College of Law Dean Craig M. Boise
College of Law Dean Craig M. Boise has been appointed to a 10-member advisory council that will govern the newly formed Legal Education Police Practices Consortium, created by the American Bar Association (ABA) in collaboration with law schools across the country.
As a member of the advisory council, Dean Boise will help lead Consortium efforts to leverage expertise across the ABA and among collaborating law schools to develop projects that promote better police practices throughout the United States. To date, 52 law schools—including the College of Law—have agreed to participate in the Consortium for the next five years.
“I am proud that Syracuse is a founding participant in the ABA Legal Education Police Practices Consortium. As a former police officer and commissioner on the Cleveland, Ohio, Community Police Commission, I care deeply about building positive community/police relations,” says Dean Boise. “Syracuse is fully committed to helping the Consortium use the combined power of the bar associations and law schools to effect meaningful change to police practices that have for too long victimized communities of color and other marginalized groups.”
Boise adds, “The Consortium also will provide our law students with meaningful opportunities to contribute to the imperative work of police reform locally and nationally.”
“The ABA has the ability to bring together diverse groups to address these problems and the duty to act to help bring racial equality to our criminal justice system,” says ABA President Patricia Lee Refo. “The Consortium will engage law students and legal experts from around the country in studying and forming solutions to help improve policing practices in our communities.”
The Consortium is housed within the ABA Criminal Justice Section. It aims to achieve widespread adoption of model police practices; advancement of racial equity in the criminal justice system; elimination of tactics that are racially motivated or have a disparate impact based on race; engagement with police departments and local, state and national leaders; support for scholarship addressing police reform; promotion of public commentary and advocacy; and creation of model curricula for law schools related to the Consortium’s initiatives.
