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Diop Kamau, whose birth name was Don Jackson, is an American civil rights activist. He used to be a police officer. Kamau decided to become an activist after his father was treated unfairly by police officers. He also experienced unfair treatment himself while working as a police officer. Today, Kamau runs the Police Complaint Center. This center collects and looks into complaints about police treating people badly.

Early Life and Education

Diop Kamau was born in southern Los Angeles County. His father, Woodrow Jackson, was one of the first Black men to work for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office. Kamau went to California Lutheran College and earned his degree there. He later earned a master's degree from Penn State University.

Helping Others

After college, Kamau became a police officer. He worked for the Ventura County Sheriff's Department and then the Hawthorne Police Department. While working, he faced unfair treatment and decided to leave his job.

A very important event happened that made Kamau want to help people even more. His father, who was retired from the police, was pulled over by police officers and treated unfairly. This made Kamau realize how important it was to record and show when police officers were not treating people fairly.

In 1989, Kamau was driving with another Black man who also worked in law enforcement. They were with photographers from a TV station called NBC. Police officers pulled them over. Kamau was treated unfairly and arrested. The local NBC station showed the video of the arrest on TV. This video showed a different story than what the police officers said happened. This brought a lot of attention to the Long Beach Police Department. The video of Kamau's arrest was shown all over the country.

After this event, Kamau started speaking out against unfair police treatment at community meetings. He wrote an article about police fairness that was published in The New York Times newspaper.

In 1994, Kamau started the Police Complaint Center in Florida. This center looks into complaints about police officers treating people badly across the United States. He believes this happens because of a "culture of secrecy" in police departments, where it's hard to find out what really happened. Kamau also teaches police departments how to avoid problems like racial profiling, which is when someone is treated differently because of their race. The Police Complaint Center has looked into many complaints from people all over the country. In 2000, Kamau worked with the NAACP and Florida State University to create a way for people to report unfair police behavior.

Kamau also helped with a TV show called Dateline NBC in 1998. They were investigating police misconduct. Some police departments have said that Kamau's methods are too tricky. However, the police chief of Florida State University said, "I don't agree with his methods, but I can't argue with his results." This means that even if they didn't like how he did things, they couldn't deny that he got good results in helping people.

Personal Life

Diop Kamau married Tyra Ferrell in 1992. After they got married, he changed his name from Don Jackson to Diop Kamau. He says his new name comes from West Africa and means "proud quiet warrior." Kamau and Tyra have a daughter. Around 1995, they moved to Tallahassee, Florida.

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