Mexican Americans and Police Reform

• In Event: Roundtable: The Many Colors of Criminal Justice Reform

Abstract

The past few years has witnessed an explosion in the attention given to violent encounters between police and people of color. Well known instances of police killings of young black men (Eric Garner or Mike Brown, for instance) or children in the case of Tamir Rice, as well as the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, has generated a heated debate about the role of law enforcement in communities of color. Missing from that debate have been voices from the Mexican American community. Mexican Americans have had their own violent encounters with police. They have also helped to pioneer reforms in law enforcement policy, from the establishment of Latin American or Chicano Squads (teams of Spanish-speaking officers) to the inauguration of Internal Affairs departments in many southwestern communities to the development of police-civilian review committees. Today, Mexican-origin people and other Latino/a groups are continuing to protest police brutality and murder while simultaneously continuing to work with police to reform law enforcement. This talk explores these recent developments, paying close attention to the renewed debate about the role of police-civilian review committees, the efficacy of a “use of force” policy, and the role of racial/ethnic sensitivity training for police officers.

Author

• Brian Behnken, Iowa State University