{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/president-names-packnett_--local-activist-and-educator----to-task-force-on-policing", "President Names Packnett -- Local Activist And Educator -- To Task Force On Policing", "2014-12-18", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "MO", "Claire McCaskill", "M001170", "www.mccaskill.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "President Names Packnett -- Local Activist And Educator -- To Task Force On Policing \r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                Thursday, December 18, 2014\r\n            \r\n            \n\t\n\r\n            \r\n            \r\n                  \r\n                    By:\u00a0\r\n                    Jim Howard\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                \r\n                \r\n                \r\n            Brittany Packnett says she\u2019s made a career of \u201clistening intently and intensively\u201d to the needs of young people.\u00a0 The former third-grade teacher, current Ferguson activist and\u00a0executive director of Teach for America in St. Louis\u00a0will now put her listening and leadership skills to use as a member of President Barack Obama\u2019s task force on 21st-century policing.\r\nPacknett says her first priority will be to \u201cstand with and help speak for\u2026 disenfranchised young people, young people of color, often living in low-income communities that we serve through Teach for America, who have a voice that deserves to be heard because they want to be able to live into the fullness of their potential.\u201d\u00a0\r\nShe says she\u2019s thankful to the president and others involved in her selection to the task force for listening to people from \u201cFerguson and around the country who have been active in this work.\u201d She says she\u2019s also thankful to represent those interests and the interests of the community\u2019s children.\u00a0 \u201cI see it as an opportunity to begin the important work of setting forth a more just community in our future.\u201d\r\nPacknett, who just turned 30, says it\u2019s important that the task force have a voice from the St. Louis area.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve seen that this is an issue that touches all corners of the country, but most certainly we\u2019ve seen Ferguson and St. Louis be a flash point. So as St. Louis is my hometown, I\u2019m looking forward to also bringing that perspective as well\u201d to the task force.\r\nU.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., praised Packnett\u2019s selection. \u201cAs a young woman, a St. Louis County native and an educator, she has the leadership skills and commitment to help find national solutions to these systemic issues,\u201d said McCaskill.\r\nThe task force will conduct its first listening session in Washington, D.C., next month.\u00a0 The president is asking for its recommendations by March 2.\u00a0\r\nTwo decades of community policing\r\nThe Justice Department\u2019s Community Oriented Policing Services office, also known as COPS, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Besides two decades of experience, the office has access to an almost unending list of research and articles on what works and what doesn\u2019t work in policing.\u00a0 Additionally, it can mobilize a network of law enforcement professionals to aid local departments at almost a moment\u2019s notice, as it did with Ferguson immediately after the Michael Brown shooting.\u00a0\r\nSo, with all of that experience and scholarship available, what more can a task force operating under a 90-day window really do?\r\nRon Davis, the director of the COPS office and the task force's executive director, says that even with all of that experience and research available, the task force still has important things to do: \"to identify what (COPS programs) are doing, what we\u2019re not doing, to identify the gaps and to make the kind of recommendations that are actionable, that we can actually move on.\u201d\r\nIn addition to COPS and the task force, the Justice Department also provided nearly $5 million in grant funding earlier this year for a national initiative to bridge the divide between local communities and their law enforcement agencies. The consortium will work with five communities to look at several aspects of community policing.\u00a0 The lessons learned from these communities will be made available to communities and law enforcement professionals across the country. The pilot sites are to be announced next spring.\r\n            \r\n             \r\n            \r\n            \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/president-names-packnett_--local-activist-and-educator----to-task-force-on-policing"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7236809469759464, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}