President Johnson's Crime Commission Report, 50 Years Later
The 1960s brought political and social change in the U.S. — and more crime. Lyndon Johnson decided to wage a "war on crime" and formed a group tasked with developing revolutionary recommendations.
If you've ever called 911 to report an emergency, thank the Johnson Crime Commission. Establishing a national emergency number was just one of more than 200 recommendations the Commission offered up in a landmark 1967 report "for a safer and more just society."
Two years earlier, President Lyndon Johnson had appointed lawyers, educators, law enforcement officers, social workers and others â 19 members in all â to the group officially called the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. The 1960s was a turbulent decade, and crime had been a
