In Before the Badge (New York Univ., Mar.), sociologist Simon documents observing and participating in four police training academies.

Personnel at the academies were wary of you at first. Why do you think that was?

I think it was clear that I was an outsider. There’s certainly a lot of wariness about reporters among officers, and I was reporter adjacent, coming to investigate what was going on with these academies.

How did you win their trust?

Hiring officers were much more open to me being there. They’re charismatic people, which makes sense—they’re in this role to recruit. The defensive tactics instructors were a tougher crowd. My strategy was to be very open about why I was there and what kinds of questions I was interested in. Something that also helped was my participation. I was willing to go on these long runs in hot weather, lift weights, and participate in defensive tactics, which can be painful. It helped build rapport.

What most surprised you during your fieldwork?

I don’t come from a first responder or military family. This was a new world for me, and I went into this project optimistic about what diversity could mean for policing. This was 2018, and there was a lot of talk at the time, and there still is now, about diversifying police forces and how that could be an effective way of reforming the police. But that’s not what I found. I’m not arguing against diversity; I think equal opportunity for employment is a worthwhile endeavor in and of itself. But I was surprised to find how effective policing is at resisting change. All cadets regardless of their gender or race needed to align themselves with the institution’s culture if they wanted to make it to graduation.

Are there any specific policies you would like to see implemented?

The history of policing in the U.S. is cyclical. We’ll have a crisis in policing—a very highly publicized instance of brutality—followed by a presidential commission offering recommendations for reform. When you look at these reports—there’s one in 1931, one in 1967, one in 2015—they read pretty similarly. So I’m not optimistic about reform. With that said, I think we could focus on reducing civilian gun ownership. The police are not wrong to be fearful of people having guns; we have the highest gun ownership rate in the world. Police officers are constantly on edge about the threat that this presents to them. So reducing the likelihood that they would even come across guns on duty is one area that I think actually would have an effect.