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“In America, nearly all of us -- regardless of our background or skin color -- carry trauma in our bodies around the myth of race,” writes trauma therapist Resmaa Menakem in My Grandmother's Hands. While the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, as well as the shooting of Jacob Blake, have started a centuries-overdue conversation about systemic racism and the trauma that it causes, these conversations are just the starting point for the reforms that must follow.
As a community college educator, and a former marriage and family therapist, I believe that community colleges are distinctly situated to become spaces for the growth, healing and restructuring that this society needs, especially in the areas of police reform and race relations. We are open access, low cost and can quickly develop new programs and degrees.
More than a dozen cities in America -- including Seattle, Los Angeles and Philadelphia -- are considering defunding police departments and how the resources currently allocated for militarized policing could be better used to serve communities. Community colleges should be assertive in asking them to redirect some of those funds to our campuses to create, for example, two-year associate degrees in trauma-informed community policing. The value of higher education for police officers has been well documented, and studies have shown that the more formal education an officer has, the less likely they are to use excessive force.
Why Community Colleges?
Since their inception, community colleges have served as America’s primary vocational training system. There are countless examples of community colleges creating certificate programs and degrees, seemingly overnight, in response to the needs of local industry.
For example, in 2004, as biotechnology became a driving force in the city of San Diego, community colleges worked closely with biotech firms to develop certificate programs to train technicians. One result of that collaboration was the creation of the Southern California Biotechnology Center, which currently trains high school students every summer and places them in internships in biotech firms.
In 2016, when California voters legalized recreational marijuana, Sacramento City College, where I currently teach, immediately began a dialogue with local growers and distributors about their staffing needs. While the college did not pursue the development of a cannabis program, dozens of other higher education institutions now offer two-year degrees in cannabis science.
Such shifts are less feasible for many four-year institutions with long-standing programs and entrenched missions. Institutions that can easily pivot their focus based on the demands of industry can also make necessary changes in service to the community. The demographics of community colleges -- the most diverse institutions in higher education -- may also help diversify police departments, which remain largely white.
What Should Training for Officers Look Like?
Scholars have been conducting serious research into the use of force by police only since 2014, but we’ve learned enough to say that varying degrees of racism pervade policing. Meanwhile, police academy training is largely tactical, and even training in community policing, which focuses on creating community partnerships, has not adequately addressed the problem.
Racism, whether individual or structural, is not logical or rational and often not even conscious. It is a gut-level experience of fear, threat and discomfort. It is so irrational that a 2016 University of Virginia study found that 40 percent of first-year medical students, 42 percent of second-year medical students and 58 percent of the general population believed that Black people have thicker skin and feel less pain than white people.
A belief system that irrational cannot be countered with logic, nor do the split-second decisions police are required to make lend themselves to deliberation. Training that will reduce police violence should be experiential and focus on changing implicit biases and automatic reactions. It also should educate officers on how to calm and settle their bodies, since settled bodies have a settling effect on the bodies of those around them.
Fortunately, polyvagal theory, or PVT, provides proven techniques for doing that. The theory has complex theoretical roots, but in practice, the idea is simple: how safe and comfortable we feel has little to do with what we think or know and everything to do with what we experience in our bodies. People who work in psychotherapy currently use PVT as a highly effective tool for treating and preventing trauma. Those in K-12 education, medical practice and veterinary medicine are also applying it.
By learning to control our fight-or-flight response, and the triggers that lead to it, we can learn to use our thinking brains more and become less reactive to such triggers. Anyone who has seen video of the shooting of Philando Castile will understand the importance of this.
The Logistics
It’s understandable that many community colleges are reluctant to create new degrees during an economic downturn when budgets are being drastically cut. But most already offer degrees in criminal justice, and many have law enforcement tracks within those degrees. Transforming those already-existing degrees into trauma-informed community policing programs would mean adding regular ongoing experiential coursework taught by master’s-level mental health clinicians with expertise in PVT. It should be a four-part course that occurs each semester of a two-year program.
Adjunct faculty make up more than 75 percent of community college faculty and cost on average 70 percent of what full-time faculty cost. People have criticized community colleges for an overreliance on adjunct faculty, but in this case, the real-world experience of such practitioners would be essential. The cost savings of adjunct faculty, coupled with additional revenue from police departments, would make these programs not only cost-effective but also potentially revenue generating.
What’s more, at this time when the public is questioning the necessity of so many institutions, including colleges and police departments, a program like the one I’ve described would be an opportunity for both community colleges and police departments to demonstrate their significant value to society.
