This week, Cato hosted an all-day conference, “Policing in America.” We brought together experts with different perspectives to discuss the opportunities and pitfalls facing police organizations today. The video of the event is below and will be available in the Cato event archives.


It was a great event all around. The speakers were able to distill complex problems and incentives into easy-to-understand presentations. Experts and laypersons alike came away with some new information that can be used to frame the policing debate in the months and years ahead. I encourage you to check out each panel and guest speaker in the videos below.


Welcoming Remarks and Panel 1: The Costs and Benefits of Emerging Police Technologies


Remarks by Jonathan Blanks, Cato Institute


Nathan Freed Wessler, Staff Attorney, Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, American Civil Liberties Union
Alex Rosenblat, Researcher and Technical Writer, Data & Society Research Institute
Lynn Overmann, Senior Policy Advisor to the US Chief Technology Officer at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy
Moderated by Matthew Feeney, Cato Institute

Remarks by Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform

Panel 2: To Serve and Protect: A Discussion about Police Accountability


Max Geron, Major, Dallas Police Department
Cynthia Lum, Associate Professor, George Mason University Department of Criminology, Law and Society and Director, Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy
Samuel Walker, Emeritus Professor, University of Nebraska-Omaha
Moderated by Wesley Lowery, Washington Post

Luncheon Remarks by Ronald L. Davis, Director, Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice

Panel 3: Police and the Community: Minority Perspectives


Vicki Gaubeca, Director, Regional Center for Border Rights, ACLU-New Mexico
Wadie E. Said, Professor, University of South Carolina School of Law
Moderated by Jonathan Blanks, Cato Institute

Panel 4: Rethinking Law Enforcement Strategies


David A. Klinger, Professor, University of Missouri-St. Louis
Clark Neily, Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
Jerry Ratcliffe, Chair, Department of Criminal Justice, Temple University
Moderated by Trevor Burrus, Cato Institute

American Attitudes Towards the Police and Closing Remarks


Emily Ekins, Cato Institute


Adam Bates, Cato Institute