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Protest march Wednesday in New Haven.
Over 70 percent of America’s police officers are white. That needs to change — especially at higher ranks.
So agreed two criminal-justice reformers who have served in the uniform and written and advised law enforcement nationally about how to diversify policing and weed out racism.
They also agreed that change will take time.
The two reformers, Lorenzo Boyd and Shafiq Abdussabur, shared their thoughts about the long game of reforming policing on an episode of WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program, against a backdrop of nationwide protest sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer.
Boyd, a former sheriff and corrections officer, directs the Center for Advanced Policing at University of New Haven. Abdussabur, a retired New Haven cop, runs a contracting business in town. Both have led training for local and federal law enforcement agencies and published books and articles on racial reform of policing.
They agreed on “Dateline” that America needs not only more beat officers of color, but also more top decision-makers, both in police and in government and corporate suites, if it hopes to change the law enforcement culture.
Shafiq Abdussabur and Lorenzo Boyd on “Dateline.”
“If we’re going to be serious about fixing this,” more African-Americans need to be in the room when decisions are made, Abdussabur argued.
Boyd noted that since 2016 the country has seen an increase of female chiefs and chiefs of color, including in Minneapolis. But they can’t immediately root out biased culture or practices that go back generations.
“We’re talking four years,” Boyd said. “It is not going to change overnight. The culture of policing is like a battleship,” and doesn’t “turn on a dime.”
Another key to long-lasting change is holding officers more accountable for misconduct, they agreed. Boyd argued that “police should be held more accountable than the rest of the community” for misdeeds.
Boyd spoke about how his heart drops when he participates in training sessions for local police departments and cops are told how each call might be their last. That sets the wrong tone about how to view the community, he argued.
In New Haven, Boyd’s center has worked with Hillhouse High School to start developing “empowered, impassioned” future cops.
The two also addressed policy questions. Abdussabur called for Connecticut to institute a statewide use of force policy for all local departments, as well as consistent rules for motor vehicle stops, so that African-Americans know what to expect when they travel from town to town. Boyd spoke of the need to keep a focus on getting cops out of cars to walk neighborhoods and get to know people. He acknowledged that a city like New Haven has trouble doing that when it is down 100 officers and faces budget cuts. Ultimately, though, policing won’t change unless cops become more a part of the community rather than simply respond to 911 calls, he argued.
“Community policing has failed black people” with the continuation of fatal assaults on unarmed citizens, Abdussabur argued. “You can’t sell it to anybody anymore. … You need a new policing model,” crafted not just for, but by people of color.
Click on the video to watch the full episode of WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” with Shafiq Abdussabur and Lorenzo Boyd.