A Public Health Approach to Policing: The Newark Model

In the face of on-going police brutality against African Americans and the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on people of color, the United States has reached a tipping point in relation to racism, policing and public health. But what does it look like to adopt a “public health” approach to safety, policing, and economic development? In February, 2020, Laura visited Newark, New Jersey, to look at one city where decades of police reform efforts failed to stop violence and crime. Now, at the invitation of Mayor Raz Baraka, Aqeela Sherrills, a former gang-truce broker in Los Angeles, heads up the Newark Community Street Team which leverages residents’ relationships to prevent violence before it starts. Flanders talks with Sherrills and other former gang members turned peace-keepers about how they address abuse and transform trauma for themselves and others, and to the city’s Public Safety Director about what it’s taken to build the team’s partnership with police. This episode offers a timely glimpse of what it looks like when more responsibility for public safety is put in public hands and opens up the conversation about “defunding the police”.

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Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner. 

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ACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel