University of Cincinnati Hosts Conference on Race and Policing

Experts from around the country, including local police officials and the city manager who helped forge Cincinnati’s historic police collaborative agreement, will talk about race and policing during a conference on the campus of the University of Cincinnati, Friday and Saturday, Jan. 29 and 30. 

Sessions at the Mini-Conference on Policing and Race focus on racial profiling by police and communities’ trust in law enforcement, experts from around the country. Organized by the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences in association with the Public Administration Review, the conference features newly named Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac as well as a keynote lunch with Valerie Lemme, who served as Cincinnati’s City Manager during the 2001 riots sparked by the killing of unarmed 19-year-old Timothy Thomas by Cincinnati police. 

Major news events, from Trayvon Martin to Tamir Rice, from Michael Brown to Samuel DuBose, continue to highlight critical conflicts that fall along racial lines. Participants in the conference will explore attitudes, behaviors, contexts and administrative practices associated with racial discrimination as well as institutional racism. They will also highlight best practices and identify how communities can work to avoid disparate treatment.

Charles Jones, a UC Political Science professor who serves as head of the department of Africana Studies, worked with James D. Ward of Mississippi University for Women and Charles Menifield, the associate dean of the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, to bring the national conference to Cincinnati.

Session topics include:

• Institutional racism, law enforcement and representation

• Racial profiling

• The state of police-community relations

• Policing Black girls’ and women’s bodies

• Immigration policy

The conference begins Friday, Jan. 29, at 12:30 p.m. in Tangeman University Center on UC’s Clifton Campus. For more information, please visit the conference website.