ABSTRACT
We live in a time when the social order is out-of-order. Crime is rampant, and so are citizens’ encounters with corrupt police and police criminality. Communal disorder and injustice have residents as hostages in their neighborhoods. In Black communities, the sentiment that police can be fair and just, yet alone, maintaining social order, preventing, investigating, and solving crimes is limited or nonexistent. Centuries of discrimination, inequality, brutality, and injustice in Black communities with police have heightened police distrust. However, not all police are unethical or criminals, nor is every citizen law-abiding or innocent. Existing citizen–police relationship-building programs have limited long-term effectiveness in eliminating communal disorder and distrust of police in Black communities. Bold and innovative strategies are needed to safeguard justice, maintain respect, and ensure Black communities’ safety. This chapter explores the lens of social epidemiology, legal epidemiology, and citizen science as frameworks for Blacks to train police to uphold the law justly and to efficiently interact with Black communities. The earnest intent of these public health and citizen science approaches are to: (1) establish crime prevention and safety accountability, (2) sustain communal justice, and (3) create bidirectional civility between police and Black communities.
