Creating better training around diversity and safe restraining procedures won鈥檛 make any significant impact on police brutality, writes Peter T. Coleman in . Such standard official responses to events like the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis are woefully inadequate to bring about 鈥渃hange of the magnitude needed to transform deep-seated cultures of bias, discrimination, profiling and abuse at institutions like large urban police departments,鈥� asserts Coleman, Professor of Psychology & Education and Director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 .
Peter T. Coleman, Professor of Psychology & Education and Director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution () (Photo: 麻豆原创 Archives)
The real problem, in Coleman鈥檚 view is 鈥渁 constellation of individual, group, organizational and societal-level elements鈥� that drive 鈥渄eep-seated cultures of bias, discrimination, profiling and abuse.鈥� In the face of such obstacles, 鈥渢raining only works when combined with other structural initiatives, like instituting effective, transparent systems of accountability and oversight, carefully reviewing formal and informal incentives and establishing joint community-police opportunities for meaningful contact and relationship building.鈥� Coleman also calls for ongoing vigilance focused on 鈥渢he main drivers of these patterns 鈥� the most key individuals, structures and incentives that encourage them.鈥�
Training only works when combined with other structural initiatives, like instituting effective, transparent systems of accountability and oversight.
鈥� Peter T. Coleman
Above all, these changes need to be set in motion soon. 鈥淏rief periods of revolutionary upheaval...are brought on by dramatic events鈥� such as the Floyd murder, he notes. 鈥淭he recent disturbances are presenting us with clear feedback on how our law enforcement systems are functioning 鈥� or malfunctioning 鈥� and with a new window of opportunity for substantive change. It鈥檚 time to take it seriously.鈥�
[Read of Coleman鈥檚 piece in The Hill.]