Photo: Wikimedia Commons
In 2012, Stockton, California's unemployment rate was 20 percent, crime and homelessness were spiking, and homicides had nearly tripled. Stockton was forced to declare bankruptcy, letting 440 police officers go. That's when Police Chief Eric Jones began. Beyond starting implicit bias trainings, he held public dialogues on race, addressed officer mental health, and shifted police trainings from zero-tolerance enforcement to an ethos of "principled policing." Over eight years, "crime has fallen and the department currently has a clearance rate on homicides of about 80%. More striking to some, Jones has earned trust from his mayor, many in communities of color and from the officers Union. When protests over police brutality swept the U.S. this summer, Stockton hasn't "had to do one curfew, no rubber bullets, no tear gas", said Mayor Michael Tubbs. Though far from perfect, it's a beginning in the difficult, grinding long-term effort to transform systems of policing and criminal justice.
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