National Science Foundation Build and Broaden Initiative: Reimaging the American Police Mandate

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

Often, the most emphatic voices on the issue of police reform call to either defund or defend the police. Both sides see the source of police violence in bigoted or “bad apple” offenders rather than the institution itself. This panel explores the institutional roots of police violence and propose specific strategies for change. It is comprised of researchers and graduate students from Morgan State University and West Virginia University who have recently teamed up to examine these issues in some detail. The four papers in this panel will explore component parts of a recent NSF-funded project aimed at reimagining the police with a new mandate and accompanying strategies and structures that prioritize strong, safe community outcomes over law enforcement and crime control outputs. It builds on the Police and Community Engagement (PACE) initiative in Baltimore by putting it into a situational policing framework

Sub Unit

• Area VI. The Criminal Justice System / 43. Police Strategies, Interventions, and Evaluations

Individual Presentations

• The Police Mandate for Social Control through Law Enforcement - James Nolan, West Virginia University; Henry H. Brownstein, West Virginia University

• An Essential Strategy for Police with a Strong Community Mandate The Police and Community Engagement (PACE) Program - Natasha Pratt-Harris, Morgan State University; Kevin Daniels, Morgan State University; Paul Archibald, College of Staten Island, CUNY

• Situational Policing: A Conceptual Framework for a Reimagined Police Mandate - James Nolan, West Virginia University; Henry H. Brownstein, West Virginia University; Natasha Pratt-Harris, Morgan State University

• Participatory Action Research in a Reimagined Policing - Natasha Pratt-Harris, Morgan State University; Christina Williams, Morgan State University; Rosa Hayes, Morgan State University; Andrea Clark, Morgan State University; Bryan Beverly, Morgan State University

Chairs

• James Nolan, West Virginia University

• Natasha Pratt-Harris, Morgan State University

Discussant

• Henry H. Brownstein, West Virginia University