As we move through the month of February which is Black History Month, I couldn’t help but look to the past, specifically George Floyd’s death last May 25, which sparked riots and protests across the United States.“I can’t breathe” and “Black Lives Matter” became calls to action worldwide.
As the media covered the story, more and more people began researching and grew angry at the police.
While much work remains for equity in policing, hope is coming in the form of revamped curriculum and practices.
I felt an injustice and anger towards those who are supposed to protect all of us and yet there was and continues to be a bias based on skin color.
I am white female who grew up in a suburban neighborhood. I have family in law enforcement and so I grew up knowing how hard the system was for some cops and how corrupt it could be.
I didn’t consider myself as blind to the racism in the system, yet I didn’t know how bad it was until the protests began and I started to dig deeper.
“A national data set established by the FBI in 2019, for example, contains data from only about 40 percent of US law-enforcement officers. Data submission by officers and agencies is voluntary, which many researchers see as part of the problem,” Lynne Peeples, a writer for Nature, says. This lack of data is shocking to those who might first read about what is going on in law enforcement, yet I wasn’t as disappointed as I initially thought I would feel. There are accounts of officers not submitting the data required which has led to plenty of problems in the past and now as we look into the system more.
The lack of data didn’t shock me as there are flaws in each system and yet there is 60 percent of data missing which is alarming. I can’t help but wonder what else is being hidden.
It’s hard to imagine what the future could hold for those who are afraid to go out of their houses or even sleep at night based on their skin color.
An interview with Delta College Basic Police Officer Training Academy Director Tammie Murrell gave me a glimmer of hope for the future of policing.
Murrel said there is a new course this summer in the Academy to address these issues.
There is now a Cultural Immersion Curriculum being used to “address the failed historical relation with African Americans and police, to know where they have failed and what they can do to improve and change the perspective of the students,” said Murrell.
Not only does this new curriculum add 41 hours to the overall program but the goals are to “increase cultural competence, increase awareness of personal biases and understand how they impact decision making, policing, and the community, build trust and on-going partnerships within the community, recognize and respect the complexities of cultural diversity to develop skills necessary for identifying and responding to California’s changing communities, understand how personal faiths, beliefs, morals, and values intersect with the 14th Amendment, develop interpersonal, communication, and facilitation skills, and recognize that one of the most reliable strategies for successful interactions with individuals from differing cultural, racial or ethnic backgrounds are to treat all individuals and groups with dignity and respect.”
As a community member, I am concerned not only for what is being implemented inside of the classrooms, but also what happens to the police after being on the scene and going through traumatic events and how they are handled. As people may know, untreated traumatic events can have disastrous consequences that not only affect the person but those around them. Many of those that go untreated can have an influx of stress in their life not to mention other mental and physical health problems.
Murrell said in her eyes, “lots of police suffer from PTSD but there is officer wellness that is put in place. In her eyes, in order to be an effective police officer you must be physically and mentally healthy.”
“Meditation and yoga are being used to help relax and treat what is being seen in the field. Plus there are people that are helping officers understand what they are feeling with PTSS. Part of the problem is people hid the fact as they thought they were crazy but it can be treated through meditation and other wellness provided to the officers to help them mentally” said Murell.
As the months and years progress, we can only hope that positives changes continue to be made around the community and those that serve us, as we can’t fight hate with hate but instead, we can learn from mistakes and admit to the crimes and mistakes in order to make a safer and calmer future for everyone in this country.