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KFI News Presents: Policing for Tomorrow is a four-part ongoing exploration of policing and how it might change in light of recent protests and demands. This KFI News production is hosted by award-winning KFI News Correspondent Steve Gregory and is produced by Steve Gregory and Jacob Gonzalez.
Part 4 features more stakeholders in the balance between law enforcement and communities of color. Today's guests include: Dr. Tabatha Jones Jolivet, Dr. Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter L.A.; Emada Tingirides, Deputy Chief, LAPD Community Safety Partnership Bureau; Monica Rodriguez, L.A. City Councilmember and Chair of the Public Safety Committee; and Connie Rice, civil rights activist and attorney.
If you missed any previous episode you can click to hear them below:
Today's episode featured the following guests:
Photo: CalStateLA
Dr. Melina Abdullah, Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter - Los Angeles.
Melina Abdullah is Professor and former Chair of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Southern California in Political Science and her B.A. from Howard University in African American Studies. She was appointed to the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission in 2014 and is a recognized expert on race, gender, class, and social movements. Abdullah is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, with subjects ranging from political coalition building to womanist mothering.
Photo: LAPD
Emada Tingirides, Deputy Chief, LAPD – Community Safety Partnership Bureau
Captain Emada Tingirides was born in the City of Los Angeles to a single mother and was raised in Watts and South West Los Angeles. After one year in Monterey Park, Captain Tingirides moved to Chatsworth California throughout her High School and College years. Emada is the grandchild to a former Los Angeles County Probation Corrections Officer and Los Angeles Unified School District teacher of 35 years. She is also the daughter of a Nurse Practitioner who began her career in the Emergency Room at the Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center.
In 1995 Emada joined the Los Angeles Police Department and completed her probationary period in the West Los Angeles Area. She worked in Downtown Los Angeles, Central Division before moving to Southwest Area where she served as a Senior Lead Officer for five years. Emada promoted to the rank of Sergeant in 2006 and completed her probationary time in Harbor Division. In 2007, Southeast Area Community Police Station was in search of a supervisor who had the ability to overhaul and reinvigorate the Community Relations Office.
Emada saw an opportunity to return to the community in which she was raised and transferred to Southeast Area with the goal of uniting a community and bridging the historical gap between law enforcement and the community it served. In 2011 Emada was selected by the Chief of Police to coordinate the Community Safety Partnership Program (CSP) along with Civil Rights Attorney Connie Rice of the Advancement Project. CSP has dedicated police officers assigned to seven public housing developments in East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles and the community of Watts. The primary purpose of this program is relationship based policing, addressing quality of life issues in public housing, youth programing and providing safe passage for youth to get back and forth to school safely.
Photo: WikiCommons
Monica Rodriguez, LA City Councilmember, Chair – Public Safety Committee
Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez was elected to the Los Angeles City Council on July 1, 2017, becoming the first woman elected to serve the Seventh District and the third Latina to serve on the City Council. A lifelong resident of the Seventh District, she brings more than twenty years of community, public, private, and nonprofit sector experience earning a reputation as an innovative, results-oriented leader.
Her priorities as Councilwoman include prioritizing public safety, developing opportunities for youth, establishing healthy communities, building a strong local economy, supporting small businesses and creating an efficient local city government that addresses the needs of residents.
Photo: AdvancementProject.org
Connie Rice, Civil Rights Activist and Attorney
Connie Rice is renowned for her unconventional approaches to tackling problems of inequity and exclusion. For example, she has teamed up with conservatives on education issues and the Los Angeles Police Department to support the Watts gang truce. Rice has received more than 50 major awards for her leadership of diverse coalitions, and her non-traditional approaches to litigating major cases involving police misconduct, employment discrimination and fair public resource allocation.
Rice is a graduate of Harvard College and the New York University School of Law. In 1998, the Los Angeles Times designated her one of 24 leaders considered the “most experienced, civic-minded and thoughtful people on the subject of Los Angeles.” In 1999 California Law Business named her one of California’s top 10 most influential lawyers. She serves on the boards of the Public Policy Institute of California and public radio station KPCC.