America is reeling from the recent spate of mistaken identity shootings of young people who rang the wrong doorbell or drove to the wrong house, making the country feel less safe than ever. It’s not surprising, then, that the country is turning its focus away from abolishing the police to talking about how to get the police to deliver the kind of policing that Americans want. According to the 501 (c)(3) organization Police2Peace, the answer is policing as ‘Peace Officers’, and it’s delivering that message peace conferences nationally as well as globally.
Two conferences featuring policing in their lineups are PeaceCon 2023 convened by US-based Alliance for Peacebuilding, a nonpartisan network of 120+ organizations working in 153 countries to end violent conflict and sustain peace. PeaceCon is billed as the world’s largest peace conference. The May 3-5 conference being held in Washington DC is hosting the panel discussion, “The State of Policing in America: Police Culture Change and the Movement for Rightful Policing” and features Lisa Broderick, founder and executive director of Police2Peace.
And the 2023 Positive Peace Conference, convened by international peacebuilding thinktank Institute for Economics and Peace, features the panel discussion, “How to Help Mend the US Social Fabric in Times of Great Distrust” with Lisa Broderick, founder and executive director of Police2Peace, as panelist.
“Communities we speak with want police who are responsive, who show up, and for them to be safe for everybody,” said Lisa Broderick, founder and executive director of Police2Peace. “These are not at odds with policing. We can support the police and support communities. We can support funding for the police and we can ensure accountability.”
“With levels of polarization in the U.S. higher than ever, we need to have a robust discussion about bridging the political, social, cultural and socioeconomic divides, and that includes the role of American policing today, and its future,” said Michael Collins, Director of the Americas for Institute for Economics and Peace.
The Police2Peace national ‘Peace Officer’ training platform is currently being used by departments and police personnel around the nation to transform every aspect of policing for safer interactions, preventing crime and improving quality of life for the public. And unlike costly, often unwieldly, external reforms which some lawmakers demand, this approach is low cost and easily scalable. Moreover, police agencies which undertake the ‘Peace Officer’ training platform may apply for Federal funding to pay for the training from the U.S. Department of Justice through the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance National Training and Technical Assistance (BJA NTTAC TTA) program; and through the US DOJ COPS Office opening its CPD Microgrants program, agencies may also apply for a year of ‘Peace Officer’ training under this grant program.
