MSUM professor, Dille lecturer Joel Powell Dahlquist to speak on ‘Police Violence and the Puzzle of Compliance’
Wednesday, Oct. 12 | 4:15 p.m. | Langseth Hall 118
Joel Powell Dahlquist, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at Minnesota State University Moorhead, will present a free public lecture titled “Police Violence and the Puzzle of Compliance” on Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 4:15 p.m. in MSUM’s Langseth Hall room 118.
Dahlquist’s presentation is an honor given as the recipient of the 2022-2023 Dille Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award. The lecture will incorporate video recordings of situations involving law enforcement officers and citizens to illustrate how violence unfolds over time and the disconnect between how police and the public understand compliance, resistance and the use of force.
Dahlquist has been researching police-public interactions since he joined the MSUM faculty in 1987. He and his student research assistants have used the traditional method of studying law enforcement, examining dozens of police reports from around the country of encounters that culminated in violence, but they’ve also been scrutinizing police body camera footage and citizen-shot videos that have gone viral on social media.
“It will always be a problematic relationship in a free society,” Dahlquist said. “We take risks, and then we impose authority on top of those risks, so it’s a very difficult and complex social setting to try and manage. I want to help people sort that out.”
Dahlquist has coordinated police science education since arriving at MSUM and, in the process, has taught and mentored a significant number of active-duty law enforcement officers in the Fargo-Moorhead region and many around the nation. He is a former member of the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training.
Each year, the Dille Fund for Excellence Committee and the President select one MSUM faculty member to receive the Dille Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award. It is one of the highest honors MSUM grants to faculty.