He Started the First Police Academy at an H.B.C.U. It Was Complicated (1030 hits)
When Chief Gary Hill was a police recruit in Missouri in the 1990s, he was one of two Black students in his academy class. Although he has faced racism in his years on the force since then, he believes that policing can be a public good, and that reimagining approaches to recruiting and training can inspire necessary change within the ranks. So in 2020, Hill started a police academy at Lincoln University, an H.B.C.U. in Jefferson City.
But his efforts come at a particularly fraught time. For one thing, the number of police officers around the country is dropping at a startling rate — especially the number of Black officers. And at the same time, high-profile killings of Black Americans by police have deepened the distrust many minority communities feel toward law enforcement. Hill’s academy is predicated on the idea that individuals can change police culture from within the system. But first he’ll have to get students in the classroom to help him make his case.
