Georgina Mendoza McDowell: What We Already Know About How to Reform Policing

In the past three years, public opinion has swung strongly in support of police reform, from most Americans being against it to a strong majority now supporting it.

Support for reform leapt upward in response to the horrific video of George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020. It’s terrible but true that it can take something like that to motivate change, as Martin Luther King knew. He once told a Life magazine photographer to keep shooting photos instead of helping civil rights protesters who had been knocked to the ground. He knew people had to see the images in order to not just understand, but feel what the protests were about.

It would be simplistic and wrong to say American policing now is the same as it was in the 60s. A lot has changed since then, and today’s good police departments are better than many people know, their officers willing to risk their lives for total strangers of all kinds. But it’s also simplistic and wrong to claim there’s no more need for reform. The hard data shows there is a need, whether it’s to fix bad departments or to remove the persistent biases that can remain embedded in average ones even if no one intends for them to be there.

Those biases show up not just in high-profile abuses but in daily routines. For example, black people get pulled over for traffic stops more often than white people do, even though white drivers are more likely to be carrying contraband like illegal drugs or guns. It’s unlikely many of the police involved consciously intend to be biased, but still, the behavior is biased. And even seemingly minor incidents, happening day after day, break down trust, which can lead to terrible consequences.

The good news is that we already know a lot about how to reform policing, to make it not only more fair, but more effective. It turns out that when police work in partnership with the communities they protect, crime goes down, often way down.

Spencer’s guest this time is an expert on what works in police reform. Georgina Mendoza McDowell is an attorney and public safety expert who has worked with the Obama Justice Department, a White House initiative to reduce youth violence, a Washington DC-based international development consultancy, the City of Salinas, California, and now with Evident Change. Evident Change is a data-driven policy consulting nonprofit, formerly known as the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

Georgina Mendoza McDowell

Georgina has been working in the youth violence prevention and reduction field for over 15 years. In her current role as Senior Policing Fellow at Evident Change, she is a member of a Monitoring Team working closely with U.S. DOJ, California DOJ, the courts, the community, and law enforcement. Her experience in this field ranges from local, national, and international arenas.

She worked as a Senior Crime and Violence Advisor for Creative Associates International, based out of Washington, D.C. with an emphasis on juvenile justice reform, violence prevention, and family and community engagement, with emphasis in the Latin America & Caribbean (LAC) region.

Prior to Creative, Georgina had the honor of working as a political appointee in President Obama’s Department of Justice. She served as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) with a focus on youth violence prevention efforts and reducing and eliminating race and ethnic disparities. Georgina served as the policy lead on the National Forum for Youth Violence Prevention, a White House initiative that brought diverse federal agencies to partner with local jurisdictions that create comprehensive, strategic city-wide plans to prevent and reduce youth violence by implementing prevention, intervention, enforcement and reentry strategies.

Prior to joining OJJDP, she served as the Community Safety Director and Senior Deputy City Attorney/City Prosecutor for the City of Salinas, California.  As Community Safety Director, Georgina led the effort to develop and implement a strategic work plan that incorporates evidence-based strategies for gang prevention, intervention, suppression, and re-entry.  In October 2011, Georgina was invited by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to be a member of his National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence.

Ms. McDowell earned her bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science from Santa Clara University and her Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California.  She is admitted to the California State Bar.

Georgina is also a proud mom to two happy, active and creative toddlers and wife to a wonderful man who recently retired from military service after 23 years. She continues to serve her community of Salinas and Monterey County by serving on the Boards of Rancho Cielo and the YWCA Monterey County. She likes hiking, eating good food with friends and family, and watching Peppa Pig with her kids.