The Aspen Institute

Join Ronald Davis, Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) of the Department of Justice, and Barry Friedman, Director of the Policing Project at New York University School of Law and author of “Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission,” as they lead our effort to identify best policing policies for ensuring justice and peace.

Ronald L. Davis was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as the Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The COPS Office is responsible for advancing community policing nationwide and supporting the community policing activities of state and local law enforcement agencies. President Obama appointed Director Davis to serve as the executive director of the newly created President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing which developed concrete recommendations to improve community trust in the police while enhancing public safety. Prior to serving as COPS Director, Davis had a distinguished career in law enforcement serving 8 years as Chief of Police of East Palo Alto and 20 years with the Oakland Police Department. Davis was recognized for his innovative community policing efforts to dramatically reduce crime and violence in a city once named as the murder capital of the United States. D avis currently serves as a principle consultant at 21st Century Policing.
Barry Friedman serves as the Director of the Policing Project at New York University School of Law, where he is the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law and Affiliated Professor of Politics. He has taught, litigated, and written about constitutional law, the federal courts, policing, and criminal procedure for over thirty years. Friedman serves as the Reporter for the American Law Institute’s new Principles of the Law, Policing. He is the author of “Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, February 2017), and has written numerous articles in scholarly journals, including on “Democratic Policing and the Fourth Amendment.” He appears frequently in the popular media, including the New York Times, Slate, Huffington Post, Politico, and the New Republic. He also is the author of the critically acclaimed “The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution&rdquo ; (2009). Friedman graduated with honors from the University of Chicago and received his law degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center.