Baltimore Police Turn To HBCUs To Help Rebuild Public Trust
The Baltimore Police Department has announced a new partnership with two historically Black universities to create a 10-week internship program. Students will shadow officers in roles ranging from data analytics and administration to special investigations or street patrol.
Landwebs
The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) has announced a partnership with two historically Black universities in Baltimore, MD. BPD has hired a summer cohort of interns from Coppin State and Morgan State universities as part of an educational pilot program designed to train students interested in police work, the Baltimore Sun reports.
But Baltimore’s police commissioner believes that the initiative may do more than that: he’s hoping bringing in young people from “minority communities” will help BPD’s mission to rebuild public trust.
“Who better to help regain trust than young people from the communities most likely to be negatively impacted by police — minority communities?” said Commissioner Michael Harrison.
Interns from Coppin State and Morgan State universities will earn a $10,000 stipend for the 10-week program, where they’ll shadow officers in roles ranging from data analytics and administration to special investigations or street patrol and create a capstone project on a specific function of the department.
The Baltimore-based pilot is sponsored by the Police Executive Research Forum, and the organization hopes to build the concept out to a nationwide program collaborating with historically Black colleges and universities in the future.
