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published Tuesday recommended significant changes to Centre County’s police departments.
The Task Force on Policing and Communities of Color spent eight months reviewing local police data and practices from six different departments, including State College, Bellefonte, and Penn State’s campus police.
The report recommends police departments overhaul their hiring efforts to diversify units and better represent their communities. It also suggests implementing specialized training for officers in areas like mental health, substance abuse and domestic violence.
Additionally, the report found the six examined police departments all track data differently. The group recommended creating consistency to cut down on potential biases.
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.
Penn State will lift most masking requirements in university facilities for individuals who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 on June 28.
Non-vaccinated individuals, however, will be required to continue wearing masks inside university buildings after that date, according to a university release on Monday. It was not clear if or how that will be enforced.
Following Centers for Disease Control guidance, face coverings will still be required, regardless of vaccination status, on public transportation and in certain settings such as campus health care facilities.
Currently, the university requires all individuals, vaccinated or not, to wear masks inside campus buildings and for unvaccinated individuals to wear masks and maintain social distancing while outdoors on university property.
Local news from StateCollege.com and Centre County Partners. Read about Ferguson Township Moves to Adopt New Masking Guidelines and more from the State College, PA region