Monday, June 27, 2016

FRONTLINE Episode Regarding Newark Police Department to Air This Week


Newark, New Jersey: The next episode of FRONTLINE on PBS will be about the Newark Police Department. 

'Policing the Police' will air nationally on Tuesday, June 28th. Locally, it can be viewed WNET 13 at 10:00pm. It was produced by James Jacoby and Anya Bourg, and will feature Jelani Cobb of The New Yorker. 

The film's trailer describes Newark as "one of the most violent cities in America", and includes scenes shot at a meeting at Newark City Hall, an arrest outside of Norfolk Liquors at the corner of Norfolk and New Streets, and interviews with NPD officers. 

KPBS reports that the film "gives viewers a raw and complex look at the challenge of changing how cops operate in a place like Newark". The station says that Mayor Ras Baraka is interviewed in 'Policing the Police'.

The release of the film comes after The Newark Police Department's Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) was unanimously approved by the Newark City Council in March following its 2015 creation by Mayor Ras Baraka under executive order. Several residents, in addition to representatives from the Ironbound Community Corporation, Newark NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU of NJ), New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance, and Newark Communities for Accountable Policing (N-CAP) spoke before the council at that city council meeting.

At the time, James Stewart Jr., the president of the Newark Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 12, which represents NPD officers, told Essex County Place that "we will move forward, along with the Superior Officers Association, and challenge the CCRB on its merits in any available forum, including Superior Court, to determine what actions are allowed by a New Jersey CCRB, and what actions are not".


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