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Trauma-informed practices necessary for police, experts say

Jordyn Haime

July 01, 2020 |

Concord Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Manchester, New Hampshire

The Adverse Childhood Experience Response Team sends family and crisis services advocates with police officers on home visits to offer families trauma-informed services after police have responded to an earlier emergency at the home. More than 1,200 children have been referred to services, an offer of help most families accept. Although the pandemic shutdown interrupted house calls, the model has spread to other New Hampshire communities. The ultimate effectiveness of the intervention may not be known for years, and only if researchers can follow up to learn if it may have prevented future incidents.

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Their Unlikely Alliance Began at Whataburger. Can They Reform a Texas Jail?

Maurice Chammah

July 01, 2020 |

The Marshall Project |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tyler, Texas

Dalila Reynoso's local activism blossomed into a full-blown watchdog role when COVID-19 began to spread through the Smith County, Texas, jail. The marriage of criminal justice reform and pandemic safety, vested in one woman, mirrors much larger court watch and jail watch projects in larger cities. For her part, Reynoso became a conduit for complaints about jail conditions. Thanks to her diplomatic skills, and a receptive sheriff's openness to criticism and change, the pair's efforts lowered virus cases from 52 to three within three weeks and lowered the jail population by more than 150 people.

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Northern Ireland's police transformation may hold lessons for the US

Laura A. Weinstein Donald Beaudette

June 26, 2020 |

The Conversation |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Ireland

With lessons for American police-reform advocates, the transformation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary – a militarized enforcer of inequality hated by the people of Northern Ireland – into an entirely new organization was founded on the necessity of community support. Neither easy nor simple, this 20-year process, following 30 years of conflict, intentionally included recruiting local Catholics in order to win local support. Citizen oversight served as another pillar of the new structure, which still has problems but has won critical political support from Sinn Féin, the leading nationalist political party.

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Police Training In America: How Can We Fix A Broken System?

Meghna Chakrabarti Grace Tatter

June 25, 2020 |

WBUR |

Radio |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States

Police training often is the suggested fix after controversial incidents of alleged brutality, but training is only one piece of a much larger set of cultural, racial, and social issues. Reforming training in de-escalation tactics on its own has not generally changed a warrior mentality that preaches dominance and hypervigilance to counter perceived resistance or threats with overwhelming force, say a journalist who covers policing and a former police officer and researcher who studies use of force policies. They examine one fatal shooting and why training failed to prevent tragedy.

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When it comes to police oversight, many watchdogs lack teeth

Rob Kuznia Casey Tolan

June 25, 2020 |

CNN |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

The most effective civilian oversight agencies that act as watchdogs over police discipline are empowered to conduct independent investigations, impose discipline on individual officers, and influence disciplinary policy. One of the strongest, in Oakland, forced the police chief out of office over police shootings and diversity on the police force. But the lessons to be learned in this field come more often from the many examples of structural flaws that render civilian oversight powerless to counter the wishes of the police, or even to be listened to.

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9 Departments and Multiple Infractions for One New Jersey Police Officer

Rukmini Callimachi

June 24, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Woodlynne, New Jersey

New Jersey’s responses to police misconduct offer stark lessons in how certain failures can allow troubled officers to hop from job to job undetected. The state lacks a central database of police misconduct and remains one of only five states that cannot revoke an officer’s credentials because of performance. In one case, an officer with serial failures at nine departments, involving 16 incidents in which people he arrested got injured, the red flags that should have been raised never were, allowing him to mistreat residents of majority-Black neighborhoods despite a record indicating racism and brutality.

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In Germany, Confronting Shameful Legacy Is Essential Part of Police Training

Katrin Bennhold Melissa Eddy

June 23, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Germany

To prevent its police forces from ever again being turned into militarized and politicized tools of an authoritarian state, Germany requires all police trainees to visit former Nazi concentration camps and learn in detail how the Nazi regime used police as a tool. Though the historical comparisons to American policing of racial minorities is not equivalent, the explicit effort to break from a shameful past as a mode of cultural change is instructive. Other reforms include strict separation of police and military and a decentralized structure to keep unchecked power out of the hands of a single agency.

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Defund police? Some cities have already started, investing in mental health instead

Lindsay Schnell

June 22, 2020 |

USA Today |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

Less than one month into its use of a crisis intervention team to handle mental health calls in place of the police, Denver’s one-year STAR pilot project has been flooded with calls and already has achieved success in cases where police presence could have been a hindrance. Like many cities modeling new programs on the successful, long-running CAHOOTS program in Eugene, Oregon, Denver is making “defund the police” a reality with investments in mental health services. Empathic dialog in place of a police presence can lead to peaceful outcomes for people of color afraid of police.

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Can Floyd protests break cycles of police brutality and racial unrest? History has lessons.

Jessica Mendoza

June 19, 2020 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States

Just as the Emmett Till murder helped inspire protests in the civil rights era, which in turn led to the passage of civil rights and voting rights legislation, the protests over policing in 2020 already have sparked reforms and could lead to even more dramatic social changes. Policing and racial inequity often lie at the root of protests, past and present. The question is whether the predominant focus will be on riots and violence or on the underlying grievances that concern public policy.

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Canada's largest school district ended its police program. Now Toronto may be an example for U.S. districts considering the same.

Kalyn Belsha

June 19, 2020 |

Chalkbeat |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Canada, Toronto, Ontario

Prompted by Black Lives Matter protesters and informed by a controversial survey of high school students on their feelings about having police stationed in their schools, Toronto pulled police from its schools in 2017 and since then has refuted warnings of a spike in misbehavior and crime. While arrest numbers and data on students’ current feelings about safety are unknown, Canada’s largest school system at least proved that it could address unhappiness with a police presence without decreasing safety.

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