Hey! Stop! – Police Reform – Detroit Community-Engaged Research Program

Hey! Stop! – Police Reform

I really liked my group project! 

I know this is a weird sentence to start my blog post with, but it is true. I really enjoyed working on my presentation with my group and presenting the research we found. During our first meeting to suggest a topic. I gave the suggestion of Police Reform education. Since we were the Education learning group, I thought researching more about the educational trainings it takes to become an officer as well as the reforms that can be introduced to their education to better solve the problems of police brutality would be a good start. My group’s project, however, unexpectedly went deeper than that. 

After a while, the information that we discussed in our groups diverged to topics of police militarization, training, history, as well as the types of justices. While all seemingly different topics under the large theme of police brutality, what I didn’t realize until now was the continued thread of education within the topics. 

Each topic has a resounding issue in the way police officers are educated and taught to treat the communities they serve. Police Militarization allows the “us vs them” mentality to grow. Many of their trainings in dealing with individuals from different cultural and racial backgrounds stem from certain stereotypes of these populations further diverging their perceptions. The history of the police continues to reinforce these imbalances and we continue the cycle through society’s use of punitive justice within the Prison Industrial Complex. 

I find all of these connected threads interesting. They display the timeline and background of an issue so embedded into our society that each time it comes to the forefront, people are rightly angered at its existence. The research we conducted, helped me further flesh out these issues. 

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