Black Transcends Blue Symposium

This symposium will explore some of the ways in which racial hierarchies and subordination are present in American policing. Since the early 1970s, some law enforcement scholars, politicians and reformists have presupposed that increasing the number of Black officers on the force could be an important tool to improving relations between police departments and communities of color. The national conversation around the myriad of continued problems in policing during the Racial Reckoning of 2020 revealed continued instances of racial discrimination endured by Black police officers inside and outside of their departments. While affinity law enforcement associations began in an effort to support and empower officers from underrepresented racial groups, those groups often lack collective bargaining rights or mechanisms by which to support the interests of their members. Symposium presenters will explore the historical role of racism in American policing, Indian policing, disparate officer discipline outcomes, the intersection of use of force and race, the impact of arbitration on police reform, how gender impacts the rate of reported crimes, potential solutions for a transformational path forward, and other related topics