The community college systems of Virginia and California will review their police training curricula in the wake of the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
Eloy Ortiz OakleyThe Virginia system will create a panel to examine the curricula used to educate law enforcement officers across its 23 colleges, said Glenn DuBois, chancellor of Virginia’s Community Colleges, in a statement on Wednesday. These community colleges are one of the state’s largest providers of law enforcement personnel.
Dr. Quentin Johnson, president of Southside Virginia Community College, will lead this effort.
California Community Colleges is one of the largest law enforcement training networks in the state. Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of the state’s 115 community colleges, told CalMatters that the institutions’ law enforcement curriculum needs a review. A review of police training and curriculum needs board approval in California, and Oakley doesn’t yet plan to put such a review to a vote. Still, a change is needed, he said.
“We need to take a hard look at what we are teaching our students, what that curriculum signals to our students, and how we can change that,” Oakley said.
