Following a summer of protests against police brutality and in honor of the lives lost to it, FRONTLINE's latest documentary examines race, policing and the struggle to hold law enforcement departments accountable.
Following up on reporting from 2016 about the Newark Police Deparment, "Policing the Police 2020" looks at the challenge of reforming law enforcement in "a poor city plagued by violent crime, where the victims and the perpetrators are usually black, and the police force itself is largely black and Latino."
Why is Newark, New Jersey, a microcosm for issues of race and policing in America? What progress has been made since 2016?
Why is it so hard to change how cops operate? What systemic issues impede reform?
"Policing the Police 2020" is now available to stream on pbs.org/frontline, The PBS Video App and on YouTube.
Guest: Jelani Cobb, FRONTLINE contributor, staff writer for The New Yorker and professor at Columbia Journalism School
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*This interview was recorded on Wednesday, September 16.