Welcome to Policing in America – a podcast about race and policing: the good, the bad and the ugly. The goal? To have, at times, uncomfortable conversations to spark positive change. Your host is currently the Officer in Charge of a unit that creates, delivers and maintains police training in the largest urban police department on the west coast of America: Sergeant Tom Datro.
Inside the Kill Zone - The Psychology of Police Deadly Force.
David A. Klinger is a professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, a researcher of deadly force, and the author of Into the Kill Zone: A Cop's Eye View of Deadly Force,
His publications are numerous and a simple Google search will reveal several incredible papers and articles penned by Prof Klinger.
I hope you enjoy the episode as much as I enjoyed recording it!
23 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT
When Justice Fails Survivors: Punishment, Healing, and the Truth We Avoid
This episode I had the honor of speaking with the wonderful and amazing Marlee Liss. Marlee is single-handedly changing how justice looks and feels - depsite centuries of traditional punishment systems. Marlee's work has been featured in Forbes, Huff Post, Buzzfeed, the Mel Robbins Show and more. As an award-winning speaker, (https://www.marleeliss.com/speaking) she's delivered talks for: National Sexual Assault Conference, Vanderbilt University, University of Toronto, Action Trauma Summit, Women's Mental Health Conference at Yale and more. Her story was made into a documentary directed by Kelsey Darragh titled, 'The Limits of Forgiveness,' and her book on re-imagining justice will be released with Penguin Random House in Spring 2027. Learn more at @marleeliss (https://www.instagram.com/marleeliss/) and @survivors4justicereform (https://www.instagram.com/survivors4justicereform/)
learn more about Marlee and support her work here:
instagram - https://www.instagram.com/marleeliss/
https://www.instagram.com/survivors4justicereform/
https://www.marleeliss.com/speaking
https://www.survivors4justicereform.com/
19 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT
When biology meets the badge.
In this episode, I sit down with Professor Steven James of Washington State University to explore one of the most overlooked variables in modern policing: sleep.
We talk about what happens when human physiology collides with high-stakes decision-making — and how chronic fatigue quietly shapes reaction time, emotional regulation, judgment, and public safety outcomes.
If we demand professionalism, restraint, and precision from officers, are we designing systems that support those expectations — or undermine them?
This conversation challenges leaders to rethink accountability, scheduling, and what evidence-based policing really requires.
https://medicine.wsu.edu/directory/wsu-profile/stevejames/
Inside a recent episode
When Justice Fails Survivors: Punishment, Healing, and the Truth We Avoid
Published 23 Mar 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] Yeah. Well, restorative justice is really an umbrella term for any process that prioritizes healing over punishment. And when I say healing, that doesn't just mean closing our eyes and breathing in peace. Like when people picture this very fluffy process, but when I say healing, that includes, um, deep accountability work. It includes doing as much as we can to right wrongs, to meet the needs of victims who were harmed. Um, It means ensuring that everyone walks away a safer member of society so that they don't do this again. And there's a lot of reasons why survivors might want this and why they do want this. […]
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