September 25, 2015
Do the police need to adopt a "warrior mentality" in order to be effective? Or might developing social understanding skills help officers better connect with their communities? SPARQ Affiliate Jamil Zaki profiled Sue Rahr, the executive director of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, about her non-traditional, empathy-focused training program. Her philosophy is "command less, listen more." And, according to research by Zaki and other social psychologists, empathy is a learnable skill, suggesting that officers who do not typically practice empathy in their policing are capable of improvement.
Read the full article here: "When Cops Choose Empathy" in The New Yorker
