Progress · Vision · Agenda
The system is not fixed. But it is not permanent. This page documents what has already changed, what we are fighting for next, and what accountability actually looks like when it's done right.
Kill the Precedent is not built on cynicism. It is built on the conviction that systems created by policy can be changed by policy — and that the most powerful thing advocates can do is name exactly what change should look like, document the proof that it works, and refuse to accept anything less. This page is both a record of wins and a blueprint for what comes next. The precedents are falling. Not fast enough. But they are falling.
What the current system produces — and what a genuinely accountable system would look like instead. This is not utopian. Every item in the right column has been implemented somewhere, by someone, and the outcomes have been documented.
These are not small things. Every one of these wins was called impossible before it happened. The precedents are not permanent. They are persuadable. This is the proof.
Eight specific, achievable reforms. Each one is already law somewhere. None of them require inventing something new — they require the political will to apply what works.
Restore 42 USC 1983 to its original intent. Allow civil rights plaintiffs to sue government actors who violate constitutional rights without the "clearly established" barrier invented by the Supreme Court in 1982.
Pending Federal LegislationRequire law enforcement officers to carry personal liability insurance — modeled on medical malpractice. Officers who cause harm bear personal financial risk. Repeat violators become uninsurable. Taxpayers stop paying for misconduct.
KTP PriorityA searchable public database of government actors found to have violated civil rights — cross-referencing departments and jurisdictions. Officers who lose one job for misconduct cannot quietly move to the next department.
KTP PriorityEvery family court judge, guardian ad litem, custody evaluator, CPS worker, and law enforcement officer who interacts with domestic violence cases must receive mandatory, standardized training in coercive control dynamics before taking those cases.
KTP Curriculum In DevelopmentProhibit child welfare agencies and family courts from using a survivor's failure to immediately leave an abusive relationship as grounds for neglect findings or adverse custody outcomes. The abuser caused the harm. The survivor should not be held responsible for it.
Legislative Reform NeededRequire public reporting of family court outcomes in cases involving DV allegations — including custody transfer rates, parental alienation claim usage, and outcomes for children. Secrecy protects the system, not children.
Legislative Reform NeededRequire child welfare agencies to document accommodation offers to parents with disabilities at first contact. Prohibit use of unaccommodated disability presentation as evidence of parental unfitness. Create enforcement mechanism for ADA violations in dependency cases.
Federal Enforcement NeededRestructure Title IV-E to fund family preservation and prevention at parity with foster care placement. Remove the financial incentive for removal. Fund outcomes — family stability, child safety, reunification — not throughput.
Federal Legislative ReformThe malpractice model applied to policing — and why it works where other reforms fail.
Every licensed law enforcement officer carries personal professional liability insurance — the way doctors carry malpractice insurance. When an officer is found liable for a civil rights violation, the judgment is paid by their insurer, not the taxpayer.
Insurers set premiums based on risk. An officer with a history of excessive force complaints pays higher premiums. An officer who becomes uninsurable cannot be employed. The market creates accountability that the legal system currently refuses to enforce.
Departments that want to hire low-risk officers have a financial incentive to screen for and retain them. Departments that tolerate misconduct face higher aggregate insurance costs. The accountability becomes institutional, not just individual.
Even where qualified immunity is eliminated, the practical barrier to accountability remains: officers pay nothing personally. Settlements are paid by cities and counties — meaning taxpayers fund the consequences of misconduct while officers face no personal financial risk.
The insurance model closes that gap. It creates skin in the game for officers and departments simultaneously. It is market-driven — no new regulatory agency required. And it scales: a national licensing standard tied to insurance eligibility would apply pressure across every jurisdiction without federal mandate.
This is how accountability becomes durable — not through a court decision that can be reversed, but through a financial structure that makes misconduct personally costly to the people who choose it.
The sex offender registry model applied where accountability currently has no memory.
One of the most persistent failures in law enforcement and child welfare accountability is institutional amnesia. An officer with a documented history of civil rights violations in one department is terminated — and hired by another department in the next county, with no record following them. A CPS worker with substantiated findings of misconduct transfers agencies. A guardian ad litem with a pattern of recommending custody transfers to abusive parents continues to be appointed.
The registry concept addresses this directly: a searchable, publicly accessible database of government actors who have been found — through civil judgment, administrative finding, or substantiated complaint — to have violated the civil rights of people in their care or custody. Searchable by name, by jurisdiction, by type of violation. Maintained at the state level with federal cross-referencing.
This is not a criminal registry. It does not require a conviction. It requires a finding — the same standard used to terminate employment, revoke professional licenses, or deny security clearances. The information is already created in civil court records and administrative proceedings. The registry simply makes it accessible to the public who is served by these actors, and to the departments that hire them.