with some serious caveats).*
4) Proposals and legislation to disarm the police.
5) Proposals to simplify the process of dissolving existing police departments.
6) Proposals and legislation for data transparency (stops, arrests, budgeting, weapons, etc.).
7) Ultimately, the only way that we will address oppressive policing is to abolish the police. Therefore, all of the “reforms” that focus on strengthening the police or “morphing” policing into something more invisible but still as deadly should be opposed.