Police Training

On November 7, 2019 we launched the police training part of our work with a two-hour workshop for cadets. It was successful beyond our expectations, with exceptional evaluations from the cadets. Below is the handout we used and the questions we discussed with the cadets in small groups. In 2020 we will expend our training work with new cohorts and will stay involved with the cadets after they begin their police work.

POLICE CADET HANDOUT

Our mission: We are a group of Minneapolis police officers and black community members building relationships of trust to promote community safety.

What we do:  Community conversations, police training, and advocacy for programs and policies that promote safe communities.

Our central messages:

  1. Distrust of police comes from a long history of police being used by people in power to enforce an unjust status quo. 
  2. Policing in America had its origins in slave patrols, followed by a long history of enforcing Jim Crow laws and other unjust policies.
  3. We all have a common goal of community safety.
  4. We can’t police our way to community safety without addressing underlying issues such as poverty and lack of housing.
  5. The current conversation on community safety is not working: one side points the finger at the police and the other side points the finger at the community. 
  6. We are calling for a Shared Partnership for Community Safety, which involves closer police/community relationships and joint work for systemic change in areas such as housing.

Conversation questions:

  1. What are the sources of distrust between Police and the black community?
  2. What would a safe community look and feel like?
  3. How can we build a safe community together—both in terms of police interactions with community members and larger systemic change?

Community members are Guy Bowling, Brantley Johnson, Justin Terrell, Michael Walker, Damian Winfield, and Corey Yeager.  Police members are Charlie Adams, Jon Edwards, Dave O’Connor, Steve Sporny, and George Warzinik. The process facilitator is Bill Doherty of the University of Minnesota.