Since the death of George Floyd in 2020, America has been searching its soul over questions of racial injustice. Many people are looking for solutions to change a police culture that disproportionately harms people of color. They’re asking hard questions about what should be done to reform law enforcement. To capture this defining moment, we followed a group of people across the U.S., working to change police departments from the outside and within.

Systemic — hosted and produced by Jo Erickson — is built on a unique collection of audio diaries and interviews gathered over the past year. You’ll hear the voices of Black police officers and activists from Colorado, Minnesota and beyond. For them, silence is not an option.

The four-part audio documentary from Colorado Public Radio (On Something, Since Columbine, Back From Broken) launches May 19.

Meet two Black police officers — a young officer in the Minneapolis suburbs and a veteran sheriff's deputy in Colorado Springs — working to protect their communities. In the wake of George Floyd's death and the nationwide protests that followed, these two women offer a glimpse of what it's like to serve in law enforcement at a time when policing itself is under fire. They also speak frankly about how their jobs and their identities sometimes come into conflict.

Hosted and produced by Jo Erickson
Editor: Dennis Funk
Production and mixing: Rebekah Romberg
Theme music by Daniel Mescher. Additional music via Firstcom.
Executive producers: Brad Turner, Kevin Dale
Additional editorial support: Luis Antonio Perez, Rachel Estabrook, Elena Rivera
Thanks also to Kim Nguyen, Jodi Gersh, Clara Shelton, Mia Rincón, Dave Burdick, John Mossman.

SystemicPodcast.org
On Twitter: @COPublicRadio

Against the backdrop of George Floyd’s death and nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Colorado legislators won praise for swiftly passing an ambitious law meant to punish future abuses by police officers. But part of the genesis for that law began in 2019 amidst a different set of police protests after the death of a Black man in Colorado Springs. That moment left a grieving family searching for answers in a complicated and frustrating legal system.

Hosted and produced by Jo Erickson
Editor: Dennis Funk
Production and mixing: Rebekah Romberg
Theme music by Daniel Mescher. Additional music via Firstcom.
Executive producers: Brad Turner, Kevin Dale
Additional editorial support: Luis Antonio Perez, Rachel Estabrook, Elena Rivera
Thanks also to Kim Nguyen, Jodi Gersh, Clara Shelton, Mia Rincón, Dave Burdick, John Mossman.

SystemicPodcast.org
On Twitter: @COPublicRadio