Press release from UNC Asheville:
Chris Burbank, former chief of police in Salt Lake City, Utah, and now an executive with the Center for Policing Equity (CPE), will give a free public lecture, Mass Incarceration and Racial Inequities in Policing: Solutions from a Police Chief, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 18. Burbank’s talk will take place in UNC Asheville’s Sherrill Center, in the Ingles Mountain View Room and is sponsored by the university’s Center for Diversity Education and Psychology Club.
At CPE, Burbank serves as director of law enforcement engagement for the National Justice Database, the nation’s first database tracking national statistics on police behavior, including stops and use of force. CPE created the database and is working to standardize data collection across many of the country’s police departments, with law enforcement agencies serving 25 percent of the nation’s population now participating.
Burbank was one of 10 police chiefs who met in 2010 with Attorney General Eric Holder regarding Arizona immigration laws, and he is an outspoken opponent to the cross deputization of police officers as immigration enforcement agents. In 2013, he was one of six police chiefs invited by President Barack Obama to discuss his administration’s plan and direction concerning gun violence in America. He has addressed the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary regarding racial profiling and civil rights issues.
Burbank, who also holds the title of vice president of strategic partnerships at CPE, is a past first vice president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association and was named Utahn of the Year in 2011 by the Salt Lake Tribune. He served the Salt Lake City Department of Police for 24 years, nine of them as chief, until retiring in 2015. Burbank holds a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology from the University of Utah and is a graduate of the FBI’s National Executive Institute.
For more information about the April 18 talk at UNC Asheville, contact Keith Cox, assistant professor of psychology, at kcox2@unca.edu or 828.251.6829.
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