Longstanding tensions between Black and Brown communities and the police have come to a head with the killing of George Floyd. Global protests in support of the dignity of Black lives has followed suit as have calls to reform, defund and abolish the police. This historic moment represents an important time to rethink policing. LBJ Assistant Professor Gordon Abner discussed his research on police accreditation and talked with Jameila "Meme" Styles of MEASURE, an organization at the forefront of addressing community policing and social disparities through a data-driven model. Abner and Styles talked about how to best harness data to bring about effective and equitable policies that reimagine policing.
Books on policing and data
The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement
Andrew Guthrie Ferguson
NYU Press, October 2017
In this first book on big data policing, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson offers an examination of how new technologies will alter the who, where, when and how we police. These new technologies also offer data-driven methods to improve police accountability and to remedy the underlying socio-economic risk factors that encourage crime.
My Grandmother's Hands: Radicalized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
Resmaa Menakem
Central Recovery Press, September 2017
The first self-discovery book to examine white body supremacy in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology.
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
Cathy O'Neil
Crown Random House, September 2016
A former Wall Street quant sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life — and threaten to rip apart our social fabric.
News on police accreditation
Governor demands departments earn accreditation
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 13, 2015
A piece of the municipal court reform measure signed into law by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon isn't a reform on courts, but on the local police departments that keep them hopping. It establishes an accreditation process for police departments in St. Louis County, which have, until now, enjoyed the discretion to follow generally accepted standards, or their own standards, or no standards at all.
City of Williamsburg City Council votes to approve funding for updated WPD equipment
The Flat Hat (College of William and Mary), Oct. 25, 2016
The City of Williamsburg’s City Council approved the request from the Williamsburg Police Department to purchase body-worn cameras. The WPD has also met with the City Attorney, NAACP representatives, members of the community and police officers. Together they reviewed the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies Standards to draft policies for the use of the cameras.
Audit findings result in FMPD withdrawal from CALEA re-accreditation
WINK (Fort Myers, Fla.), April 7, 2017
The Fort Myers Police Department has withdrawn itself from re-accreditation considered among the best in law enforcement following an audit highlighting multiple issues within the agency.
UTPD Accreditation with Excellence
University of Texas Police Department
UTPD is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). The department has been accredited since July of 2007. The department has completed the re-accreditation process three times since 2007. In April 2016, the department chose to seek reaccreditation using the Gold Standard Assessment. In July 2016, the department was one of 21 departments that received Accreditation with Excellence.
UT's Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis
Policing, Justice, and Black Communities Series
- Part 1: A Historical Overview
- Part 2: A Brief Guide for Understanding Police Defunding, Reform, Disbanding, and Abolition
- Part 3: Policing, Policy, and Transformative Justice - An Overview of Reform and Abolition Strategies