Paving the way toward more just policing methods through restorative justice.
IIRP alumnus Edward Cronin, '25, earned his Graduate Certificate in Restorative Practices. Edward has an extensive career in policing and has dedicated himself to police reform both nationally and internationally.
He served as chief of police in two cities in Massachusetts and as a senior police advisor for the US State Department, focusing his efforts on addressing racial disparities in criminal justice and domestic violence. Now retired, Edward works as an author and consultant, where he offers his expertise in matters of law and restorative justice. Currently, he is working to build a coalition of senior criminal justice leaders who aim to propose legislation in his home state of Massachusetts to train criminal justice employees in restorative justice practices.
Q: What brought you to the IIRP?
A: I worked in the law enforcement field for most of my career, both nationally and internationally, in my home state of Massachusetts and in countries like Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, and Moldova. I wrote a book on police reform called Just Policing around the time of George Floyd's tragic death, in which I advocate for change in policing to include training and implementation of restorative justice in the criminal justice system. Throughout my career, I was consistently looking for and refining models of community policing that would benefit my community, which eventually led me to restorative justice practices and the IIRP.
Q: Please tell us about your restorative work now and what makes you passionate about it.
A: I am passionate about this work because our current system of criminal justice is broken. The US incarcerates more people than any other country in the world and does so in a disproportionate manner that affects minorities at a much higher rate. I believe that the implementation of restorative justice practices has a meaningful impact on this problem of unacknowledged institutional racism that is present and leads to failure in our system. The use of restorative justice results in reducing recidivism rates and truly offers healing to victims and offenders.
Q: What would you like to see happen in the future of this work?
A: I would like to see college and university criminal justice programs institute courses on restorative justice to build a greater understanding and acceptance of this practice to address our biased system. I would also like to see restorative justice included in basic police training. If judges, police officers, lawyers, and criminal justice workers had a better understanding of restorative justice, the communities they affect would be better served.