Can Newark Maintain its Hard-Earned Police Reforms?
Four years of federal oversight might be coming to a close. The community and the cops have started to learn from one another. Can it last? April 12, 20216:00 AM
A crowd gathers at a People’s Organization for Progress rally to protest police brutality on August 17, 2020 in Newark, New Jersey. The Peoples Organization for Progress has gathered every Monday for their Justice Mondays since 2016, only taking a few weeks off during the coronavirus.
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
This story was published in partnership with The Trace.
When the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2021, Newark, New Jersey, reached a policing milestone. The city’s police had gone an entire calendar year without firing a shot at a civilian. It was a big deal: A department criticized by local activists and residents, one under the watchful eye of the federal government, finished 2020 without killing anyone the first time since 2015.