Researchers at the Ohio State University have released a report examining the Columbus Police Department’s response to the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd. The report is based on interviews with more than 170 people, including police officers and protesters, and is divided into several chapters, covering themes such citizen-police relations, city leadership, policy and training, etc. The report culminates in more than two dozen recommendations. This is an important document, and I am honored to have played a small role as a member of the advisory team. Here’s how the report begins:

The murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by Derek Chauvin, a White Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer on May 25, 2020, sparked months-long protests about racism and policing across the country and around the globe, including Columbus, Ohio. Captured on video and spread quickly through social media, Floyd’s death galvanized Americans to take to the streets in the midst of a global health pandemic to voice their anger and frustration about the many Black Americans who had been killed by police. The fairness of policing practice as applied to communities of color, particularly Black communities, and more fundamentally, the existence of the police as a legally sanctioned public institution were the clear motivations for the protests.

A recording of a video conference held shortly before the public release of the report is available here.