Restoring Trust In Security Agencies
Video Release: April 5, 10am PT; 7pm CET. A recording is below
In Germany as in the United States, trust in the police has fallen to a new low in recent years. The reasons for this development are as varied as they are shocking: from mistreatment of suspects, to police chats with right-wing extremist comments, to unsolved deaths in detention cells. With his book Auf dem Rechten Weg (“On the Right Track?”), journalist Aiko Kempen makes clear why it is so important to speak openly about right-wing and racist tendencies in the police. He will be joined in conversation by attorney Walter Katz (Arnold Ventures), who has advocated for evidence-based policing in Los Angeles, San Jose and Chicago that uses less force and overcomes racial discrimination. The conversation will be moderated by Alexandra Lieben.
Walter Katz is Vice President of Criminal Justice at Arnold Ventures. After beginning his career as a public defender in Southern California, Walter Katz spent the next three decades in public service, serving as an independent police auditor in San Jose, California, and as deputy inspector general for the County of Los Angeles Office of Inspector General (OIG) before returning to his hometown of Chicago in 2017 to serve as deputy chief of staff for public safety in the administration of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. In that role, Katz oversaw one of the most complex police reform efforts in the United States and served as a co-negotiator of a consent decree enacted in 2019 that resulted in the design and development of the city’s Office of Violence Prevention.
Aiko Kempen is an investigative journalist. He works for German Television (ARD), has published articles in Die Zeit, SZ-Magazin, taz, Vice Online, Tagesspiegel, among others, and headed the online editorial department of the Leipzig magazine kreuzer. He has been researching the topics of police and right-wing extremism with a critical eye for several years. At the same time, he is in intensive contact with police authorities and gives workshops for future journalists on the topic of “independent, fair and critical reporting on the police”. He teaches investigative research at the Akademie für Publizistik in Hamburg. In 2021 Aiko Kempen published the book “Auf dem Rechten Weg” (Europa Verlag).
Kren Malone is the Director of Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Library, which is the flagship library in its system and the third largest central library in the U.S. In 2020, Malone lead LAPL’s Reimaging Safety Initiative which was responsible for creating alternative solutions for safety within the libraries by providing mental health support and social services. She was the Young Adult librarian at Felipe De Neve Branch in the Central Southern Area, before becoming Branch Manager at three different branch libraries in the Western Area over a seven-year stretch.
Alexandra Lieben is the Deputy Director of the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations – and lecturer at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. She has served as faculty advisory on several social impact projects at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and teaches crisis de-escalation, conflict resolution, and cultural competency to UCLA students and professionals in the public and the private sector. She is a member of the Thomas Mann House Advisory Board.