In some communities in the United States, the relationship is frayed
between law enforcement officers and the citizens they are sworn to serve.
Some high profile police shootings or overly aggressive police encounters
with citizens captured on video by police cams or citizens have only
intensified the tension in some places. Since one of our goals in the
PEACE TALKS RADIO series is to provide a forum that might lead to
nonviolent conflict resolution strategies, we’ve sampled opinions from 13
people, all stakeholders in the issue, and asked each what they thought
might help most to improve the relationship between the police and the
citizenry. Then we followed up with a few questions for each. Current
and former police officers, city councilors, community leaders, police
trainers, and criminologists all suggest ways to bring more peace around
the sometimes frayed connection between citizens and police.
Guests include Steven Herbert, University of Washington Professor;
Cleveland City Councilor Zack Reed; Former Albuquerque Police Department
employee Karen Fischer, Albuquerque Police officers John Garcia, Shermane
Carter and Brian Werle; Bernalillo County Deputies Aaron Schwartz and
Autumn Neas; Santa Fe Police Officer Gardner Finney; Jim Ginger, CEO of
Public Management Rources; Mike Scott, former police officer and director
of the Center for Problem Oriented Policing: Greg Saville, police training
expert and former police officer; Glenn Ivey, former prosecutor and former
state's attorney in Prince Georges County, Maryland.
