Sam Walker, Author, Civil Liberties Activist, Discusses Police Accountability, Oct. 9
September 30, 2012
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
Sam Walker, emeritus professor of criminal justice in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, will discuss the importance of police accountability on Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 5:30 p.m. in the Venable Baetjer Howard Moot Court Room of the University of Baltimore's John and Frances Angelos Law Center (home of the UB School of Law), 1415 Maryland Ave. Walker is the author of 14 books about criminal justice and civil liberties, including his 2005 title, The New World of Police Accountability, which explores how best practices have emerged in policing. The event is free and open to the public.
While attending college during the height of the civil rights movement, Walker took note of the apathetic attitude of local law enforcement, when three of his fellow activists—participants in Mississippi's 1964 "Freedom Summer," an initiative to register black voters—were murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan with police complicity.
Since those days, Walker has worked to increase public awareness and understanding of policing, criminal justice policy and civil liberties. He also has served as a member of the American Civil Liberties Union and is currently a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police's National Working Group on Sexual Offenses by Police Officers.
Walker has earned numerous awards and recognition for his work in criminology and civil liberties. He received a $1 million federal grant for an initiative covering police professionalism, and, in February 2011, the Western Society of Criminology presented him with the W.E.B. Dubois Award for contributions to criminology as it pertains to race and ethnicity.
Walker's current research involves police accountability, focusing primarily on citizen oversight of the police and police Early Warning systems.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Public Affairs and the Merrick School of Business.