Los Angeles Police Department Captain Greg Meyer spoke to the Criminal Law and Advocacy class March 3 about police force and racial profiling.

“There is a whole lot less use of police force now than there was when I started [working as a police officer] 30 years ago,” Meyer said. “But at the same time, it has become more controversial in the past few years because there are so many videos out there. The videos of police use of force always provoke emotion but don’t often seem to provoke critical analysis of what went on and whether or not it was right.”

Racial profiling is not the issue it’s made out to be, Meyer said, and police officers are supposed to stop people in the street based on the potential danger of their behavior, not their race or sex.

Students challenged the officer with questions, said Laurie Levenson, who teaches the Kutler Center class and is a professor at UCLA School of Law and Loyola Law School, in an email.

“[The students in the class] will remember the talk and take a leadership role in evaluating and changing how police work in our communities,” she said.