Rashawn Ray on community policing
In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Faculty Associate Rashawn Ray pointed out that solving the implicit bias toward Black people involves a commitment of police personnel to living in the community they are responsible for.
"[W]e can't make the assumption that simply because a person is Black that they're going to know about the neighborhood. Part of the fundamental problem when it comes to policing that I've noticed is that when police officers interact with a white person, there is a pause, a slight pause, a slight benefit of the doubt. The reason why that exists is because subconsciously, implicitly, when they interact with that person, they see their neighbor, a parent at their kids' school, and when they interact with a Black person, they are less likely to have what we call in sociology those "social scripts" that allow them to view people in those multitude of ways.
"And if we're going to change this, one big recommendation I have: Police officers need housing assistance that mandates that they live in the metropolitan area where they are policing. Because community policing isn't about getting out, playing basketball with a kid in uniform. Community policing oftentimes is what you do when you're not on duty. The way that you're investing in a neighborhood."