Two events framed a conversation in the Monitor newsroom today about the state of justice in America.

On Saturday night, an unarmed 15-year-old black boy was fatally shot by a white Texas cop. On Tuesday, Michael Slager, a South Carolina cop, pled guilty to a federal violation of civil rights in the 2015 shooting of Walter Scott in a traffic stop.

It remains rare for any police officer to be convicted in a fatal shooting. But statistics show some progress: A Washington Post database of US police shootings shows 17 unarmed blacks killed in 2016, down from 38 in 2015. So far this year, seven unarmed African-Americans have been killed by police.

In the Texas teenager shooting, after reviewing police body camera video, the Balch Springs police chief said that his officer’s actions “did not meet our core values." In the past, it might have taken weeks for such an admission by police – if it came at all. It doesn’t change the apparent injustice of the shooting. But it does reflect an emerging shift in police transparency – and a recognition that rebuilding community trust must be based on integrity.

In the Michael Slager case, one takeaway could be that convicting a cop is difficult. A state murder case against him ended in mistrial. But the justice system has more than one tier, and in this instance the federal case brought a conviction. Mr. Slager faces a sentence that could be as much as life in prison.