Lightning Talk: How Can We Solve Problems Related to Police Use of Force?

Session Submission Type: Lightning Talk Session

Abstract/Description

The talks in this session explore solutions to issues surrounding police use of force. The talks address theoretical, tactical, and practical solutions to a variety of issues related to use of force, including possibilities for changing legal reasonableness standards and reforming police within democratic systems, the social patterns of police killings, the promises and limitations of changes to police training for reducing police use of force, and the role of community policing and empirical research in facilitating and constraining reform. By discussing the intersections and contradictions of these innovative ideas, the session will provide a space for conversations about the promises and limitations of changing the nature of the police-society relationship in the contemporary United States.

Sub Unit

• Area XVI. Lightning Talks

Individual Presentations

• The Social Patterns of Police Killings - Portia Allen-Kyle, ACLU

• Imagining a Democratic Police Reform - Sebastian Sclofsky, California State University, Stanislaus

• A Question of Reasonableness: The Case For Abandoning the Objective Reasonableness Standard in Excessive Force Cases - Peter Hanink, University of California, Irvine

• Are there Viable Alternatives to “Reasonable Belief” Standards for Permissible Deadly Force? - Paul J. Hirschfield, Rutgers University

• Can Research-Informed Laws Save Lives?: A Peek into the California Assembly’s Efforts to Update Police Use of Force Standards - Erin M. Kerrison, University of California, Berkeley

• Smothering Brutality: Community Policing as Prophylactic and Asphyxiant - Aaron Roussell, Portland State University

• Can critical decision-making models decrease police use of force? - Monica Williams, Weber State University; Molly Sween, Weber State University

Chair

• Monica Williams, Weber State University