The Midwest Conference on 21st Century Policing: Implementing the President’s Task Force Recommendations, will be held in UW–Platteville’s Ullsvik Hall Velzy Commons Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 8 a.m.
The free event is sponsored by the UW–Platteville Department of Criminal Justice and co-sponsored by the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and Ethnic Studies Program.
The event will conclude with an optional facilitated group discussion at 3:15 p.m.
The conference is on President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, created in response to the recent lack of trust that has occurred between police and the communities they serve.
Topics to be discussed at the conference include implementing Obama’s task force recommendations, “outside the box” police services, strengthening community trust in the police, and legal and moral perspectives on the use of deadly force by police.
“We are undergoing a crisis in policing today,” said David Couper, the retired Madison police chief, and an author on police issues. “The only way forward is for police and community leaders to come together and chart a way forward. This conference will enable critical discussion and action.
“Throughout the years I have worked with and led police. I have never seen a working conference like this that has equal numbers of police and civic leaders registered. This is simply amazing.”
In addition to Couper, guest speakers include:
• Susan Rahr, member of the President’s Task Force on Policing and the first female sheriff in King County, Wash.
• Jim Mallery, captain of the Department of Public Safety in Kalamazoo, Mich.
• Charles Huth, SWAT team commander for the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.
• Everett Mitchell, pastor at Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church in Madison.
The conference will be moderated by Anthony “Nino” Amato, vice-president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Dane County. Amato is a lecturer in the UW–Platteville Department of Criminal Justice.
Respondents at the conference will be four UW–Platteville faculty members — Dr. Rosalyn Broussard, interim chair of interdisciplinary studies and professor of ethnic studies; Dr. Sabina Burton, associate professor of criminal justice; Dr. Frank King, assistant professor of ethnic studies; and Dr. Patrick Solar, assistant professor of criminal justice.
Anyone with questions about the conference can contact Dr. Staci Strobl, associate professor and chair of the criminal justice department, 342-7664, stroblst@uwplatt.edu.
Attendees are asked to pre-register in order to be eligible for a free box lunch. To pre-register and to see the day’s agenda go to improvingpolice.wordpress.com.
