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Can Police Reform Work? A Mayor and a Historian Discuss Policing in Newark, N.J.
Ras Baraka is the mayor of Newark, N.J. Jelani Cobb is an academic and a writer for The New Yorker. Watch and read their conversations, five years apart, for "Policing the Police," available for the first time as extended videos and transcripts.
March 16, 2021
Ras Baraka (2020)
In the aftermath of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka sat down with Jelani Cobb — historian, staff writer for The New Yorker and FRONTLINE correspondent — to discuss policing and race relations in Newark.
March 16, 2021
Ras Baraka (2015)
Ras Baraka has served as the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, since 2014. In 2015, he sat down with historian Jelani Cobb, who also happens to be an old friend, to discuss policing and race relations in Newark.
March 16, 2021
What Jeff Sessions' Police Review Means for Federal Reform
The attorney general's review takes a step toward abandoning the only tool that exists to compel troubled departments to reform.
April 4, 2017
With Program in Peril, DOJ Evaluates Police Reform
The Obama Justice Department aggressively pursued reform agreements with police departments. What will come next?
January 4, 2017
How Baltimore’s Police Policy Led to Freddie Gray
Baltimore police routinely target blacks for improper stops, searches and excessive force, the Justice Department said, and must undergo reforms.
August 10, 2016
Is Civilian Oversight the Answer to Distrust of Police?
Civilian oversight boards have been offered as one way to rebuild trust between police and the communities they serve. But do they work?
July 13, 2016
Ras Baraka: "We Need Police ... We Just Don't Want Them To Shoot Us"
The community wants police to aggressively respond to crime, Newark's mayor told FRONTLINE. “We need police in our neighborhood,” he said. “We just don’t want them to shoot us in the back while we’re running away in a traffic stop, or choke people for selling cigarettes.”
June 28, 2016
The Problem with "Broken Windows" Policing
In cities where Broken Windows has taken root, there’s little evidence that it's worked as intended. Newark, N.J. is one example.
June 28, 2016
Vanita Gupta: "No Such Thing as a Perfect Police Department"
As head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Vanita Gupta is the federal official in charge of investigating police departments for civil rights violations.
June 28, 2016
WATCH: Good Stop, Bad Stop?
On a ridealong with the Newark Police Department's Gang Unit, FRONTLINE filmed officers stopping an unarmed black man on the street and forcing him to the ground.
June 28, 2016
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America After 9/11
Home Video DVDs of Policing the Police are available from ShopPBS.
Educational DVDs of Policing the Police are available from PBS Educational Media.
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