The town-and-gown Task Force on Policing and Communities of Color released a new report this week reviewing progress made in the last five years and making recommendations to further improve police-community relations in Centre County.
When it was originally formed in 2015, the task force focused on the State College Police Department and Penn State University Police and Public Safety. Reconvened last fall, the task force this time also surveyed each of Centre County’s other police forces — Bellefonte Borough and Ferguson, Patton and Spring townships.
Since September 2020, the reconvened task force comprised of 31 university faculty, staff and administrators and community leaders assessed data, procedures and practices from local police departments that could contribute to bias, studied progress made since the 2016 report, identified areas where progress is needed and made new recommendations for improving relationships among law enforcement and minority groups.