Hamburg, NY (WBEN) The death of George Floyd in police custody and this week's guilty verdicts against former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin are part of a movement toward an orchestrated effort to change how future law enforcement officers are trained for their careers.
Locally, at Hilbert College, Carraugh Reilly Nowak of the criminal justice studies division says she and her colleagues are looking at training changes based on what is determined by the task force set up by the Erie County Sheriff's Office. Her colleague Dr. Martin Floss is part of the task force. "That task force is discussing changes along the lines of policies, procedures and practices to address the promotion of community engagement and foster the community's trust," says Nowak.
Nowak's faculty has been trying to keep up with changes. "We have some courses we now require, including a social problems course and well as a social justice diversity issues course," says Nowak. "What the faculty has done is work in more of the current events aspect so discussions and social discourse can take place." She says injecting the courses can help students as they move on and work in the field.
The changes aren't just restricted to the classroom. "We had last year an injustice in the criminal justice system panel, and we're trying to have more of those extracurricular activities to bring the entire campus community together to have conversations," explains Nowak.
Nowak says Hilbert is committed to reinvigorating the curriculum, working with each other to "inject these different social justice matters into our curriculum."
