This panel discussion will focus on the current landscape of police reform from a comparative perspective. In particular, it will address the following issues: How have recent protests against police misconduct and the rise of the Black Lives Matters movement in the U.S. influenced and changed conversations about police reform and activism? What reforms have been implemented in major American cities nearly two years after the murder of George Floyd? How can U.S.-originated conversations and proposals about police reform be ‘translated’ across the pond and elsewhere considering similar problems but also different histories, cultures, and government structures? And, finally yet importantly, what can the Northern Irish experience of radical police reform of the late 1990s teach reform movements in other parts of the world?

Speakers:

Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy, Michigan State University

Michelle Phelps, University of Minnesota

Ian Loader, University of Oxford

John Topping, Queen’s University Belfast