Police surveillance and how race plays a role in it will be the topic of the fall semester’s last scheduled Conversations on Race and Policing.

“Policing’s Small Toolbox: Race and the Rise of Surveillance Policing,” presented by Matthew Guariglia, an affiliated scholar at the Hastings Center for Criminal Justice, will take place at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 30, on Zoom.

The talk is free and open to the public, and can be accessed from a PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android at https://csusb.zoom.us/j/97960458784.

The origins of facial recognition and algorithmic policing go back much further than the internet or even the computer. Guariglia’s talk will explore the origins of technocratic and surveillance-based policing in a moment when police searched the world to find new methods of subordinating increasingly diverse multi-racial and multi-ethnic U.S. cities. 

Conversations on Race and Policing, also known as CoRP, began in the aftermath of the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd while in the custody of four Minneapolis, Minn., police officers. A video of the incident posted on social media led to widespread protests, the firing of four police officers, the arrest and conviction of one officer on a second-degree murder and related charges, the other three on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder – and a spotlight worldwide on race and policing.

The series has featured scholars, journalists, law enforcement officers, lawyers, activists, artists, educators, administrators and others from throughout the nation who shared their experience and expertise on issues related to race and policing.

More than 50 forums have taken place, and video recordings of the sessions are posted online on the Conversations on Race and Policing Lecture Series Archive. 

The series is organized by CSUSB students, staff and faculty, including recent history master of arts graduate, Cecelia Smith; history master of arts student Matt Patino; Mary Texeira, professor emerita, sociology; Jeremy Murray, professor of history; Robie Madrigal, public affairs/communication specialist for the CSUSB John M. Pfau Library; and community member Stan Futch, president of the Westside Action Group.

For more information, contact Robie Madrigal at rmadriga@csusb.edu or Jeremy Murray at jmurray@csusb.edu.

Conversations on Race and Policing Nov. 30 event flyer