Our Mission
The Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity (CPLE) is a research consortium that promotes police transparency and accountability by facilitating innovative research collaborations between law enforcement agencies and world-class social scientists. Through these facilitated collaborations, the Consortium seeks to improve issues of equity–particularly racial and gender equity–in policing both within law enforcement agencies and between agencies and the communities they serve. The Consortium aims to effect cultural transformations within both law enforcement and the academy by creating opportunities that simultaneously preserve the dignity of law enforcement and advance the application of social science to the real world.
The CPLE is committed to research transparency and, as such, does not charge participating law enforcement agencies for access to our expert researchers. To that end, CPLE researchers are never funded by participating law enforcement agencies and are able to render both expert consultations (for law enforcement) and scholarly publications (for the academic and general public) absent any hint of coercion or incentive. Consequently, the structure of the CPLE is, itself, an innovation designed to further the interests of transparency and accountability in equity matters.
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Areas of Emphasis
The CPLE has six areas of emphasis that were created in response to the equity priorities that are shared by law enforcement across the country. These areas of emphasis are:
- Racial Profiling and Police Use of Force
- Immigration Policy Enforcement
- Drug Policy Enforcement
- Organizational Equity
- Youth Offenders
- Media and Community Relations
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Project Spotlight
CPLE Featured in USA Today Article:
“In a switch, police invite scrutiny of racial profiling” (October 19, USA Today).
“DENVER — By the time police Sgt. Robert Motyka responds to the disturbance call at a local hospital emergency room, the man at the reception counter is clearly agitated. His speech is unintelligible. He becomes frantic as the officer slowly approaches, urging him to calm down. In a blur of flailing arms, the man reaches for something in his back pocket.
Motyka has no time to consider the possible consequences of one of the most potentially combustible scenarios in America: a confrontation between a black man and a white officer.
When the man pulls a knife and lunges forward, Motyka drops him with four quick pops from his 9mm Beretta. But there will be no public second-guessing of the 13-year veteran’s actions. No racially charged demonstrations by civil rights activists. No calls for a review of police dealings with minorities…
The Denver Police Department has served as a research laboratory on race for about five years. Yet in the past two years, the work has intensified as hundreds of officers have volunteered for rigorous testing to identify racial and gender bias. That includes blunt questions about all officers’ views on race and the simulated use-of-force scenarios.
It is overseen by an unusual partnership between a prominent academic, Phillip Goff — a social psychology professor at the University of California-Los Angeles and a former assistant to Gates — and a top local law enforcement official, Denver Deputy Police Chief Tracie Keesee, who has a doctorate in intercultural communications.
The rare collaboration, University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris says, is shattering officers’ tradition of resisting outside scrutiny, especially on race and ethnic relations. “The history of openness in American policing has not been good,” says Harris, who recently joined the research team.
Goff’s and Keesee’s national Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity is now working with agencies in Los Angeles, San Jose, Houston, Salt Lake City, Toronto, Virginia Beach and Portland, Ore.”
A full copy of the article is available here.
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Police-on-Police Shooting Task Force
The New York State Police-on-Police Shootings Task Force was created in the aftermath of the tragic shooting deaths of two off-duty police officers in the State of New York in 2008 and 2009. Both officers were shot by on-duty officers after being mistaken for suspects engaged in criminal activity. Although such fatalities are rare throughout the United States, anecdotal evidence suggests that non-fatal police-on-police confrontations happen far more frequently. These mistaken identity incidents galvanize the attention both of law enforcement officers and of community members, particularly racial and ethnic minority groups who seek to prevent the wrongful or mistaken shootings of innocent persons. Yet, the law enforcement community and the community at large have not had the benefit of a comprehensive study of police-on-police confrontations.
The full proposal can be seen here.
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