Law School Symposium to Address Issue of Fair Policing

CHICAGO --- Paul Butler, professor of law at Georgetown Law and one of the nation’s most frequently consulted scholars on issues of race and criminal justice, and Destiny Peery, assistant professor of law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, are among the featured speakers at a daylong symposium on fair policing co-sponsored by Northwestern Law’s Journal of Law and Social Policy (JLSP). 

“Police in America: Ensuring Accountability and Mitigating Racial Bias” will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, in Thorne Auditorium on the Law School’s Chicago campus, 375 E. Chicago Ave. 

Co-sponsored by the JLSP and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center, the event is the JLSP’s 9th annual symposium. Registration is strongly encouraged, and the event is free and open to the public.

Peery, whose teaching and research interests focus on law and psychology perspectives on criminal and discrimination law, will begin the symposium with a short lecture about implicit bias, also known as unconscious bias.

Butler, a leading criminal law scholar, will deliver the keynote address at 12:45 p.m.

“The event concerns the growing issue of police misconduct in this country,” says Northwestern Law student Erica Haspel ’16 JD, symposium editor for the JLSP. “Our primary goal is for the panelists to reflect on strategies to improve fair policing and promote safer communities in America.”

Symposium panels include “Litigating Police Misconduct: Does the Litigation Process Matter? Does it Work?”; “Reforming the Ranks: Policy Initiatives to Ensure Police Accountability and Improve Police and Community Relations”; and “Building Movement: Racial Justice, Transformative Justice and Reimagined Policing.” 

Some of the featured panelists include G. Flint Taylor, founding partner, People’s Law Office (Chicago); Brigitt Keller, executive director, National Police Accountability Project (New York); Ursula Price, deputy police monitor, Independent Police Monitor (New Orleans); Lisa Thurau, founder and executive director, Strategies for Youth (Baltimore); Page May, organizer, We Charge Genocide (Chicago); and Thena Robinson Mock, project director, Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track Campaign (Washington, D.C.).

*4.5 hours of CLE credit pending in the state of Illinois.

The complete schedule and registration information is available online.