“…The police, first in the form of slave patrols and later in the form of organized police agencies, have often engaged in unfair, discriminatory practices against Black people (Del Carmen, 2008;Williams & Murphy, 1990). In addition to functioning as slave patrollers who surveilled and restricted the movement of Black civilians (Bass, 2001a(Bass, , 2001b, law enforcement officials engaged in the torture and killings of freed Blacks (Lepore, 2020;Ralph, 2019). Moreover, the police have participated in efforts to suppress Black Americans via their enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, Black Codes, Jim Crow, convict leasing, and "tough on crime" laws that surfaced as a form of backlash for the civil rights movement (Blackmon, 2008;Oshinski, 1996;Williams & Murphy, 1990).…”