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Podcast: New Books in Public Policy
Episode: Michael Stauch, "Wildcat of the Streets: Detroit in the Age of Community Policing" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025)
Description: The criminalization of Black youth was central to policing in urban America during the civil rights era and continued in Detroit even after the rise of Black political control in the 1970s. Wildcat of the Streets documents how the âcommunity policingâ approach of Mayor Coleman Young (1974â1993)âincluding neighborhood police stations, affirmative action hiring policies, and public participation in law enforcement initiativesâtransformed Detroit, long considered the nationâs symbol of racial inequality and urban crisis, into a crucial site of experimentation in policing while continuing to subject many Black Detroiters to police brutality and repression.
In response, young people i...