The Center for Policing Equity (CPE) is a think tank devoted to promoting racial equity in policing. CPE’s stated goal is to make policing “less racist, less deadly, and less omnipresent.” ¹

Founded in 2007, CPE has become one of the preeminent left-of-center policing policy groups in the country. In 2022 alone, CPE’s recommendations were implemented in 18 law enforcement agencies in nine states, potentially impacting up to 21 million individuals. ²

History

In 2004, the Stanford University Policing and Racial Bias Conference was hosted by Professor Jennifer L. Eberhardt. Three years later, a second conference was held and brought together then-Denver Police Department Division Chief Tracie L. Keesee and Professor Phillip Atiba Solomon. Kessee and Denver Police Chief Gerald Whitman asked Solomon, a specialist in race relations, how to create an “unbiased” police force. Solomon responded with a research proposal that included fieldwork in the Denver Police Department with tests for officers before and after the initiative. The proposal was enacted, and at the end of the program, the Denver Police Department altered numerous policies, including hiring more female police officers. ³

Solomon and Keesee launched the Center for Policing Equity to use the Denver program as a template for similar initiatives in other police departments across the United States. In 2008, the two went to the Major Cities Chiefs Conference in San Diego and pitched their policing reform model. Police departments in Chicago, Edmonton, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles County, Milwaukee, Nashville, Newark, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Seattle, Toronto, and Virginia Beach volunteered to be part of their research. ⁴

CPE was initially based out of the University of California Los Angeles. In 2016, CPE moved to New York City. Later, it moved to Pasadena, California. ^{5 6}

Policing

The Center for Policing Equity has produced policy recommendations concerning six areas of policing: crowd management, data collection and insights, mental health, redesigning public safety, school safety, and traffic safety. ⁷

The recommendations for redesigning public safety include means to reduce the “footprint” of policing on communities partially through the increased use of “violence interrupter” alternatives, including LIFE Camp in New York, and increased welfare provisions. ⁸

The recommendations for mental health also suggest relying on policing alternative “community-based first responders,” including CAHOOTS in Eugene, Oregon, STAR in Denver, Colorado, BHEARD in New York City, and Portland Street Response. Other recommendations include training officers in de-escalation, and fighting “systemic racism in the practices of mental health” by increasing funding for mental health treatment in racial and ethnic minority communities. ⁹

CPE’s white paper on school safety primarily focuses on the conditions of racial and ethnic minority students who are allegedly subject to “unjust, ineffective, and unequal policing” at the hands of armed officers in schools. It claimed that officers not only fail to prevent “extremely rare” school shootings but tend to discriminate against racial and ethnic minority students as evidenced by higher disciplinary rates. CPE recommends replacing armed officers with community-based response initiatives. ¹⁰

CPE hosts the largest database on police behavior in the National Justice Database, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. ¹¹

Leadership

Phillip Atiba Solomon is the co-founder and CEO of the Center for Policing Equity and works as a Professor of African American Studies and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. Solomon also served as a panelist for President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. In September 2023, TIME published an article by Solomon detailing his decision to change his last name from Goff to Solomon, and refusal to allow his wife to take his last name or vice versa so he could combat the “sexist” practice. ^{12 13}

Tracie Keesee is the co-founder, president, and COO of CPE. Keesee previously served as the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner of equity and inclusion, advisor to the police commissioner on implementing accountability systems, and deputy commissioner of training. In 2021, Keesee was appointed to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s international independent expert mechanism regarding racial justice and equality in law enforcement throughout the world. ¹⁴

Funding

In 2019, CPE received $30 million from The Audacious Project to enhance COMPStat for justice and conduct further research into reducing racial bias in policing. ¹⁵

Also in 2019, CPE received $350,000 from the Players Coalition Charitable Foundation. ¹⁶

In 2017, CPE received $795,000 from the Schott Foundation for Public Education to analyze disciplinary practices in Florida’s Broward County Public Schools. ¹⁷

Also in 2017, CPE received funding from the Arthur and Patricia Hill Foundation to finance its Leadership in Empowering Advocates Program. ¹⁸

Also in 2017, CPE received $1 million from the Google Foundation. Nine other police reform groups received a total of $9.5 million from the foundation. ¹⁹

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a partnership with CPE to promote the hiring of more racial and ethnic minorities through the Civil Rights Division-Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. ²⁰

In 2011, CPE received funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Russel Sage Foundation. ^{21 22}

1. “Join Us.” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 1, 2023. https://policingequity.org/get-involved/join-us.
2. “Unblocking Bold Action Toward Justice.” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/images/pdfs-doc/reports/CPE-AnnualReport-2022_Spread.pdf.
3. “Our History.” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 1, 2023. https://policingequity.org/about/who-we-are/history.
4. “Our History.” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 1, 2023. https://policingequity.org/about/who-we-are/history.
5. “UCLA Center for Policing Equity to Relocate to New York.” Center for Policing Equity. March 22, 2016. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/donate/ucla-center-for-policing-equity-to-relocate-to-new-york.
6. “Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon (f.k.a. Goff).” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/about/team/executive-leadership/staff/dr-phillip-atiba-goff.
7. “Featured Resources.” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/what-we-do/policy-solutions.
8. “A Roadmap for Exploring New Models of Funding Public Safety.” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/redesigning-public-safety/43-cpe-toolkit-redesigning-public-safety-roadmap/file.
9. “Mental Health Emergency Response.” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/mental-health/64-cpe-brief-mentalhealth/file.
10. “Redesigning Public Safety.” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/school-safety/71-white-paper-school-safety/file.
11. “Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon (f.k.a. Goff).” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/about/team/executive-leadership/staff/dr-phillip-atiba-goff.
12. “Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon (f.k.a. Goff).” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/about/team/executive-leadership/staff/dr-phillip-atiba-goff.
13. Solomon, Phillip Atiba. “What I Gained When I Gave Up My Father’s Last Name.” Time. September 1, 2023. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://time.com/6310031/father-last-name-essay/.
14. “Dr. Tracie L. Keesee.” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/about/team/executive-leadership/staff/dr-tracie-keesee.
15. “Center for Policing Equity Revealed as a 2019 Audacious Project.” Center for Policing Equity. April 16, 2019. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/newsroom/official-statements/center-for-policing-equity-revealed-as-a-2019-audacious-project.
16. “Grants.” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/donate/tag/Grants.
17. “Center for Policing Equity with the Schott Foundation to Help End the School-to-Prison Pipeline in California.” Center for Policing Equity. September 15, 2017. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/newsroom/official-statements/center-for-policing-equity-partners-with-the-schott-foundation-to-help-end-the-school-to-prison-pipeline-in-florida.
18. “Arthur and Patricia Hill Foundation Offers Generous Support to the Center for Policing Equity’s LEAP Program.” Center for Policing Equity. June 18, 2017. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/donate/arthur-and-patricia-hill-foundation-offers-generous-support-to-the-center-for-policing-equity-s-leap-program.
19. “Google Gives $1 Million for Justice and Shines Light on Dark History of Lynching.” Center for Policing Equity. June 14, 2017. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/donate/google-gives-1-million-for-justice-and-shines-light-on-dark-history-of-lynching.
20. “U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Announces New Research Partnership with CPE, EEOC to Advance Diversity in Law Enforcement.” Center for Policing Equity. December 11, 2015. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/donate/u-s-department-of-justice-civil-rights-division-announces-new-research-partnership-with-cpe-eeoc-to-advance-diversity-in-law-enforcement.
21. “The Atlantic Philanthropies.” Center for Policing Equities. July 13, 2011. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/donate/the-atlantic-philanthropies.
22. “Grants.” Center for Policing Equity. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://policingequity.org/donate/tag/Grants.