March 27, 2024 — The onset of the #BlackLivesMatter Era has opened scrutiny over what exactly should be police’s goals and responsibilities in today’s society. Can the police be trusted guardians of security and justice simultaneously? What are the pathways toward institutional change, whatever that may look like? And how are police departments themselves strategically navigating these efforts? This discussion engaged those questions with the authors of three new books: Tony Cheng: The Policing Machine: Enforcement, Endorsements, & the Illusion of Public Input; Michael Sierra- Arévalo, The Danger Imperative: Violence, Death and the Soul of Policing; Michelle Phelps, The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America. This discussion was moderated by Andrea Leverentz, Professor of Sociology at NC State University. This panel was sponsored by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law and the Department of Sociology at Duke University.
