Media Clips

The Center for Policing Equity filed an amicus brief alongside the Cato Institute and the Law Enforcement Action Partnership in support of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) and their lawsuit against Border Patrol. The lawsuit seeks to stop Border Patrol agents from unconstitutionally targeting people based on their ethnicity in Kern County, California as part of “Operation Return to Sender,” which has undermined community trust in law enforcement and compromised public safety by pulling police officers and federal officials away from operations targeting violent crimes. Cato, along with the Law Enforcement Action Partnership and Center for Policing Equity, has filed an amicus brief in support of UFW. Absent the preliminary injunction, federal agents plan to resume stopping Latinos en masse without reasonable suspicion, arresting them without a warrant or probable cause that they pose a flight risk, and coercing them into summary expulsion from the United States. The […]

Hans Menos, Ph.D., Vice President of Public Safety Innovations at CPE, joined Solomon Jones, host of Wake Up with Wurd, a news and entertainment talk show, to discuss the racial implications of President Trump’s exemption of National Guard troops to San Francisco and the lack of data to support their deployment to other cities, like Memphis or Los Angeles. An excerpt from the episode: “Imagine what a city like Chicago or D.C. could do with the millions of dollars, sometimes two million dollars, per day that it cost to send in these federal agents. We’re talking about almost 80 million dollars that they spend on food for cities like L.A. just to feed the troops. So, it really isn’t about helping or solving problems … If the federal government really wanted to help … they could use the [hundreds of millions of dollars] that they’re spending just to oppress and

In September, Portland, Oregon, became the latest city targeted by the Trump administration’s haphazard National Guard troop deployment, an immigration enforcement tactic that is undermining public safety. In an interview with Filter Magazine, CPE’s CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon explains how such militarized campaigns target and harm vulnerable communities. Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon, co-founder and CEO of the Center for Policing Equity, agrees that Trump’s militarized campaigns create the opposite of “public safety,” especially for marginalized groups.  “These continued actions by the Trump Administration, despite decreasing rates of crime, nullify the will of voters and local elected officials,” he told Filter. “It replaces local accountability with a system of federal force, escalating conflict and endangering the very communities and officers it claims to protect.” “Furthermore, this approach is a weaponization of law enforcement against people in crisis,” Solomon continued. “These deployments will harm housing-insecure people, as well as

Philadelphia’s Citizens Police Oversight Commission reviewed body-worn camera footage from the Philadelphia Police Department (PDP) and found that, in some instances, officers ignored police department policies and procedures, according to Kensington Voice. The audit from the commission, which was created in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, found that only 54% of the 119 recordings analyzed met all department criteria (full incident captured, activation from standby, no prohibited content), and only 6% complied with PPD’s requirement that it be stated why a camera was turned off. Hans Menos, Vice President of Public Safety Innovations at CPE, says why it is important that police body-worn cameras be turned on for an entire encounter: In order to create the kind of transparency that prevents use-of-force incidents and increases public trust, officers need to keep their cameras on the whole time, said Hans Menos, vice president of public safety innovations at the

Despite the Jersey City Police Department (JCPD) joining the state’s mental health response program, ARRIVE Together, “which pairs officers with mental health professionals to respond to mental health-related calls,” the Jersey City Times reports that JCPD officers are still using force when responding to these incidents. While the average number of mental health-related use-of-force incidents have decreased per quarter, there were still 50 incidents in 2025 alone. Alternative responder approaches may be more effective than more officer training. Charlotte Resing, CPE’s Government Affairs Manager, explains why: But two other experts in policing said while training can help officers navigate situations involving mental health, it may not be enough. Charlotte Resing, government affairs manager at the Center for Policing Equity, said alternative responders — people coming to the scene without a gun and not in uniform — tend to be most effective in de-escalating mental health crises. “Having training to know

In Jackson, Miss., predominantly White GOP lawmakers are diverting funding away from the Black, majority-Democratic city’s local agencies to fund a new spacious courthouse and increase staffing for the Jackson Capitol Police. The move has been criticized, especially in light of the Trump administration’s mobilization of National Guard troops to majority Democratic cities across the country. Rather than support existing courts and police departments, these funding and staffing changes, enacted under the guise of “ensuring law and order,” erode trust between police and the communities they serve. Of these decisions, CPE’s CEO and cofounder, Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon, said: The risk of such moves, say national policing experts, is that resources are diverted from the local agencies that are most accountable to communities. The result is separate but unequal systems, according to Phillip Atiba Solomon of the Center for Policing Equity, a group that studies the effects of policing and

The Oaklandside, an independent nonprofit newsroom serving Oakland, California, reports that the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) has released a new report stating violent crime has “dropped by 36% in the first seven months of the year compared to the same period last year,” and points to the installation of new, hardened gates as strong deterrents against fare evasion and crime. However, several crime categories, such as aggravated assaults and simple assaults, have “remained stable or increased,” and riders have seen people bypassing the new gates. The article cites CPE’s report from May that found fare enforcement was not making people feel safer: This past May, a report from the Center for Policing Equity, a Yale nonprofit research center, based on 14 focus groups, found that nearly a third of participants were afraid of being subjected to violence inside BART. The researchers also found that fare enforcement was not

Axios Philadelphia reports on the city’s new two-year police contract that includes raises and bonuses for police officers but zero funding for the Citizens Police Oversight Commission (CPOC). While the new contract does not restrict or eliminate CPOC, it “neuters” CPOC and its ability to conduct independent investigations into police officers. CPE’s Hans Menos, VP of Public Safety Innovations, tells Axios: After many cities enacted police reforms following George Floyd’s murder, they’re again facing “headwinds … the status quo or worse.” It’s the same predicament Menos faced when he was head of the city’s Police Advisory Commission (PAC), CPOC’s predecessor. PAC didn’t have CPOC’s legislative mandate or subpoena power – and now the police watchdog is basically back in the same situation.  “We have a short memory when it comes to crises,” Menos says. Read more on Axios Philadelphia’s website.

For years, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has seen the number of Black recruits, and in particular women, drop. Now, according to reports from the LA Times, the pool of candidates has all but run dry. This recruiting challenge isn’t exclusive to the LAPD. Law enforcement agencies across the country are experiencing challenges in recruitment despite generous pay and pension options, and the Trump administration’s efforts to get rid of DEI policies nationwide have exacerbated these challenges. Ivonne Roman, Senior Implementation Strategist at CPE, discusses how the Trump administration’s actions will further undermine recruiting for police departments: Even though most local police departments aren’t as dependent on federal funding as, say, public universities, police executives may feel less pressure to diversify their agencies in the current social climate, she said. Steps such as the dismissal of Biden-era civil rights lawsuits that accused police departments of hiring disparities could embolden

In an essay for TIME, “Building a Moonshot for Racial Justice,” Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon, CPE Co-Founder and CEO, reflects on the progress made to eradicate racism in the United States in the five years since George Floyd’s death. While the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s death saw a surge in local initiatives and some federal policy reform to make policing less racist and hold police more accountable, that momentum has since waned. Under the second Trump administration, the progress toward equality and justice has become much more challenging. A sustained effort that celebrates the smallest of victories is needed to create lasting systemic change: The third step is abandoning the idea that justice is a single achievement—a moon landing, one legislative win, one landmark court ruling, one budget reallocation that will fix everything. Justice is not a single scheme. It is not a destination. It is a sustained effort, something