Tell Obama: Keep your promise. Reform the U.S. criminal justice system.

Act Now In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama told us that reforming the United States' criminal justice system is a priority in 2015. Help us hold the President and his cabinet accountable to the President's word. Help ensure every individual's human rights are protected, respected and fulfilled. Dear Tracy, Last night, President Obama told us that reforming the U.S. criminal justice system is a priority for 2015: "Surely we can agree it's a good thing that for the first time in 40 years, the crime rate and the incarceration rate have come down together, and use that as a starting point for Democrats and Republicans, community leaders and law enforcement, to reform America's criminal justice system so that it protects and serves us all." Last year, the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner —both at the hands of police officers — highlighted the need to address the use of force and discrimination by police in the United States. As the President moves to rebuild trust and rehabilitate the nation's criminal justice system, he must closely examine the persistent and widespread pattern of racial profiling among law enforcement officers. He must ensure that the U.S. is a nation whose practices guarantee that every individual's human rights are protected, respected and fulfilled. Join me in calling for rights-respecting and accountable policing. The U.S. must be a nation in which policing practices are brought into line with international human rights standards. It must be a nation that mandates that officers may only use firearms as a last resort. The U.S. must be a nation in which the Department of Justice seeks to accurately collect comprehensive national data on police use of force, making that information readily available to the public. And the U.S. must be a nation in which systemic racial discrimination is addressed and eliminated. Call on the Department of Justice to take action to address race and policing in the U.S. We at Amnesty International welcomed the President's creation of a federal task force on policing in the 21st century. But my hope is that this is just the beginning of comprehensive reforms and accountability that will ensure that all law enforcement officers can be trusted — rather than feared — by the people they are sworn to protect. In solidarity, Steven W. Hawkins Executive Director Amnesty International USA