Improving Relations Between Citizen's and Police

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.