Replacing the “Blue Wall of Silence” with the “Blue Wall of Integrity”
We have seen truth change the course of history through civilian intervention and documentation of police brutality and wrongdoing, but only after the harm is already done. The murder of George Floyd in June 2020 sparked a long-overdue national reckoning for greater police accountability simply because the heroic bystanders pulled out their phones and let the world see the injustice, causing protests across the country. It is clear that Floyd’s death was preventable if changes were made from within law enforcement. As the nation’s leading whistleblower protection organization, Government Accountability Project has created “Breaking the Blue Wall of Silence” as an informational guide for creating meaningful police reform and protecting law enforcement whistleblowers. Legislation recently introduced in Congress by Representative Gerald Connelly, the Special Inspector General for Law Enforcement Act, honors all these principles with best-practice provisions for legitimate reform.
Law enforcement officers are often the only witnesses to corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse in their own workplaces, and yet police whistleblowers are rare. The “Blue Wall of Silence” – compounded by a lack of credible anti-retaliation protections – forces law enforcement officers to risk their careers, safety, and even their lives when they choose to blow the whistle on abuses of power in their ranks. The sheer culture amongst...
CNN is defending its reporting on a statement given by Iranian officials regarding a ceasefire agreement the U.S. and Iran reached just hours before President Trump was set to launch an attack on ...