Police Reform
I have spent a great deal of my career--at least since 2005--working to improve American policing. My early efforts were largely tactical and incremental. Over time, I have advocated for more foundational changes. The following articles outline some of my best thinking--done in collaboration with others who have helped me think at larger scales with broader impacts. In all cases, policing is contextual and cannot be "fixed" in a vacuum. It is part of a much larger whole...
This 2012 article, co-authored with Sara McClellan, was based on an earlier piece titled “Raising the Bar for Law Enforcement: The Promises and Pitfalls of Professionalization” presented at the American Society for Public Administration conference in San Jose, California, April 9-13, 2010.
| Communicating Law Enforcement Professionalization: Social Construction of Standards |
This 2013 article, co-authored with Aaron Conley, builds on the social construction concepts Sara and I advanced and directly speaks to the shortfalls of policing. It is supportive of standards and norms, but calls for locally-situated accountability for police.
| Ethics, Enforcement, and the Prospect of Professionalism |
This 2019 article, co-authored with Sara McClellan, is our latest effort to highlight the importance of police connectedness with the community. It is a practical piece supported by original research that outlines actionable opportunities for police to engage with community members to establish work plans and goals.
| Police Community Planning |
Police Vehicle Operations Reform
The 2015 article below addresses a specific, long term challenge for police--officer-involved traffic fatalities. It outlines historical aspects of the issue and then frames the challenge through different lenses to reveal a variety of ways of conceptualizing and addressing the problem. It then offers solutions, anticipated challenges, and means to mitigate those challenges. It is a useful model for thinking about other policing challenges.
| Then & Now: Trends in Fatal Law Enforcement Traffic Collisions |