The Challenges of Policing in Boston

We discuss the challenge of policing in Boston in two separate sessions, first with Governor Michael Dukakis, Distinguished Professor of Political Science Emeritus and Massachusetts’s longest serving governor, and Rod Brunson, Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Chair of Public Life and Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice and Political Science. In the class with Prof. Brunson we discuss his studies of cooperation between black clergy and the Boston Police Department as well as his recent writing in the Washington Post and perspective on necessary reform. To my tremendous chagrin and frustration, however, I failed to record Part II with Prof. Brunson. Even though you can’t hear our discussion with Prof. Brunson, I encourage you to read his articles, and I have included as a substitute Prof. Brunson’s contribution (with others) in Northeastern’s recent Racial Literacy event series.

Readings:

Part I

Bill Bratton, “A year after Eric Garner, closing the great police-community divide,” New York Daily News (July 7, 2012).

Bill Bratton and Jon Murad, “How precision policing made New York even safer,” New York Post (July 29, 2018).

William (Bill) Bratton and Brian Anderson,” Policing on the Brink: A Conversation with William Bratton,” City Journal (July 22, 2020), listen to the podcast or read the transcript.

Dugan Arnett and Milton J. Valencia, “Despite praise, ‘community policing’ in Boston does not work for everyone, experts say,” Boston Globe (June 15, 2020).

Sarah Betancourt, “Study spotlights racial disparities in state criminal justice system,” CommonWealth Magazine (September 9, 2020).

Part II

Rod K. Brunson, Anthony Braga, David M. Hureau, and Kashea Pegram, “We Trust You, But Not That Much: Examining Police-Clergy Partnerships to Reduce Youth Violence,” Justice Quarterly 32, no. 6 (2015): 1006-1036.

Rod K. Brunson, “Protests focus on over-policing. But under-policing is also deadly,” Washington Post (June 12, 2020). PDF here.

Mug battle question: What is Governor Dukakis’s most famous home recipe?

Answer: Turkey soup! Congratulations to Mikaela Moskowitz for winning it in a battle–our first two-time winner!

Further reading: “Boston. Racism. Image. Reality.” A series of articles by the Globe Spotlight Team from December 2017, but especially their lead article.