In 2016, months before the end of former President Barack Obama’s second term in office, the city of Newark, N.J., and the Department of Justice reached a deal to overhaul policing in the city under court order, or consent decree. The deal followed a three-year investigation revealing “vast racial disparities” in arrests, extensive corruption and a troubling pattern of hundreds of allegations of use of excessive force.
Six years later, Newark — a metropolitan city of more than 300,000 with a majority of Black and brown residents — is in the midst of transformational change in its public safety policy, according to a new report released this month. Its community-centered policy approach prioritizes healing trauma, rather than simply penalizing those responsible for it.
“Newark is no longer on the ‘top 10 most violent city list,’ where it had a coveted position for almost 50 consecutive years,” Aqeela Sherrills, founder, president and board chair of the Newark Community Street Team, a group of dedicated residents aiming to reduce violence by defusing conflict, told Yahoo News. “There’s still a lot of work that has to be done, but there’s a lot of changes that have been made.”
The new report released last week, titled “The Future of Public Safety: Exploring the Power & Possibility of Newark’s…
