Police departments have faced recruitment and retention problems since the 2020 George Floyd protests. It has meant some agencies have had to lower standards to attract new officers.
Members of Memphis’ SCORPION unit were behind the brutal beating of a suspect.
City of Memphis via AP
When communities face security challenges and lack legal protection, they find innovative ways to respond.
#blacktwitter helped mobilize social protests against police brutality across the country, like this one in New York City in July 2020.
Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images
Black Twitter is often the preferred forum for candid and authentic Black-centered discussions on police brutality. Without it, holding police accountable may become even more difficult.
Police officers from Kenya’s General Service Unit get ready to disperse demonstrators protesting against police brutality in Nairobi in July 2020.
Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images)
Douglas Lucas Kivoi, The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA)
Police reforms have long been on the agenda of Kenya’s independence regimes, but progress remains painfully slow.
A group of men protest while pulling a cart carrying the body of Vitallis Ochilo Owino in the Mathare slums of Nairobi, Kenya, on May 4, 2020. Vitallis Ochilo Owino was allegedly beaten to death by police officers while walking in the streets after curfew hours.
LUIS TATO/AFP via Getty Images
In one bloody week in June, 181 Rio residents were shot, including a baby in utero. It’s now impossible not to notice that city’s once-lauded favela “pacification” strategy has all but collapsed.