FAQs

Why is 1 Change different from other suggested police reform?

In the conversation around policing, people tend to choose sides rather than focus on solutions that satisfy all stakeholders. This suggestion reaches for a middle ground that can be a long-term fix for police reform. It does that with a solution that is easy for citizens to understand, and robust enough for legislatures to tackle the core issues around police reform. We strived to do that in a way that is nonpartisan. The best part about this solution is that 99% of police officers – people who do a difficult job amazingly well - would not really be impacted in any way. This change would also give citizens confidence that the small minority of police officers that don’t perform their duties the right way will face consequences for their misconduct.

Is this solution Anti Police?

Absolutely not!!! 
I am all for the 99% of police officers that do an amazing, and difficult job protecting and serving citizens. The current system does a disservice to all Law Enforcement, by allowing 1% of police officers to face little to no scrutiny, or consequences for misconduct.

Why go to these lengths to present this idea?

While researching the issues around policing, I read about an incident in 2017 where an 18 year old girl in New York was handcuffed and “allegedly”(I hate that I have to add that word so I don’t get sued) raped by 2 police officers in the back of a police van. Even with DNA evidence the charges were plead down to accepting a bribe, and the officers only given probation. At the time it wasn’t illegal for an officer to have sex with someone in police custody! It still isn’t in most states.
I’m a father, and I couldn’t live with myself if this happened to my daughter in the future, and I didn’t do everything I can right now to fix policing. I just imagined having to tell her that I knew how to fix this years ago, but I didn’t try harder because I’m just one person, and I didn’t want people to hate me simply because I was willing to present a solution. I didn’t try harder because I’m a black small business owner in a red state and I didn’t want to ostracize clients. I couldn’t tell her that I didn’t try harder because bad policing hadn’t affected me personally.
So, this is me trying to turn this idea into a national campaign for police reform, because I couldn’t just say I had an idea and I wasn’t willing to do what it took to turn that idea into a movement that sparked real change. That’s why the decisions I made were about reaching the largest audience. I hired a professional animation company to create the videos, because I knew there were those who would see the melanin in my skin and miss the message. I tried as hard as I could to present the information in a balanced way that would be fair to both law enforcement and citizens.  
I didn’t have a team of research analyst, script writers, and interns working to bring this to fruition. I’m just one man that did this because I want you to better understand this solution and all the good things that can come from it. Part of that understanding means that we need to have a clear picture about what the problems are, and why they will persist if we aren’t addressing the root of that cause.

Why are the other videos there?

These videos explain why this 1 Change is needed and will work. They will help you better understand the current state of policing, why other initiatives haven’t worked in the past, and what exactly needs to be addressed for any proposed solution to work in the long term. It has been a journey for me to learn more about this issue, and I want to share some of the things I’ve learned through these videos.

The more I discovered about this issue, the more I came to understand that this isn't an issue for just people of color. One of the most important data points you see here is a chart that shows the number of deaths from fatal police encounters with law enforcement by race. That information highlights that this is an issue that affects each and every one of us, and all of those deaths matter.  

So, whether you say Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, or All Lives Matter, I agree with you. There were over 12,000 deaths from fatal encounters with police officers in the last 7 years. I could only find 17 cases from 2013 - 2019 where on-duty police officers were convicted after killing someone. Of those convicted nearly half got sentences from probation to 5 years in jail. I need people to understand that no matter your race getting justice for yourself, or a loved one killed by a police officer is next to impossible under this current system.    

That’s why this solution is meant to be something that brings us together, not something tears us apart. I would like everyone to stop choosing sides, and choose a solution, because I think that YOUR LIFE MATTERS.

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