MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Research taking place within WVU’s Department of Anthropology and Sociology couldn’t be more timely.
The topics of crime and social control play out in classroom discussions while protestors, police, business owners and residents are living lessons of freedom of expression and public safety in Baltimore.
A policing class recently shared research findings conducted under associate professor James Nolan, a former chief of the FBI’s Crime Analysis, Research and Development Unit.
His students, whose mission was to determine what it means to “do right” when policing today, interviewed and spent time with officers in North Central West Virginia, They worked closely with police from the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office, Westover, Granville and the university, Nolan said.
“They appeared to be very in touch with what the issues are in policing today,” he said. “They seem to be moving in the direction of the community relationship-building model.”
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences students generated questions for each law agency, Nolan said, and received forthcoming answers.
“They have to make friends with the people they serve, and that was obvious,” he said. “The students rode along and they met the people that live in the remote areas. They all seemed to be supportive of the police. Police knew the people by name.”
As a guest on MetroNews “Talkline” on Wednesday with Shauna Johnson, Nolan said widespread alienation between residents and law enforcement across the nation is not expected to reach similar levels in rural West Virginia.
Students learned Granville police chief Craig Corkrean is compiling data on what’s working in his jurisdiction.
“He’s writing professional papers and trying to demonstrate what’s being done in these rural communities can also be done in more urban communities,” Nolan said.
In his former position, Nolan provided management oversight for the National Hate Crime Data Collection Program.