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Samuel Walker (police accountability expert)

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Samuel Walker
Born
Samuel Emlen Walker

(1942-12-19) December 19, 1942 (age 81)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Civil liberties, policing, and criminal justice expert
Years active1964-present

Samuel Emlen Walker (born December 19, 1942)[1] is an American civil liberties, policing, and criminal justice expert.[2] He specializes in police accountability.

Early life and education

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Walker was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, but grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio. His father was an executive who worked for the railroad.[2]

In December 1964, Walker received a B.A. in American Culture from the University of Michigan, where he wrote film reviews for The Michigan Daily student newspaper for a semester.[3] In 1970, Walker received an M.A. in American history from University of Nebraska Omaha. In 1973, he earned a PhD in American history from Ohio State University. His thesis was on Terence V. Powderly, and was called "Terence V. Powderly, "Labour Mayor": Workingmen's Politics in Scranton, Pennsylvania 1870-1884". His thesis advisor was K. Austin Kerr.[1]

Career

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Mississippi Freedom Summer

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In the spring of 1964, civil rights activist Robert "Bob" Moses visited the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in a drive to recruit students like Walker to go to Mississippi as part of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO)'s Mississippi Freedom Summer.[4] After orientation/training in Ohio and raising US$500 for bail,[5] for six weeks in the summer of 1964 starting in June 1964, Walker worked as a volunteer, going on door-to-door voter registration drives to encourage African American citizens to register to vote.[6][7][8] Part of the effort was to highlight the restrictions on voter registration and to establish a non-violent right to organize and empower in the face of institutional terrorism of the Black community in Mississippi.[9][10][11]

After graduating from college, Walker returned to Mississippi in January 1965 to continue the Mississippi Freedom Project.[12] Walker was based in Gulfport, Mississippi until August 1966.[13]

Teaching

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From 1969 to 1970, Walker was a teaching assistant at the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) while earning his master's degree. From 1970 to 1973, he was a teaching associate at Ohio State University while working on his PhD.[1] In August 1974, Walker was hired as an assistant professor of criminal justice at UNO, eventually becoming a professor of criminal justice in 1984. From 1993 to 1999, he was Kiewit Professor, and then from 1999 to 2005, he was Isaacson Professor. Walker retired as a professor emeritus in 2005.[14] He continues to work as a consultant.[2]

Walker has said that he started out with a focus on police-community relations. That expanded into the area of citizen oversight of the police, and eventually became a specialization of concentrating on police accountability.[5]

Civil liberties expert

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In 2000, Walker was hired to work on a grant funded report for the U.S. Department of Justice called Early Intervention Systems for Law Enforcement Agencies: A Planning and Management Guide, published in 2004.[15]

In 2013, Walker testified in New York City as an expert against the NYPD's policy of stop and frisk.[16][17]

From 2015 to 2016, Walker worked as a consultant to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Ottawa, Ontario on a project for the development of an Early Intervention System (EIS) for its police force.[2][18]

Walker has created the Police Accountability Resource Guide, an online guide with links and resources for educators and organizers.[19][20]

Membership

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  • 1964: Ann Arbor Friends of SNCC, spokesman[21]
  • 2001-2004: National Academy of Sciences, Panel Member for "Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence"
  • 2015-present: American Law Institute (ALI), Advisory Committee Member on Principles of Law: Police Investigations[22]
  • 2015-2016: National Academy of Sciences, Consultant on "Project of Proactive Policing"

Awards

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  • 2012: Langum Prize, David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History or Biography for Presidents and Civil Liberties From Wilson to Obama
  • 2018: Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska (AFCON), Academic Freedom Award
  • 2018: American Society of Criminology (ASC) Division of Policing, Lifetime Achievement Award[23]

Selected works and publications

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Selected works

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  • Walker, Samuel Emlen (1973). Terence V. Powderly, "Labour Mayor": Workingmen's Politics in Scranton, Pennsylvania 1870-1884 (PhD). Ohio State University. OCLC 973331728. ProQuest 302707706.
  • Walker, Samuel (1977). A Critical History of Police Reform: The Emergence of Professionalism. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-669-01292-7. OCLC 869372240.
  • Walker, Samuel (1992). The American Civil Liberties Union: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 978-0-815-30047-2. OCLC 25048220. – part of Garland Reference Library of Social Science, Organizations and Interest Groups v. 743, 3
  • Walker, Samuel (1993). Taming the System: The Control of Discretion in Criminal Justice, 1950-1990. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-195-07820-6. OCLC 26012412.
  • Walker, Samuel (1994). Hate Speech: The History of an American Controversy. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-803-2476-35. OCLC 28419843.
  • Walker, Samuel (1998). The Rights Revolution: Rights and Community in Modern America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-602-56627-9. OCLC 559885444.
  • Walker, Samuel (1998). Popular Justice: A History of American Criminal Justice (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-195-07450-5. OCLC 36407878.
  • Walker, Samuel (1999). In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU (2nd ed.). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-809-32270-1. OCLC 40675103.
  • Walker, Samuel (2001). Police Accountability: The Role of Citizen Oversight. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thompson Learning. ISBN 978-0-534-58158-9. OCLC 44876949.
  • Walker, Samuel (2004). Civil Liberties in America: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-576-07927-0. OCLC 469328124.
  • Walker, Samuel E. (2005). The New World of Police Accountability (1st ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. ISBN 978-1-412-90943-3. OCLC 56334321.
  • Walker, Samuel (2006). Sense and Nonsense About Crime and Drugs: A Policy Guide (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth. ISBN 978-0-534-61654-0. OCLC 64442729.
  • Walker, Samuel (2012). Presidents and Civil Liberties from Wilson to Obama: A Story of Poor Custodians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-01660-6. OCLC 809195598.
  • Walker, Samuel; Katz, Charles M. (2018). The Police in America: An Introduction (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 978-1-259-14076-1. OCLC 967939018.
  • Walker, Samuel; Spohn, Cassia; DeLone, Miriam (2018). The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-337-09186-2. OCLC 954105208.
  • Walker, Samuel E.; Archbold, Carol A. (2019). The New World of Police Accountability (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. ISBN 978-1-544-33919-1. OCLC 1090424574.

Selected publications

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Walker, Samuel Emlen (1973). Terence V. Powderly, "Labour Mayor": Workingmen's Politics in Scranton, Pennsylvania 1870-1884 (PhD). Ohio State University. OCLC 973331728. ProQuest 302707706.
  2. ^ a b c d Kuiper, Jason (11 February 2015). "Sam Walker". Omaha Magazine.
  3. ^ Walker, Sam; Zimmerman, David (16 January 1964). "Cinema Guild: Funny 'Gold Rush', Maudlin 'La Strada'". The Michigan Daily. 74 (85): Image 4.
  4. ^ "Freedom Summer Volunteers". SNCC Digital Gateway. 1964.
  5. ^ a b Walker, Samuel (2014). "Freedom Summer: Reflections from a Freedom Summer Volunteer". NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Archived from the original on 22 July 2016.
  6. ^ Werner, Hank (3 July 1964). "Volunteers in the State - July 3, 1964". Hank Werner papers, Freedom Summer Digital Collection. Wisconsin Historical Society. p. 7. Walker, Sam, 2249 Harcourt Dr., Cleveland, Ohio; Gulfport.
  7. ^ Johnson, Ja'Nel; Walker, Samuel (14 July 2014). "Freedom Summer: 50 years later [Audio]". KVNO News.
  8. ^ Johnson, Ja'Nel (14 July 2014). "Freedom Summer: 50 years later [Transcript]". KVNO News.
  9. ^ Meredith, John; Walker, Sam (photos provided by) (20 September 1964). "COFO Workers Battle Closed Mississippi Society [Cover Page]". The Michigan Daily. 75 (19): Image 1.
  10. ^ Meredith, John; Walker, Sam (photos provided by) (20 September 1964). "COFO Workers Battle Closed Mississippi Society [cont'd]". The Michigan Daily. 75 (19): Image 2.
  11. ^ Logan, Casey (25 June 2014). "Q&A: UNO prof. recounts 'reign of terror' in 1960s Mississippi". Omaha World-Herald.
  12. ^ Walker, Sam (4 March 1965). "Mississippi Freedom Project: The Struggle for Civil Rights Continues". The Michigan Daily. 75 (134): Image 4.
  13. ^ "Mississippi Summer Project: Workers in State as of June 29, 1964. Gulfport-Biloxi". R. Hunter Morey papers, 1962-1967. Wisconsin Historical Society. 1964. p. 13.
  14. ^ "Vita: Sam Walker" (PDF). Sam Walker. October 2018.
  15. ^ Walker, Samuel (2004). Early Intervention Systems for Law Enforcement Agencies: A Planning and Management Guide (PDF). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. ISBN 978-1-932-58226-0. OCLC 714810836.
  16. ^ Johnson, Ja'Nel; Walker, Samuel (17 September 2013). "Stop and Frisk: Expert shares experiences from the witness stand [Audio]". KVNO News.
  17. ^ Johnson, Ja'Nel (17 September 2013). "Stop and Frisk: Expert shares experiences from the witness stand [Transcript]". KVNO News.
  18. ^ Petto, Sam (September 2015). "UNO Expert Begins Consultant Work for Royal Canadian Mounted Police". University of Nebraska Omaha.
  19. ^ Walker, Samuel. "Police Accountability Resource Guide". Samuel Walker. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  20. ^ "Professor Emeritus Sam Walker". School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska Omaha. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  21. ^ Walker, Sam (9 December 1964). "Letters to the Editor: Arrests in Mississippi Result of Public Protest". The Michigan Daily. 75 (83): Image 4.
  22. ^ Institute, The American Law. "Current Projects: Principles of the Law – Policing". American Law Institute.
  23. ^ "Awards – Division of Policing". American Society of Criminology. 2018.
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