In a The Hill article, Dr. Tracie L. Keesee, the Senior Vice President of Justice Initiatives for the Center for Policing Equity, expresses her perspective on how the failure to effectively examine law enforcement has not only created a divide between community members and officers, it has also created internal strife. As a result, American public safety departments, particularly Black, Brown, and female officers, are left burnt out, unsupported, and unacknowledged. Dr. Keesee believes that we should utilize data and resources to address the structural racism within law enforcement organizations that results in disparate policing outcomes.
From the coverage: “The struggles confronting law enforcement now are rooted in the failure to address the same struggles in the past: a culture of rigid masculinity that precludes asking for help, doesn’t allow officers to sufficiently listen to communities’ concerns, allows historical bigotries to flourish internally and fails to acknowledge the toll it all takes on officers, particularly the Black men and even more so the Black women who choose to serve.”
Continue reading at TheHill.com.