Episode 208: How US Media Repackages Pro-Police Policies as "Reform"

Sep 25, 2024

The discussion dives into how U.S. media has historically portrayed pro-police policies as reform, often increasing police budgets without addressing systemic issues. It critiques police technology and community policing initiatives, revealing them as ineffective at reducing violence. The role of body cameras and training simulators as tools for public relations rather than accountability is examined. Finally, the manipulation of language in reform discussions is unpacked, highlighting the gap between rhetoric and reality, pushing for a community-centered approach to safety.

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Intro

00:00 • 2min

Illusions of Reform: Police Funding and Community Impact

01:31 • 20min

Examining the Myths of Police Reform and Technology

21:06 • 5min

Unpacking Police Training Simulators

26:34 • 8min

The Illusion of Reform: Body Cameras in Policing

34:46 • 29min

Critique of Community Policing

01:04:16 • 5min

Deconstructing Copaganda

01:09:42 • 8min

The Language of Reform: Masking Pro-Police Policies

01:18:05 • 2min

“Citizens to Aid Police in New Program,” reported the Los Angeles Times in 1975. “Community Policing: Law Enforcement Returns to Its Roots,” declared the Chicago Tribune in 1994. “Obama Calls for Changes in Policing After Task Force Report,” announced The New York Times in 2015.

Periodically, US officials propose some type of police “reform,” usually after a period of widespread protest against ongoing racist police violence. Police, we’re told, will improve their own performance and relationships with the public with a few tweaks: better training on use-of-force and equipment, upgraded technology like body cameras and shooting simulators, and deeper integration into the “community.”

But, every time a new “reform” is introduced, it almost always serves as justification for bigger police-department budgets and fawning media coverage over police, painting the image of a scrappy force for public safety that just doesn’t have the right training and resources. Meanwhile, levels of police harassment and police violence remain the same, and, in many cases, even increase. Indeed, 2023 was the worst year for fatal police shootings in decades despite – or perhaps because of – all the post-Ferguson “reforms."

On this episode, the Season 8 Premiere of Citations Needed, we’ll discuss the media-enabled phenomenon of how pro-police narratives, programs and budget bloating busy work are spun as “reform,” how they are used to stem public anger and placate squishy politicians and nonprofits, and look at the decades-old practice of turning public opposition to, and victimization from, US policing into an opportunity to expand and enrich the security state.

Our guest is civil rights attorney Alec Karakatsanis.

Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) is a civil rights attorney and the founder of Civil Rights Corps. He is the author of Alec’s Copaganda Newsletter, the book Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System (The New Press, 2019), the Yale Journal of Law & Liberation study “The Body Camera: The Language of our Dreams,” and the forthcoming book, Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News, which will be published early next year by The New Press.