Racial identity in policing is more complicated than we think

Calls for police reform in the context of the recent Black Lives Matter protests have included hiring more officers of color. Andrea M. Headley examines the role of identity and what it means to be a Black police officer given the contentious relations between the police and Black communities. She writes that while hiring officers of color is often seen as a remedy for reducing potential racial bias, it can place additional burdens on those officers in maintaining their own cultural identity and community links alongside their professional identity as a “police officer”.