Negative perceptions of police professionalism and corruption go hand in hand with low public trust in the police, poor marks on government performance, and citizens’ sense of insecurity.
Supporters of President Julius Maada Bio celebrate his re-election in Freetown, Sierra Leone on 27 June 2023.
John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images
There have been longstanding calls for police and governments to collect and share data about incidents where the use of force caused injury and death to civilians.
Activists agitate for equal rights for all in Nairobi, Kenya, in January 2020.
Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images
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
The officers charged in the murder of a Black man in Memphis, Tenn., were part of the elite SCORPION squad. Such units have an ugly history.
A 21-year-old woman demonstrates outside the White House over the death of Tyre Nichols, who died after being beaten by Memphis police officers on Jan. 7, 2023.
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
In the face of violent crime, both real and imagined, too many U.S. police forces adhere to racist philosophies about rooting out ‘internal enemies’ as they did hundreds of years ago.
Officers gather for a funeral service for a constable who’d been in a coma for 30 years in Victoria in April 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
A pervasive history of bullying and sexual misconduct plagues law enforcement agencies and illustrates the failure of police forces to police themselves.