Our neighborhoods, our police: Norm Stamper at TEDxRainier

Crime changes the way we live, through inconvenience, resentment, disorder, and fear. Is it possible to prevent crime? Norm Stamper, former police commissioner of Seattle, believes we can by insisting on a partnership with the police; by creating an attitude that the police are the people's police; and by becoming communities that are organized, mobilized, and committed to making community safe and just.

Norm Stamper is a 34 year veteran police officer, serving the first 28 years in San Diego and the last six (1994-2000) as Seattle's Chief of Police where he led a process of major organizational restructuring and created new bureaus of Professional Responsibility, Community Policing, and Family and Youth Protection. He holds a Ph.D. in leadership and human behavior and undergraduate degrees in criminal justice administration. He was a founding member of the Advisory Council of the Clinton administration's Violence Against Women Act. He remains active in efforts to reform the nation's drug laws, abolish the death penalty, end family violence, and strengthen police accountability. He is the author of Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Expose of the Dark Side of American Policing. Currently at work on a novel, he lives and writes in the San Juan Islands, and blogs for the Huffington Post.

This talk was given November 9, 2013 in Seattle at TEDxRainier, a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)