This podcast episode features a conversation between host Karen Friedman and Robin Engel, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati, and Director of the Center for Police Research and Policy, a joint project of UC and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
In this Justice Today episode, Robin Engel, criminologist and professor at the University of Cincinnati, discusses her research and experience leading police reform efforts across the United States. Engel and Friedman discuss Engels scholarship police practices and policies along with her efforts to reform a law enforcement agency. In the wake of a fatal shooting by a member of the University of Cincinnati police force, she was appointed head of that agency and steered it through the resulting crisis. Engel explains her research and its focus on issues that directly affect the stress levels and mental health of law enforcement officers, its relevance to the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), and provides details of some current research her team is working on, to develop ways to help police agencies better respond to crises and in critical incidents. She also discusses increased tensions between communities and law enforcement agencies in the wake of George Floyd and other high-profile incidents, and the impacts that those tensions have on both the members of the public as well as law enforcement officers. Friedman and Engel also discuss work that is being done to improve public safety and law enforcement efforts.