Think Justice Blog

Police Perspectives

Building Community Trust

The Police Perspectives: Building Community Trust blog series  is part of Vera’s Police Connecting with Communities of Color project. The series explores the importance of—and provides guidance on how to build and enhance—positive relationships between law enforcement agencies and the diverse communities they serve.

All Posts

  • Theron Bowman
April 21, 2015

Series: Police Perspectives

The mechanics of diversity recruitment

Every police department should be expected to have a competent, professional workforce that is responsive and accountable to the community it serves—as well as reflective of it. In Arlington, Texas, we have learned that workforce diversity is a key ingredient ...

  • Lorie A. Fridell
  • Sandra Brown
April 02, 2015

Series: Police Perspectives

The supervisor’s role in promoting fair and impartial policing

The efforts of law enforcement agencies to promote fair and impartial policing need to include training for supervisors in identifying bias—both explicit and implicit—among the officers they supervise. Supervisors need to know when to intervene and take correc...

  • Altovise Love-Craighead
    Altovise Love-Craighead
March 20, 2015

Series: Police Perspectives

Building trust through trauma-informed policing

For many victims and witnesses, a police officer is the first criminal justice official they encounter. In order to cultivate and sustain effective relationships with these individuals and ensure effective and swift case processing, it is critical that police ...

  • Lisa Thurau
  • Bob Stewart
March 13, 2015

Series: Police Perspectives

Avoiding 'profiling by proxy'

When an individual calls the police and makes false or ill-informed claims of misconduct about persons they dislike or are biased against—e.g., ethnic and religious minorities, youth, homeless people—police must be careful to avoid “profiling by proxy”. This ...

  • Jeri Williams
February 20, 2015

Series: Police Perspectives

Dealing with contentious incidents

Contentious police incidents, such as an officer-involved shooting or use of excessive force by an officer, understandably generate considerable attention from community leaders, residents, the media, and elected officials. Some of that attention can manifest ...

  • Harold Love
February 17, 2015

Series: Police Perspectives

Effective approaches to connecting with diverse communities

As police officers, we are vested with an awesome amount of power and authority that must be used responsibly. In order to truly serve the public—while respecting and protecting its constitutional rights—we must proactively take steps to understand and respect...

  • Susan Shah
    Susan Shah
  • Caitlin Gokey
    Caitlin Gokey
February 09, 2015

Series: Police Perspectives

New blog series explores importance of police/community trust

Across the country, people of all races and ethnicities are talking about police-community relations in the wake of high profile law enforcement encounters that resulted in the deaths of Eric Garner in Staten Island, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Ta...

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