Thomas Breen file photo
Tracey Meares at a public library talk in March.
Yale Law School professor and nationally-celebrated police reform expert Tracey Meares is now officially a member of the city’s Board of Police Commissioners.
Local legislators took that unanimous vote Monday night during the latest regular monthly full Board of Alders meeting. The meeting was held online via the Zoom videoconferencing platform as City Hall remains largely closed to the public because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meares is the founder of the criminal justice research hub Justice Collaborative and a professor at Yale Law School, where she is the first Black woman to make tenure. She also served on former President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing in 2015.
Her research and teaching on “procedural justice” has promoted de-escalation tactics, community policing, and a variety of other police reform initiatives designed to build trust between police departments and communities around the country. Her research played a key role in the founding of New Haven’s Project Longevity.
Zoom
Monday’s full Board of Alders virtual meeting.
“Ms. Meares is a nationally recognized expert on policing in urban communities,” Fair Haven Heights Alder and Aldermanic Affairs Committee Chair Rosa Ferraro Santana said during Monday night’s meeting. “She would be an incredible asset to this board.”
During her appointment confirmation interview in June, Meares told committee alders that she would like to see more data collection on officers’ day-to-day behavior, a use-of-force policy that encourages cops to slow down and avoid confrontational situations, an overhaul of police training to focus on constructive help for community members, and an overall shift from a “warrior” mentality to a “guardian” mentality among police officers.
Click here to read about that committee hearing, and here to read more about Meares’ vision for policing.
Mayor Justin Elicker promoted his appointment of Meares to the city’s police commission in early June as one of his top police reform priorities in response to the local and nationwide uprising against police brutality that has followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.