Abstract
Some police officers have been studying the strategies of nonviolence, as presented in the words and actions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to incorporate them into their own policing strategies. This article explores the principles of the Kingian philosophy and how they are applied in the Tallahassee Police Department while placing this police reform into a context of restorative justice. The paper also reflects upon the potential value of this strategy in producing a more responsive and less violent police force which is equipped to improve police community relations. Finally, this paper explores the dialectic relationship of reform and repression as it contemplates on the potential of this program, or any other criminal justice ‘;reform,’ for producing social justice.
Notes
David E. Barlow is an Associate Professor at the Department of Criminal Justice of the Fayetteville State University; Melissa Hickman Barlow is an Associate Professor at the Department of Criminal Justice of the Fayetteville State University; Joani Scandone is a Lieutenant at the Tallahassee Police Department, Florida; Walter A. McNeil is Chief of Police at the Tallahassee Police Department, Florida. Correspondence to: David E. Barlow, Dept. of Criminal Justice, Fayetteville State University, 1200 Murchison Road, Fayetteville, North Carolina 28301, USA. Tel: 910‐822‐1086; Email: [email protected]. This paper was presented at the annual meetings of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in Orlando, CitationFlorida, March 1999.