Pennsylvania State Troopers stand near a patrol car parked on the entrance ramp to Interstate 376 out of Pittsburgh as protesters block an intersection in downtown Pittsburgh, on Tuesday, June 26, 2018. The protest was about the shooting death of Antwon Rose Jr. who was fatally shot by a police officer seconds after he fled a traffic stop June 19, in the suburb of East Pittsburgh.
Keith Srakocic / AP Photo
Keith Srakocic / AP Photo
Pennsylvania State Troopers stand near a patrol car parked on the entrance ramp to Interstate 376 out of Pittsburgh as protesters block an intersection in downtown Pittsburgh, on Tuesday, June 26, 2018. The protest was about the shooting death of Antwon Rose Jr. who was fatally shot by a police officer seconds after he fled a traffic stop June 19, in the suburb of East Pittsburgh.
The rise of anti-police brutality uprisings last year prompted the Pennsylvania State Police to try to improve relationships between police and underserved communities that have a long history of mistrust toward the police.
A year after protest fueled calls for fundamental changes in policing, state police says its Office of Community Engagement, which launched in December 2020, is now fully staffed with 19 community affairs officers stationed in regions across the state.
The office focuses on building stronger police-community relationships. Community affairs officers are in charge of working with local community leaders, nonprofits and faith-based organizations to gather feedback from communities that typically do not feel safe engaging with the police directly.
The Heritage Affairs Section has been made part of that office and is tasked with leading training on implicit bias and responding to hate crimes. In August 2020, the section expanded from one to five troopers as result of the George Floyd protests last summer, Corporal Brent Miller, a police spokesperson said.
The section also started offering implicit bias training to local law enforcement agencies across the commonwealth. There has been an increase in requests from local law enforcement for implicit bias training, Miller said.
“A lot of our troopers grew up outside of cities, not inner cities, so you may not have that much contact with communities,” said Trooper Ismail El-Guemra, who leads implicit bias training. “It’s not your fault that you grew up in certain places, but we make sure that you understand, and you have some empathy, and that will be beneficial to all of us to do our job.”
Michael Rubinkam / AP Photo
Protesters kneel in front of the Lehigh County Jail in Allentown, Pa., on Monday, July 13, 2020, to demonstrate against police brutality after video emerged of an officer placing his knee on a man’s head and neck area outside a city hospital. Police have launched an internal probe.
The state police also announced an online portal where people can view police data on traffic accidents, enforcement and crime.
Community leaders say the changes are a step in the right direction, but a lot more work needs to be done.
“The mistrust of the community against the police force is long embedded,” said Claudie Kenion, president of Unite Central PA. “So it’s gonna be a process. It’s gonna be a work in progress, but we have to start now because the longer we wait, the worse it’s going to get.”
Kenneth Russell is president of the Pennsylvania NAACP, one of the organizations that the community engagement office listed as a partner.
“I think the best way to make it happen is you have to go grassroots, you have to go to the community leaders and activists relevant to doing the work of bringing serious conversation to policing,” Russell said.
Trooper Kelly Smith, a community affairs officer for southcentral Pennsylvania, says she recognizes that the police need to initiate those efforts.
“We need to be going out to these communities, that the mistrust is there, that they’re not necessarily going to come to us, that we need to be the ones that are taking the proactive approach to try to start the dialogue, to try to mend that relationship and improve it,” she said.
State Rep. Donna Bullock, D-Philadelphia, said the online dashboard is a good step toward making police data more accessible to the public and could help inform legislative policy.
However, she says there’s more work to be done, for example, in the recruitment of officers from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.
“I hope that these initiatives also lead to more diverse recruitment in our state police,” Bullock said. “Not just recruitment, but seeing those classes that get through the Academy, that they’re diverse.”
As of June 2021, over 92 percent of the 4,588 state’s police force was White; about 87 percent of that number were White males, according to agency data. Less than 10 percent of officers are people of color.
“I hope we can get to that point where it becomes so much a part of a normal part of the job, that you don’t necessarily have to have to have a special unit to do it. It is what every police officer does,” Bullock said. “Every state trooper is talking to the communities that they serve and building relationships with the people of Pennsylvania.”
In a news release, the Pennsylvania State Police encouraged the public to reach out directly to community affairs officers in the region via email at ra-spoce@pa.gov. Their phone numbers are also listed at psp.pa.gov.
Gabriela Martínez is part of the “Report for America” program — a national service effort that places journalists in newsrooms across the country to report on under-covered topics and communities.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
