By H. Douglas Ott and Alysson Gatens

The nature of police work may at times involve stressful situations such as the threat of, and actual, physical harm and witnessing the human toll of violence. The stress of the job combined with organizational stressors may severely impact police officers and their work. Stress can lead to substance misuse and disorders, trauma, and suicide. Police departments can address officer stress through interventions, such as counseling, peer support groups, and stress management training. This article summarizes literature on the effects of police officer stress and trauma. Police officers that embrace active coping styles may be better able to handle stress  

Chicago: Illinois Criminal Justice Information. Authority 2022. 14p.

By Citygate Associates, LLC

The City of Berkeley (City) retained Citygate Associates, LLC (Citygate) to conduct a Workload Organizational Study of the Police Department (Department). This assessment includes a review of the adequacy of current and future deployment systems, staffing levels throughout the Department, sustainable alternatives, beat structure, overtime, and organizational structure. The methodology utilized in this study can be found in Section 1 of this report. Citygate’s review includes a detailed analysis of the data that drives staffing recommendations including data related to police unit response times, crime, calls for service, and overtime. The review also includes a staffing analysis of supervision, management, and support functions within each division of the Department. Our work was combined with a review of the City’s ongoing efforts related to alternative response methods to non-police or low-level emergencies and other care needs in the City. This transition is already underway to provide appropriate alternative services to the community when a traditional 9-1-1 police patrol response is not necessary. Citygate’s assessment encompasses recommendations to support the Department’s success over the next five to seven years. Overall, this report contains 74 key findings and 54 specific, actionable recommendations. Findings and recommendations are presented in their narrative context in Sections 2 through Section 7. A comprehensive list of all findings and recommendations is presented sequentially in Section 8. Recommendations are also presented in Table 1 of this Executive Summary. POLICY CHOICES FRAMEWORK Currently, there are no mandatory federal or state regulations directing the level of police field service staffing, response times, and necessary outcomes. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) recommend methods for determining appropriate staffing levels based on local priorities. The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) provides standards for 9-1-1 call answering, and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) and the International Academies of Emergency Dispatching (IAED) provide best practices that illuminate staffing needs for communications centers providing dispatch services. Using a data-driven framework as advocated in this report—and already embraced and practiced by the Department—the City can continue to engage the community in adapting future public safety services to utilize alternative and community-focused, non-police officer strategies to address community-wide, neighborhood, and social issues. Personnel costs are often the most significant cost center in any department budget. One of the City Council’s greatest challenges is managing scarce fiscal resources and allocating them wisely across the vast needs of municipal government public safety operations. The recommendations in this Workload Organizational Study are made based on best practices, Citygate’s experience, and guidelines established by professional industry organizations. The City’s fiscal capabilities and non-9-1-1 alternative services delivery measures must be considered when weighing these recommendations. GENERAL SUMMARY OF CITYGATE’S ASSESSMENT Citygate commends the Department and the City for its many innovative, forward-looking, and community-focused programs, including its Transparency Hub; the Mental Health Division’s Mobile Crisis Unit; the Specialized Care Unit, which provides crisis service with no police involvement; the prioritization of employee wellness; the Community Services Bureau (CSB) and its community liaisons; and the Bike Team. Residents can call 9-1-1 for life-threatening emergencies and can ask dispatchers for mental health support. All Mobile Crisis Team (MCT) calls may be accompanied by firefighter-paramedics or police officers, who ensure safety at the scene while allowing the MCT to assist. If such calls are made when MCT members are off duty, City police officers have extensive experience helping people through mental health and substance abuse crises, and regularly utilize de-escalation and crisis intervention strategies. Further, the City’s Specialized Care Unit (SCU) is a partnership program with Bonita House, Inc. Staff assigned to the SCU will respond to those undergoing a mental health- or substance-use-related crisis without police involvement. The Chief of Police has also recently created a new Deputy Chief’s position and a new unit: the Office of Strategic Planning and Accountability (OSPA). The Office of Strategic Planning and Accountability will report directly to the Chief and will serve as a pivotal entity in enhancing data driven approaches in policing performance, Departmental accountability, risk management, and oversight—as well as addressing community and external stakeholder needs. Throughout Citygate’s assessment, Citygate found a department with high professionalism at all levels and a staff willing to implement new ideas and technologies to improve policing in the City. The members of the Department are extremely dedicated to the community they serve. No organization is perfect, and many of the findings and recommendations in this report are items the Department is aware of and is already taking steps to implement. Some changes will take time and require resources as part of the Department’s normal budgeting process. All of the City’s work to date and the issues researched for this study present two policy challenges for the Council and community to work together on—not to the exclusion of one or the other. Both challenges require resources because, if one set of services falls short, other services and overall public well-being can be negatively impacted. 

Challenge #1 Maintain Emergency and Needed Police Services Commensurate to Current Demands  Citygate found that many sections of the Department—especially Patrol and the Communications Center (Dispatch)—suffer from a shortage in staffing, which frequently necessitates overtime or diverting staff from other units to fill vacancies in Patrol.  Many sworn members, particularly those with supervisory responsibilities, are responsible for several ancillary duties and often find themselves spending increasingly more time on administrative tasks apart from their primary duties, which include leadership and supervision in the field.  The Department also faces hurdles in recruiting, hiring, and training new staff while keeping pace with attrition as the public perception of the law enforcement profession evolves. To heighten the focus on recruiting, the Chief has recently assigned a full-time Recruitment Officer.  Overall, from 9-1-1 call receipt to the arrival of the right resource in response to a specific incident—whether Patrol, Investigations, Traffic, Mobile Crisis Team, etc.—there are multiple current limitations adversely affecting the Department’s efforts to meet the high volume of calls for assistance received every hour.  Staffing shortages and technical limitations affect morale, overtime, recruitment, and retention. Challenge #2 Grow Non-9-1-1 Services to Support Berkeley’s Compassionate and Caring Human Services The City is actively working on reimagining public safety, a process initiated in 2021. City goals emphasize a more holistic, integrated, and community-centered approach to society’s needs that do not require an emergent police/fire/ambulance response. The City’s goals, and the work the City has already started, aim to address these needs by incorporating a range of professionals and response strategies.  Alternatives to a police patrol response require the programs to be developed and non-sworn personnel to be hired—such as Community Service Officers (CSOs) and specialists for response to people experiencing homelessness-related issues or mental health crisis.  Building the desired enhanced programs requires planning, mid-managers, recruitment, training, and quality of care oversight—all of which the Department is strained to provide currently.  The Specialized Care Unit (SCU) is an innovative partnership program between the City of Berkeley and Bonita House, Inc. The SCU currently operates 24 hours per day Sunday through Wednesday. The SCU also operates from 6:00 am to 4:00 pm Thursday through Saturday. When someone calls 9-1-1, they can ask public safety dispatchers for support related to mental health or substance-use issues, which may also come in the form of the Mental Health Division’s Mobile Crisis Unit. Firefighter-paramedics or police officers may also accompany all Mobile Crisis Unit calls, while an SCU response is one with no police involvement. The SCU can be reached directly if someone is undergoing a mental health- or substance-use-related crisis and needs assistance.  The Vision Zero Action Plan is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all. It is, first and foremost, an engineering strategy that aims to design and build Berkeley streets to eliminate severe and fatal traffic injuries. Equity-driven Vision Zero traffic enforcement utilizes the best possible data and is focused on areas of the City where engineering and education efforts have already been implemented.  The Berkeley Police Department’s online Transparency Hub shares Police Department policies, actions, and data with City partners and community stakeholders. This data includes police stop data to ensure fair and impartial policing through an analysis of calls for service, use of force, and current trends.  The Department’s four Area Coordinators serve as community liaisons for the Department. They can help with long-term problems such as persistent issues with illegal dumping or abandoned vehicles. CITYGATE’S RECOMMENDATIONS AND GOALS Throughout this assessment, Citygate provides recommendations to serve the Department in its efforts to achieve the following six goals: 1. Increasing staffing in some areas and deploying and redeploying staff where and when they are most needed based on accurate and timely data and analysis. 2. 3. In the context of employee wellness and accountability, carefully evaluating the various collateral duties many employees are assigned, giving particular attention to supervisors who are often being pulled from their supervisory roles. Continuing efforts to track and manage overtime and limiting its use to when it is necessary. 4. 5. 6. Continuing the Department’s strong and creative efforts related to data analysis to drive performance and continuous improvement. Continuing the Department’s strong focus on employee wellness. A focus on wellbeing not only benefits individual employees but also promotes a healthier work environment, reducing the risk of fatigue and enhancing Departmental morale. Improving employee retention and prioritizing employee morale. The benefits of improving police morale are many, including better service for the community, more community trust in the Department, and a motivated, purposeful workforce. Citygate analyzed current capabilities to project future needs for the Department, with actionable recommendations and strategies provided for implementation based on the growth and development of the City. If this study’s recommendations are implemented over several fiscal years:  The Department will be well positioned to deepen its ability to provide proactive policing.  The community will be able to increase interaction with partners in the Department to foster joint crime prevention strategies.  The prevention of crime and disorder and the closure of investigations of serious incidents will increase.  When the public interacts with Berkeley police, they will know them and trust them to be fair—and will not assume they are representative of what is wrong with policing elsewhere in America. SUMMARY OF POLICE SERVICES FINDINGS BY TOPIC Organizational Summary At the time of Citygate’s analysis, the Department was operating with an authorized (budgeted) total staffing level of 313.20 employees, which includes 181 total authorized sworn staff. The Department is currently organized into four major divisions—Operations, Investigations, Professional Standards, and Support Services—each commanded by a Police Captain. The Chief of Police recently informed staff of a planned Departmental reorganization that will result in the creation of a new Deputy Chief’s position and a new Office of Strategic Planning and Accountability (OSPA). The reorganization will also entail a Captain being promoted to Deputy Chief, and units within the current Professional Standards Division being transferred to other Departmental offices or divisions. ....continued....    

Berkeley, CA: Citygate Associates, 2024. 155p.

By Minnesota Independent Evaluator, Judge Karen Janisch

In compliance with paragraph 407 of the Settlement Agreement and Order (“Agreement”) dated July 13, 2023, in the matter captioned State of Minnesota by Rebecca Lucero, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, plaintiff vs. City of Minneapolis, Court File No. 27-cv-23-4177 (Judge Karen Janisch), the Independent Evaluator (“IE”) submits this Implementation Progress Evaluation Plan (the “Plan”).1 The Agreement identifies what the City of Minneapolis (“the City”) and the Minneapolis Police Department (“MPD”) must achieve to comply with the Agreement but not necessarily how to do it, or in what sequence. In other words, the Agreement is a requirements document not a planning document. Moreover, the Agreement contains many overlapping requirements. For example, some of the Agreement’s sections, captioned as Parts, are devoted to overarching practices such as policies and training, but other Parts that address practices also include policy and training requirements. Similarly, supervision requirements are embedded throughout various Parts of the Agreement. The overarching purpose of this Plan is to align the Parties and the IE Team on the processes, sequence, and requirements the IE Team will be considering when evaluating the implementation of the Agreement and how implementation and compliance will be measured. This Plan is based on the IE Team’s 90-day assessment of the City's and MPD’s operations related to the Agreement, including the progress they have made implementing the Agreement. Recognizing, however, the inherent limitations on forecasting a four-year implementation process, the IE Team reserves the right to modify this Plan in response to changed or unforeseen information, conditions, or developments, in consultation with the Parties. The IE Team will report any such changes to the Plan to the public.2 On behalf of the Implementation Team, we look forward to partnering with the City, the MPD, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (“MDHR”), and the Minneapolis public to achieve the Agreement’s eagerly anticipated and laudable goals.   

Minneapolis: The Independent Evaluation Team, 2024. 88p,

Edited by Nazmia E.A. Comrie and Shanetta Y. Cutlar   

The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), is excited to celebrate 30 years of advancing community policing. Reflecting on the work of the COPS Office over the last three decades calls to mind the changes in crime-fighting techniques, accountability measures, and technology and the evolving role of police in civil society in that time. Throughout all these changes, the COPS Office has continued to support reducing crime and building trust between law enforcement and the communities served. When the conversations began about how we could best document this COPS Office milestone, we wanted to push the boundaries by creating a resource that went beyond a retro spective—not just looking back at the last 30 years but also looking forward to the next 30. We recognize that this COPS Office achievement is a shared accomplishment and wanted to include the field in the celebration. With these goals in mind, we created American Policing 2054: Advancing Community Policing over the Next 30 Years. This publication is designed to be a companion to the COPS Office’s previous milestone publication, American Policing in 2022: Essays on the Future of a Profession, envisioned and edited by COPS Office staff members Debra R. Cohen McCullough and Deborah L. Spence. While that publication asked contributors to consider what policing would look like in 10 years, this one expands its scope to include a vision for the next 30 years. The concept - We used the framework created by our colleagues in 2012 to compile a list of leaders in law enforcement, public safety research, and civil rights, as well as community members, to contribute to this publication. Knowing that there are so many more thought leaders, perspectives, and voices than we could fit in this publication, we especially considered contributors to the 2022 publication as well as thought leaders from all ranks and agency types. We curated our list to ensure we had diversity in thought, experiences, and voices. The interest and excitement from the field in response to our invitation was remarkable. We asked contributors to think as boldly and as broadly as they liked. We encouraged innovation and assured contributors they were limited only by their informed imagination about the future of law enforcement in the United States. Most importantly, we told contributors that there were no wrong answers for their vision of the future of policing. The COPS Office received essays from current and former law enforcement leaders and officers, researchers, practitioners, and civic and civil rights leaders, and these contributors did not disappoint.   Essay themes Contributors covered topics such as technology, community engagement, crime-reduction strategies, training, accountability, and transparency. Some of the contributors envisioned drastic changes in the future, while others saw more subtle refinements to policing. The majority of the essays converged on the importance of technology and the need for technology policies and procedures that balance privacy and accountability. In the end, all of the articles touched on one or more principles of community policing—organizational change, problem solving, and partnerships. As such, we used those principles to create the themes for this publication.

 Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services., 2024. 124p.  

By Frankie Wunschel and Daniel Bodah

The 911 emergency call line was first implemented in 1968, in Halleyville, Alabama, as a fire emergency number.1 The scope of 911 expanded over the years to include police and emergency medical responses. As the world and the 911 system have changed throughout the past 52 years, the goal of 911—to enhance public safety—has not. Although extensive changes have been made in the technological infrastructure of the 911 system (such as adding GPS, Computer Aided Dispatch [CAD], and the Enhanced and Next Generation 911 applications), there have been few advances in the call-taking and dispatching aspects of the system. Modernization is needed if 911 is to provide fully effective service. In recent years, a few alternative approaches to call taking and information processing have surfaced. One of these alternative approaches is known as Criteria Based Dispatch (CBD). CBD was developed in King Country, Washington, in 1989 and was initially developed for emergency medical services.2 Whereas the traditional 911 approach involves the call taker collecting as much information as possible—what is happening, as well as why—CBD focuses on “here and now” questions.3 CBD was constructed as a central triage guideline system focusing on two key areas to understand this here-and now framework: 1. The necessary level of care 2. The urgency of the need for care.4 CBD systems categorize multiple call types together and supply a list of corresponding questions for use during the call-taking process.5 These questions and prompts are guidance suggestions for the call taker, ultimately trusting that the call taker will exercise discretion to use them appropriately.6 The system was initially developed for medical emergency-based calls and utilizing symptom criteria similar to those utilized in medical offices and hospitals.7 CBD has since expanded and been used in multiple departments for fire-related calls as well. Although readily used for medical and fire emergencies, CBD has been introduced in only a handful of jurisdictions for police calls.8 As a movement across the country has begun demanding changes to policing and public safety, the need to revisit 911 call-taking and dispatching methods has become urgent. As discussed below, CBD has revolutionized the  call-taking process for medical and fire calls to 911. This review of the literature on CBD frames how this approach could also lead to improvements in the policing space. Research on CBD is limited. The bulk of research has focused on understanding the structural components of the system and how they affect traditional 911 success metrics such as diagnosis accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and over- or under-triage.9 CBD research is practically nonexistent in the context of its use in the United States, so international research must be used to fill this gap. CBD processes in the United States and Europe are largely the same, although European CBD has adopted a three-level urgency approach that is less robust than the U.S. version.10 In exploring the landscape of CBD literature, researchers at the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) searched numerous academic databases, as well as the Internet, to identify academic, professional, and nonprofit reports and studies of CBD. The identified publications consisted of field explorations, scientific evaluation studies, training guides, news publications, and promotional materials. A wide range of literature types was used in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the field and supplement the limited amount of formal research available. This literature review explores the literature on CBD with a focus on reviewing the potential benefits of CBD seen by those working in the public safety response sector. The literature review also highlights strengths and weaknesses of CBD, maps the comparative research on CBD with that on competing dispatch system Medical Priority Dispatch (MPD), and finishes with a discussion of the potential for using CBD to improve responses in the policing space and support appropriate diversion of 911 calls to nonenforcement responses.  

New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2020. 12p.

By p.S. Rebecca Neusteter, Megan O’Toole, Mawia Khogali, Abdul Rad, Frankie Wunschel, Sarah Scaffidi, Marilyn Sinkewicz, Maris Mapolski, Paul DeGrandis, Daniel Bodah, and Henessy Pineda

At least 240 million calls to 911 are made each year.1 Responding to these calls takes up a sizable amount of police officers’ time, even though relatively few calls stem from crimes in progress. Despite their prevalence in police work, little research about the nature of 911 calls or how police respond is available. Basic information, such as the number of calls and reasons they are made, how call volumes vary across different call types, and what happens from the time a call is placed to when an officer arrives on the scene, is unknown. The 911 call system plays a critical role in policing practice and should be studied, not only to measure performance but also to aid in decision-making processes, inform strategic decisions, and understand opportunities to advance call processing and alternative responses.2 The current study was designed to define the landscape of 911 calls for police service and answer fundamental questions about how communications personnel and police respond to them. To begin, the study explores 911 call processing by examining what happens when 911 calls are answered and what training, protocols, standards, and management possibilities exist at each stage of 911 call processing. The study also examines how accurately 911 calls are categorized and handled when received by public safety personnel. Questions about the overall volume and rate of 911 calls for service, typical response time, and ordinary duration of responses to 911 calls, as well as how these vary by the call type, time, and location are also considered. To understand how characteristics of 911 calls impact police officers in the field, the study analyzes what proportion of officers’ activities represent responses to 911 calls versus those proactively initiated by officers. The study examines how 911 calls are resolved by identifying the categories of dispositions and their frequency, as well as how they vary by call volume, type, time, and location. The ultimate outcomes of police contacts initiated by 911 calls are also reviewed to understand what factors have the greatest contribution to 911 call responses. In addition, the current research examines communications systems among call-takers, dispatchers, and police officers in the field to determine whether all information relevant to outcomes is being effectively conveyed. The study further explores whether it is possible to improve outcomes for police and civilians by  identifying 911 calls that may be handled more appropriately by a response other than sending sworn officers. The following research activities provided details about the 911 landscape to address these questions: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) an examination of prior research on 911 calls in the policing context; an analysis of 911 call and computer-aided dispatch (CAD) data to identify 911 call types, processing, and outcomes in Camden County (NJ) and Tucson (AZ) police and public safety communications departments; the development of a system processing map to trace calls from receipt through closure, which was achieved using data from focus groups, interviews, audio analysis of a sample of 911 calls, and field observations in Camden County Police Department (CCPD), Camden County Communications Center (CCCC), Tucson Police Department (TPD), and Tucson Public Safety Communications Division (PSCD); an examination of publicly available 911 call and CAD data from Detroit, New Orleans, and Seattle; and a convening of police, emergency communications practitioners, and other stakeholders to contextualize these findings and explore alternatives to sworn police response. The Vera Institute of Justice’s (Vera’s) review of the existing literature on 911 calls for service (detailed in Chapter 2) reveals a need for innovation in this space, as well as more research exploring key features of the system (such as call volumes, types, and outcomes at the national, state, and local levels). Since the birth of 911 in the late 1960s and its congressionally mandated national deployment in 1999, the emergency communications field has become professionalized and transformed by new technologies, such as Enhanced 911 (E911) and Next Generation 911 (NG911).3 However, much remains to be learned about how 911 calls are processed, how personnel are trained, and where opportunities for alternative responses need development or can be expanded. As a first step toward understanding how 911 calls are processed, Vera created a system processing map. This map (given in Chapter 3) shows that, when a community member calls 911, the caller relays information to a call-taker at a public safety communications center. The call-taker gathers relevant information from the caller; determines whether the call requires a response by fire, police, medical personnel, or a combination thereof; enters information and categorizes the call using a CAD system; and may give the caller instructions about what to expect or actions to take. The information the call-taker enters into the CAD system is sent to the appropriate dispatcher for further action. The dispatcher assigns officers to respond to the call based on the priority level of the reported incident, the narrative information entered in the CAD system by the call-taker, and available police resources. The dispatcher may, during this process, reclassify the call type or priority level. The assigned patrol officers then respond to the location given in the call, where they may take a report, provide instructions, resolve conditions found there, call for other resources, or take law enforcement action. Vera’s analysis of Camden and Tucson data shows that, with slight variations, this core set of actors and actions defines the landscape of 911 call processing. Within this system, call codes, training, and standards exist to guide the actions of call-takers and dispatchers; however, codes, training, and standards are not uniform across 911 call systems, and opportunities exist to improve outcomes by diverting appropriate calls to non-law enforcement responders. Vera’s detailed analysis of CAD data and 911 audio recordings from Camden and Tucson sheds further light on how the 911 system operates (presented in Chapters 4 and 5). • As many as half of CAD records may be of limited reliability due to lack of call type specificity and other call information omitted from the narrative. • Officers spend a substantial proportion of their time responding to calls for service, few of which are related to crimes in progress, let alone serious crime in progress. • Most calls do not relate to serious or violent crime; instead, the most frequent calls involve nuisance complaints and low-level crimes. • Trends across the departments differed. In 2016 and 2017, TPD officers spent most of their time responding to 911 calls for service, whereas CCPD officers engaged primarily in proactive police activity. (As explained in chapter 5, this finding may be a function of differences in departmental record keeping.) These observations of Camden and Tucson are further supported through the findings from the open data sites—Detroit, New Orleans, and Seattle. Highlights from the five-city analysis demonstrate the following: • The most frequent incident type was noncriminal in nature. In four of the five sites, the most frequent incident type was some variation of a complaint or request for an officer to perform a welfare check. Across all sites, the most common priority types were nonemergency. • The five sites have a wide range of dispatcher and officer response times. The two sites (Detroit and New Orleans) that have response time available by priority level show that response times are faster in emergency incidents. Among call types, the fastest response times for dispatchers and officers were behavioral health incidents, medical emergencies, traffic stops, officer requests for help, area checks, and alarms. • Examining CAD events generated through 911 calls for service and those that are officer-initiated reveals that, in Tucson and New Orleans, 911 calls were most prevalent in the CAD system. However, in both Camden and Seattle, officer-initiated events accounted for most CAD entries. In Detroit, the proportions of CAD entries varied across the study period, shifting from being mostly 911 responses to mostly officer-initiated events. The findings across all sites suggest the need for future research and local conversations about whether certain types of 911 calls for service require responses by police. There are critical gaps in knowledge regarding the underlying needs, causes, and consequences for these resource intensive calls for service that do not involve a crime. The current research also produced initial empirical evidence of how data collected by call takers and dispatchers relates to officer activity on the ground (discussed in Chapter 6). In both Camden and Tucson, incidents labeled as violent were more likely to result in arrest than those labeled nonviolent. However, incidents categorized as nonviolent were more likely to result in arrest when initiated by police than when originating from a 911 call, revealing a divergence that suggests the need for additional research. To a large extent, mental health and medical incidents were diverted from criminal justice enforcement, potentially indicating that the focus on mental health awareness has the potential to pay dividends. Vera’s analysis also revealed the potential for gathering additional data in the 911 call context to advance broader insights, such as how to improve call-taker and dispatcher operations to support improvements in criminal justice outcomes and the integration of additional variables to permit more varied and appropriate responses to 911 calls. The research also sought to test the viability of data science methods known as Natural Language Processing (NLP) in order to understand if data contained within CAD narrative fields (which makes up much of the CAD data) appears frequently enough to merit developing mechanisms to capture and analyze this information in a more structured manner (e.g., to develop new structured CAD codes). Several key findings emerged from applying the NLP approach, methods, and techniques to Camden and Tucson’s 911 data (described in Chapter 7). The high-level results include the following: • The narrative fields in the CAD entries are essential to making accurate policing decisions. • Subjective bias can be injected into the narrative fields by call-takers, dispatchers, and officers. • Additional research is needed to understand why this detectable difference between the narrative field and the structured data exists; how call-takers, dispatchers, and officers use the narrative field; and how much cognitive load is placed on officers when consuming the narrative data as opposed to the structured data. This inquiry would require researchers to review the data manually and identify another method to compare structured and unstructured data fields prior to employing a computational/algorithmic approach. To further explore the empirical findings that resulted from the research activities, Vera hosted a national convening of law enforcement leaders and system stakeholders (summarized in Chapter 8). At the convening, researchers presented their findings, explored alternatives to enforcement, and collaborated to identify opportunities for reform. This convening was held in partnership with Arnold Ventures and George Mason University’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP). Both research teams (Vera and CEBCP) presented their findings to explore implications of the research and spark innovations, particularly around alternatives to enforcement. Participants from 40 organizations across the country were in attendance, including representatives from 10 police departments, five public safety communications agencies, and 10 research organizations. The room was full and engaged. The convening’s energy and insights provided clear evidence that additional conversation and collaboration on the topic is both needed and wanted. This report concludes with a number of key policy recommendations and practitioner innovations (presented in Chapter 9), ranging from developing new protocols for how and if police departments should respond to unverified burglar alarms to providing de-escalation tactics trainings to 911 call-takers and dispatchers. Clear needs have emerged for better call taking and recording practices, as well as standardized codes and procedures, with the goal of improving procedural justice, customer service, and the safety and wellbeing of officers, community members, call-takers, and dispatchers. Many practical solutions exist, some of which are currently being implemented and tested and others that are on the cutting edge. One effort that is feasible and valuable in the immediate term is developing a national coalition to advance thinking, practice, research, and standardization. This can be achieved through the roundtable model that has successfully mobilized reform in many other areas of the justice system for the past several decades.4 Alternatives to police response and collaborative community responses have shown great promise for integration into 911 call processing. Additional investments in this research and practice can help inform taking them to scale in local jurisdictions nationally. Many opportunities exist, and needs abound—this research makes clear that the 911 system is both massive and neglected. Though much was accomplished through the course of this current research effort, in most places the 911 call-taking, dispatching, and police response continuum continues to operate as a ‘black box,’ and there is a pressing need for further investment and research. Myriad opportunities exist to further develop this work, including continued and expanded analysis of the data already in hand. Other opportunities to expand the national conversation with roundtables about national standards, best practices, and building coalitions for understanding practice and moving it forward present an immediate first step in continuing to meaningfully advance this work. The goal of this and future work is to enhance public safety, promote meaningful alternatives to 911, and eliminate unnecessary police response and enforcement.   

New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2020. 316[.

By Fran Warren, Francesca Gualco, Hannah Davidson, Ella Edginton

Purpose of the paper: The main purpose of this paper is to assess how COVID-19 may have impacted international policing responses during the easing of lockdown in other countries in order to identify any useful learning. For this reason, evidence from Scotland is not included. Jurisdictions covered England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway and France. Note on the evidence This paper highlights factors around policing responses to be considered as part of forward planning, based on the evidence and intelligence available. The information in this paper was collected through a ‘rapid intelligence review’ of publicly available sources, such as relevant agency reports, government reports, and news reporting. This paper provides the most up-to-date available evidence, commentary and intelligence on international policing responses but as the evidence is rapidly evolving it may not be in all cases, completely up-to-date at the time of reading. Please note that the information provided covers the period up until 15 June 2020.   

Edinburgh: Scottish Government, Justice  Analytic Services, 2020. 76p.

By Fran Warren, Francesca Gualco, Hannah Davidson, Ella Edginton 

Purpose of the paper: The main purpose of this paper is to assess how COVID-19 may have impacted international policing responses during lockdown in other countries, in order to identify any useful learning. For this reason, evidence from Scotland is not included. Jurisdictions covered England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, New Zealand, South Korea and USA. Note on the evidence The information in this paper was collected through a ‘rapid intelligence review’ of publicly available sources, such as relevant agency reports, government reports, and news reporting. This paper provides the most up-to-date available evidence, commentary and intelligence on international policing responses, but as the situation is rapidly evolving it may not be in all cases completely up-to-date at the time of reading.   

Edinburgh: Scottish Government, Justice Analytical Services, 2020. 53p.

By Doug Rowe,  Michele Weinzetl, and BerryDunn 

In November 2021, the Village of Oak Park (Village), Illinois, contracted with BerryDunn to conduct an operational assessment of the Oak Park Police Department (OPPD). The overall project included four specific areas in relation to the OPPD: 1. Full management and operational assessment study 2. Audit of race equity issues (internal and external) 3. Recommendations and research for alternative response to traditional police services 4. Presentation of successful measures to contribute to Fair and Impartial Policing (FIP), which have been accomplished in similar cities During the project, BerryDunn conducted more than 50 interviews with staff, government officials, and select community members identified by OPPD. Community members also had the opportunity to provide direct feedback through several in-person and virtual town hall meetings, and through online feedback to BerryDunn through Social Pinpoint, a customized website provided by BerryDunn. Staff from the OPPD completed an in-house workforce survey and provided BerryDunn with substantial information through numerous other data-gathering instruments. Finally, BerryDunn conducted significant analysis of current data and new data generated as part of this assessment and produced a series of findings and recommendations. Studies of this nature are predisposed toward the identification of areas requiring improvement, and accordingly, they have a propensity to present what needs work, without fully acknowledging and highlighting positive aspects of an organization. This report follows a similar progression. Because of the numerous recommendations contained within this study, those consuming this report might mistakenly conclude that the police department is in a poor condition. BerryDunn wishes to state the opposite quite clearly. Although this report contains several areas for improvement, and the OPPD has faced some challenges in recent years, particularly related to staffing, BerryDunn made many positive observations of the OPPD, some of which are examples of best practices that other agencies would do well to emulate. Examples of best practices within the OPPD include: • Posting 10 Shared Principles and Guiding Principles and Values in the Patrol Room • Resident Beat Officer (RBO)/Neighborhood Relations Officer (NRO) program for community-oriented policing (COP) and problem-oriented policing (POP) • Dedicated COP foot patrols • Staggered shifts for investigators • Training officers on the history of Oak Park Notwithstanding the findings and recommendations outlined in this report, the OPPD is a generally efficient and effective agency with a commitment to community policing, and staff  provided BerryDunn with several examples of collaborative problem-solving efforts. Staff at all levels present a high level of commitment and pride in their work. The OPPD provided BerryDunn unfettered access to staff and all data at its disposal, without reservation or hesitation. It was evident to the BerryDunn team that the command staff at the OPPD want what is best for the agency and the community, and they are willing to take the necessary steps to help ensure positive and appropriate change takes place. This assessment examined more than 20 primary areas of department operation (distributed throughout the chapters of this report), as well as several sub-areas and specialized positions. BerryDunn’s analysis determined that several areas within the police department require adjustment to assist the OPPD in meeting service demands, improving operational efficiency, and sustaining positive relationships and trust between the police department and the community. This study provides 42 recommendations, separated into three rank-prioritized categories, following five major themes: • Staffing (including recruiting, hiring, and retention) • Personnel development • Policies and procedures • Impartial policing and transparency • Technology utilization • Training This report outlines the process and methodology BerryDunn used to conduct the assessment of the police culture and practices of the OPPD. The analysis provided by BerryDunn is balanced, and it fairly represents the conditions, expectations, and desired outcomes studied, and those that prompted and drove this assessment. Where external data was used for comparison purposes, references have been provided.  

Portland, ME:  BerryDunn, 2022. 273p

By Edward Flynn, Debora Friedl, Keri Richardson, Monique Jenkins, Brenda Bond

In May of 2020, the City of Methuen, through a competitive bid, selected the CNA Center for Justice Research and Innovation to conduct a performance audit of the Methuen Police Department (MPD). In conducting this audit, the CNA team developed an objective and in-depth understanding of MPD’s operations in areas including budget, equipment, training, staffing levels, and processes (hiring, equipment acquisition, and development of policies and procedures). After the onset of the audit, the CNA audit team was made aware of concerns about department leadership, organizational culture, and department personnel morale. Although the City of Methuen did not originally contract with the CNA audit team to explore these issues, we expanded the scope of our inquiry and this report to reflect these emerging topics. The CNA audit team developed this report by reviewing department operations, policies, procedures, general orders, department data, and culture. The report includes findings and actionable recommendations that outline specific items for improvement related to different areas of department operation. To develop these, we compared MPD’s standard operating procedures with national best and evidence-based practices, Massachusetts Police Accreditation Standards, and practices of similar Massachusetts law enforcement agencies. The audit team also collected data from interviews and surveys of department personnel. This report presents the results, findings, and recommendations from the audit.

CNA's comprehensive assessment of MPD included an examination of the following:

•  Organizational structure and governance

• Budgeting and planning

• Operating policies and procedures

• Department culture

• Professional standards and accountability

As a result of this audit, our key findings include:

• MPD lacks a formal procedure or process for conducting a comprehensive review of policies and procedures on a regular basis.

• Members of the organization do not trust the department’s use of the assessment center to make promotional decisions because there seem to be conflicting interests involved in the process.

• The MPD’s high number of assigned specialist positions is not warranted, given its size and operations.

• There is widespread perception that favoritism affects management and discipline decisions within the MPD.

Arlington, CA: CNA, 2021. 70p.

By Ryan Loomis and Heidi Holz

In recent years, persons, vessels, and corporations based in or tied to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have reportedly engaged in illicit maritime activities around the globe. These alleged illicit activities are at odds with Beijing’s stated policies about how PRC actors should behave in the transnational maritime domain. According to these policies, PRC actors should do the following while operating in the transnational maritime domain:

• Abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), under Article 94 of which, flag states such as the PRC are responsible for (1) ensuring that vessels flying the PRC flag comply with the maritime laws to which Beijing is a party, and (2) holding violators accountable.

• Abide by local laws and regional frameworks

• Combat illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing

• Safeguard the marine environment

To develop a better understanding of the contradictions between Beijing’s official rhetoric and the illicit international maritime activities of PRC state and nonstate actors, CNA examined 15 cases in which PRC actors were accused of carrying out illicit activities in the maritime domain between 2018 and 2021. The incidents occurred in the maritime areas surrounding SoutheastAsia, the Atlantic coast of Africa, and the Pacific Island countries. Our key findings are discussed below.

Key Findings

Some PRC actors are engaged in a variety of illicit international maritime activities around the world. Among the 15 cases we examined, PRC actors were accused of being involved in the following types of illegal activities in violation of multiple national, regional,
and international laws, regulations, or provisions:

• Engaging in illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing practices that threaten ocean ecosystems and sustainable fisheries

• Intentionally ramming foreign vessels, damaging the vessels and endangering their crews

• Using forced labor aboard fishing vessels and engaging in human smuggling

• Discharging marine pollution from vessels and land-based sources, harming the marine environment and injuring local citizens

• Tampering with electronic tracking or monitoring devices to “go dark” so that vessels can engage in illicit activity without being tracked

• Illegally entering and operating in other countries’ jurisdictional waters 

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2021. 94p.

By Thomas Christoff, Jessica Dockstader, Monique Jenkins, Cody Stephens

Recognizing the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and legitimacy, the San José Independent Police Auditor—through a competitive bid—selected CNA’s Center for Justice Research and Innovation to complete an assessment of the San José Police Department’s (SJPD) implementation of recommendations and action items found within the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing report, published in 2015. This work coincided with an assessment of the SJPD’s use of force and was completed by members of the same team. The 21st Century Policing assessment focused on the six areas found within the Task Force’s report:

• Building Trust and Legitimacy

• Policy and Oversight

• Technology and Social Media

• Community Policing and Crime Reduction

• Training and Education

• Officer Wellness and Safety

In this executive summary, we present a summary of the findings of our assessment and a summary of the key recommendations offered to SJPD and the city. We encourage interested individuals to read the details in the body of this report, where they will find the complete assessment of all recommendations and action items, and detailed supporting evidence for our findings and recommendations. See Appendices C and D for the full list of findings and recommendations.

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2022. 162p.

By Daniel S. Lawrence, Tom Christoff, Zoë Thorkildsen

Recognizing the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and legitimacy, the Mayor and City Council of San José, California directed staff to obtain an assessment of the San José Police Department’s (SJPD) use of force. CNA’s Center for Justice Research and Innovation was chosen through a competitive bid process coordinated by the Independent Police Auditor (IPA). This work coincided with an assessment of the SJPD’s efforts to bring the department in line with the recommended best practices promoted in the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing report and was completed by members of the same team. The use of force assessment focused on four key areas:

• A review of the SJPD’s use of force policies, procedures, training, and events.

• An examination into the characteristics of use of force events, including disparity across racial and ethnic groupings.

• The impact COVID-19 and social justice movements for policing reform had on calls for service and use of force.

• Disparity in use of force behaviors and sustained injuries across racial and ethnic groupings.

In this executive summary, we present a summary of the findings of our assessment and a summary of the key recommendations offered to SJPD and the city. We encourage interested individuals to read the details in the body of this report, where they will find detailed the supporting evidence associated with our 39 findings and 51 recommendations. See Appendix B for the full list of findings and recommendations.

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2022. 110p.

By Zoë Thorkildsen, Bryce Peterson, Keri Richardson, Monique Jenkins, Allie Land, Jocelyn Cox, Bill Komiss, and Ed Flynn

Goals and Objectives

This analysis will achieve the following:

• Recommend staffing resources that can effectively and efficiently meet the demand for service.

• Review internal business processes and identify gaps and areas for improvement.

• Inform needs for resource allocations that are aligned with City needs and demand for public safety services.

• Position the MPD for future success by providing the tools to further adapt staffing and processes to future changes in demand for service.

Areas of Focus and Approach

Our report is organized into four major focus areas: staffing analysis, operations analysis, and problem nature code analysis, and business processes analysis.

Staffing Analysis

Using a workload-based approach, CNA produced estimates of the staffing required to support the MPD’s current patrol workloads and evaluated the use of different shift lengths. In addition, we analyzed breakouts by specific call response types to estimate the effects of changing response policies (e.g., implementing alternate response models for mental health calls and property crimes) on staffing needs.

Operations Analysis 

Using data collected from personnel interviews as well as review of the literature and peer agency practices, CNA assessed MPD operations and policies, including the use of one- versus two-person patrols, relative levels of civilianization, alternative response models (which also have implications for the staffing analysis), and information technology enterprise system use.

Problem Nature Code Analysis

Using calls-for-service data, including 9-1-1 call data, CNA reviewed the use of problem nature codes in the MECC using an exploratory descriptive analytical approach.

Business Process Analysis

Using information from personnel interviews as well as review of operational documents, CNA assessed business processes in the MECC, Patrol Bureau, specialty units, and the investigative functions at MPD. We used a process mapping and pain points identification approach to map how business processes currently function and areas to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of these processes.

Across each of these focus areas, CNA relied on both quantitative and qualitative data from the MPD and MECC. These data sources included calls-for-service and 9-1-1 call data from 2016 through 2020, staffing data, documentation of MPD and MECC policies and procedures (including training materials), and information gathered through interviews with MPD and MECC personnel. Data sources and analytical techniques are described in more detail in each of the sections below.

For most of the quantitative analyses in the report, we used data from 2016 through 2020. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as changes in policing practice and policy after the death of George Floyd, policing response in 2020 differed from preceding years in substantive ways. Specifically, in Minneapolis as well as other cities across the country, nearly all measures of police activity were lower in 2020. However, we included 2020 in our analyses for the following reasons:

• Despite being unusual, 2020 represents the most recent year of data available at the time we performed analysis, and timely data are almost always preferable to older data.

• For the majority of our analyses, we relied on a five-year period of data, and thus the inclusion of 2020 did not drive the results.

• Trends seen in 2020 continued into 2021 for agencies nationwide; it is unclear whether or when police activity levels will return to pre-2020 levels, so to discount 2020 data as irrelevant would be improper.

Overview of the Report

This report contains six sections, including this introductory section. Following this section are sections presenting analysis, findings, and recommendations related to the staffing analysis, operations analysis, problem nature code analysis, and business processes analysis. The report closes with a brief conclusion section.

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2022. 84p.

By Hildy Saizow, Valerie Schmitt, Bridgette Bryson, Rodney Monroe, and Steven Rickman

Community collaboration is at the heart of policing in the 21st century. Based on this premise, the City of Tulsa developed 77 recommendations for implementing community policing in its jurisdiction. These recommendations closely followed the substance and format of The Final Report of The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, a national report developed by policing experts and community collaborators in 2015. In order to determine whether the Tulsa Police Department (TPD) is making progress in this area, the City of Tulsa hired CNA’s Center for Justice Research and Innovation to conduct a community policing evaluation; the project started in November 2020. CNA used the community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) model as the basis of the evaluation approach to promote the inclusion of input from a diverse range of TPD officers and community stakeholders from across the City of Tulsa. Four Tulsans with experience working with different community groups served as community co-researchers on the evaluation team. The goal of the Tulsa Community Policing Evaluation was to gain an objective and in-depth understanding of TPD’s community policing practices. More specifically, the evaluation was designed to determine whether TPD has made progress in collaborating with the community, identify what community policing should look like in Tulsa, and develop a roadmap for how to achieve the community policing vision. A key part of the evaluation was a community consultation process to get input, insights, and perspectives on policing and community safety issues. The process included individual interviews, focus groups, community meetings and dialogues, and a community survey. The evaluation also involved the collection and review of documents pertaining to community policing and an analysis of crime, calls for service, demographic, and complaint data. This report presents insightful findings about community policing and actionable recommendations that TPD and the City of Tulsa can implement in order for TPD to become an effective and forward-leaning community policing organization. The 54 recommendations found in this report are organized by the six 21st Century Policing pillars—building trust and legitimacy, policy and oversight, technology and social media, community policing and crime reduction, training and education, and officer wellness and safety. These recommendations are based on the insights and perspectives learned through the community consultation, findings of The Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, the evaluation team’s knowledge of best practices and their experiences working in police agencies nationwide, and police reforms in cities where reforms are driven by teams of policing experts and criminal justice researchers.

Our key evaluation findings include the following: TPD has made positive changes and progress in many areas, including support for crime victims, relations with Hispanic community members, body-worn camera implementation, formation of the Community Engagement Unit, creation of Community Advisory Boards (CABs), implementation of new collaborative partnerships, and establishment of the Tulsa Sobering Center (TSC) as a jail diversion program. TPD’s current emphasis on the term “collaborative policing” sets just the right tone for community policing in Tulsa. Officers and community members alike express that trust in policing is lower in marginalized communities. There are widespread perceptions in the community that TPD engages in disparities in how Black neighborhoods and individuals are treated. Many community members expressed frustration, saying that they know very little about the department’s decisions and changes, and that they would like to see more transparency in many areas of TPD’s operations. The creation of CABs is an important step forward, but the boards lack community leadership and transparency. TPD’s performance evaluation system does not currently reflect the principles and practices of collaborative policing. TPD can use technology solutions to benefit community policing efforts. TPD does not currently have an accessible, dynamic, searchable website to provide information to the public. Many officers do not see community policing as part of their job. Community members expressed that TPD officers do not engage in enough casual, non-enforcement interactions with the community. TPD has a wide range of training courses relevant to community policing but lacks an overall vision and process to integrate training courses across training domains to support a holistic approach to community policing. Officer wellness programs and proactive activities support more effective community engagement.

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2022. 120p.

By Zoë Thorkildsen, Bridgette Bryson, and William “Bill” Taylor

Over the last decade, the Albany Police Department (APD) has pushed forward to engage the community in a positive manner, moving towards a mission that is focused on community policing practices. During this time, the Community Policing Review Board and the Common Council have recommended police reforms and legislation changes to further improve the police department, and they have called for change to address perceived disparate treatment of minority communities. Following recent high-profile events, including the First Street Incident and the shooting of Mr. Ellazar Williams, APD has striven to improve their transparency and implement initiatives to increase community trust. Both of these incidents, along with the eruptions of public protests across the country, led the City of Albany to initiate an evaluation of policy, procedures, and practices of the police department. In addition, this audit will provide baseline information to inform the City of Albany’s response to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 203: New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative. In August of 2020, the City of Albany, through a competitive bid, selected the CNA Center for Justice Research and Innovation to conduct a racial bias audit of the APD.
The objectives of CNA’s racial bias audit included:

• Assess and monitor APD’s internal operations, policies, procedures, and practices to detect the presence of implicit bias and systemic racial bias.

• Collect and analyze data related to traffic stops, use of force, and other police officer/civilian interactions and determine the effect on Black community members.

• Assess compliance with existing police reform policies initiated by APD and enacted by the Albany Common Council (e.g., body-worn cameras (BWCs), Right to Know Identification Legislation, and Citizen Police Review Board).

• Provide actionable recommendations for reforms that eliminate racial and implicit biases in policing deployments, strategies, policies, procedures, and practices. Such recommendations must:

  • Promote community engagement, transparency, professionalism, accountability, community inclusion, fairness, effectiveness, and public trust; and

  • Be guided by evidence-based best practices and community expectations. 

Based on CNA’s review of policy, procedures, and practices, as well as data provided by the APD, our key findings included:

• APD should improve data collection procedures for traffic stop data.

• Prior to the deployment of BWCs to detective personnel and future units, APD should update its BWC policy to reflect emerging best practices. 

• Statistical differences by outcome of police stops are evident when comparing white people to people of color, further fueling community concerns about resisting arrest charges.

• Black community members initiate the majority of external complaints and civil rights lawsuits filed.

• APD personnel do not fully understand the community complaints process and how or when possible disciplinary actions could take place.

• The community complaints process is convoluted and poorly understood by community members, leading to mistrust and a perceived lack of procedural justice.

• APD should update its use of force policy so that officers better understand when they can or cannot use various forms of force.

• APD should make annual reports detailing use of force incidents publicly available to community members in the city.

• APD’s philosophy and culture have a strong focus on community policing practices; APD should reinforce this message to all personnel.

• APD should review the structure of the Neighborhood Engagement Unit and School Resource Officers for efficiency and effectiveness.

• APD’s website could benefit from a modern reconstruction so that each embedded page is easily accessible and allows community members to easily find current information on the organization and projects they are working on.

• The diversity of APD personnel does not reflect the racial makeup of the City of Albany.

• APD should review its recruitment and hiring practices and begin releasing annual reports on this data.

• The promotional process is of concern to personnel; APD should track this process in a database and standardize the performance evaluation process.

• APD should complete and house its annual reports of data designated in various General Orders on its website for easy access by all community members.

• APD participates in a long list of programs and should seek evaluations of these programs to determine their effectiveness and help allocate resources among them.

• There are community concerns that past proposed reforms have not been implemented, along with concerns that officers do not live in the City of Albany.

• The annual in-service training curriculum should be updated to include various topics, including but not limited to racial bias and cultural sensitivity training.

• Training is not consistent across the department, and personnel feel they need more training to sufficiently do their jobs.

Over the next year, APD will work with the City of Albany and community leaders to understand, prioritize, and implement the recommendations proposed in this report, reflecting their dedication to improving community trust. We recommend that APD and the City of Albany seek an independent firm to help implement these recommendations and track APD’s progress.

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2020. 116p.

By Bridgette Bryson and Zoë Thorkildsen

Law enforcement agencies across the country continuously face challenges due to the ever-changing nature of policing, especially with recent events including the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. These recent events have called into question the objectivity and fairness of policing practices. These developments  signal a need for strengthened police-community relations, and the Town of Niskayuna, New York, and the Niskayuna Police Department (NPD) are working hard to ensure their community has positive relationships with their police department. This audit provides baseline information to inform the Town of Niskayuna’s response to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 203: New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative.1 In December of 2020, the Town of Niskayuna developed a contract with CNA’s Center for Justice Research and Innovation to conduct a racial bias audit of the NPD. This assessment focused on  policies and practices, while also touching on more than racial matters. These types of assessments can help police departments gauge the status of community  relationships and work towards improvement. CNA designed this racial bias audit to accomplish the following:

• Assess NPD’s internal operations, policies, and procedures to detect the presence of implicit bias and systemic racial bias.

• Collect and analyze data related to traffic stops, use of force, and other police officer/civilian interactions to determine disparate outcomes for Black and Brown community members.

• Assess compliance with existing police reform policies initiated by NPD.

• Provide actionable recommendations (e.g., realistic within legal, budgetary, and organizational constraints) for reforms that reduce or eliminate racial and implicit biases in policing deployments, strategies, policies, procedures, and practices. These recommendations focus on specific, measurable issues. Such recommendations must meet the following requirements:

  • Promote community engagement, transparency, professionalism, accountability, community inclusion, fairness, effectiveness, and public trust; 

  • Be guided by evidence-based best practices and community expectations; and 

  • Are likely, given meaningful organizational support, to reduce or eliminate racial and implicit biases in policing deployments, strategies, policies,  procedures and practices.

Based on CNA’s review of policies, procedures, and practices, as well as data provided by the NPD, our key findings included the following:

• NPD’s traffic stops data collection process should be refined to help the department further understand its activity for all outcomes and why the activities may look different over time.

• NPD lacks body-worn cameras (BWCs) for its officers and should obtain funding to outfit all officers, patrol officers at a minimum, with the cameras.

• NPD’s complaint process is not clearly written and is poorly understood by officers and community members. NPD should clarify the process and structure it to be open and transparent.

• Currently, there is no disciplinary matrix in place to make certain that officers receive equitable discipline outcomes, to ensure there are no disparities among discipline across race, ethnicity, and gender.

• NPD does not utilize an early intervention system to identify behavioral issues, signs of job exhaustion, and training concerns that could be handled in a proactive manner before an issue arises.

• NPD’s newly revised use of force policy is a very clear and detailed policy that defines when different types of force are justified.

• Currently, there is no formal tracking system for use of force incidents other than the department’s paper filing system. Creating a database to track these incidents will allow the department to begin developing annual summary reports of all use of force in the department.

• NPD currently does not have a strong commitment to community policing practices; however, personnel are very interested and open to working to employ proactive policing strategies, as opposed to reactive.

• NPD does not have designated personnel that oversee the department’s community engagement efforts; however, this has not weakened the trusting relationship expressed by community members and NPD officers.

• NPD personnel have not received sufficient training in the past; however, the new administration is prioritizing training for all officers in various topic areas.

• There are no formal recruitment plans in place, especially for people of color, women, and youth in the community.

• NPD personnel lack trust in the promotion and specialty assignment process.

• NPD does not have a performance evaluation process in place; not all officers receive informal feedback on their performance.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, NPD will work with the Town of Niskayuna officials and community leaders to digest, prioritize, and implement the recommendations proposed in this report, reflecting its dedication to improving community trust, eliminating racial disparities and bias, providing more transparency, and creating a collaborative working environment. We recommend that the NPD and the Town of Niskayuna seek an independent firm to help implement the proposed recommendations and track NPD’s progress. 

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2021. 88p.

By CNA

In May 2020, the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer shocked the nation. Recorded footage brought the image of his death to millions of people, and they responded as never before. As the summer unfolded, protests were organized in communities all across the nation, with people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, young and old alike, marching together asking for police reform and sharing concerns over police brutality and systemic racism. In response, police reform proposals were introduced at the federal and state levels, with more than 30 states considering legislative changes on police practices and accountability. At the local level, government and police officials began proposing changes to police policy and practice, enacting bans on chokeholds, and promoting de-escalation training. In the City of Antioch, hundreds of concerned community members voiced their opinions on race relations and policing reform during three City Council meetings in June 2020. The issues they raised were wide ranging, including systemic racism, body-worn cameras, and police recruitment, training, and accountability. In response, the Antioch City Council decided to hold a series of roundtable discussions called Bridging the Gap to hear the perspectives of additional community members and learn more about the kinds of changes in policing the community desired. The City wanted to better understand the community’s perspectives on racial injustice and police-community relations and to identify ways to address them. CNA, an independent national research and analysis firm, was hired to organize and facilitate these roundtable discussions. Major incidents involving police can and have happened all around the country. As we were writing this report, we learned that they can happen in Antioch, too. During our initial conversations to understand the goals of the Bridging the Gap sessions, we often heard that Antioch was holding community dialogues because of things that happened in other places. Recently, an interaction between a young man and Antioch police officers ended in the death of the young man. Although it may be too soon to determine the circumstances that lead to his death, the timing of this incident should serve as a cautionary tale for other departments. The policing issues in Antioch are national, and the national issues matter in Antioch. 

Process: CNA, through its Center for Justice Research and Innovation, began planning the roundtable discussions in November 2020. As a nationally recognized leader in justice systems research, police-community relations, and police  reform efforts, CNA brought significant technical skills and a deep understanding of community policing, the intersection of race and policing, and evidence-based policing to the project. For over a decade, CNA has worked with more than 400 police departments to assess their operations, recommend changes based on best practices, and provide the technical assistance needed to implement change.

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2021. 60p

By Greg Midgette,  Peter Reuter

Research Summary: Two perceptions drive interesting finding ways of diverting more 911 calls from police to civilian first responders: (1) police responses can result in inadvertent harm to citizens and (2) many calls to which police respond require services that police often cannot provide. Thus, using other personnel may improve police–citizen relations and strengthen crime fighting by reducing extraneous police burden. Using a case study design, we conducted formative evaluations of programs that have developed beyond pilots in three large U.S. cities: Albuquerque, Atlanta, and Houston. In Each city, we interviewed officials, program operators,and other stakeholders and reviewed program docu-ments and statistics. We detail the events and forces that led to the establishment of each program, the way in which the programs have been institutionalized, and the way they interact with the police department. We then discuss key lessons learned for these jurisdictions.Policy Implications: Many U.S. cities are consider-ing diverting some emergency calls for service from police to civilian first responders. This analysis provides evidence to aid policy makers, researchers, and other stakeholders in the development and evaluation of com-munity responder programs. In all respects, we believe that cities’ unique experiences inform program design.For example, in Albuquerque, a City Hall-driven initia-tive established a new city agency parallel to the police department. In Atlanta, decarceration activists drove the initiative; the program is a city/county-funded non-profit, more fragile in its funding. Risk aversion among call takers and dispatchers has led to low call diversion rates across all sites, but training and collaboration haves hown promise to resolve this problem. Public safety officials external to the diversion programs commonly expressed concerns about first responder safety and per-ceptions that police are expected when 911 is called. Thisrisk aversion has led to slower-than-expected expansion of the program within each city.

Criminology & Public Policy: Volume 23, Issue 3, 2024.

By  Alexander Marion,  Syracuse City Auditor 

Police staffing and overtime costs have become a routine matter of concern for the Syracuse Common Council and City Administration leaders as they carry out the budget process each year. In 2022, the Syracuse Common Council amended Mayor Walsh’s Fiscal Year 2022-23 (FY23) budget to authorize funding for the Office of the City Auditor to conduct a staffing study of the Syracuse Police Department. The Office of Budget and Management, along with the Department of Audit, developed a request for proposals and selected Matrix Consulting Group (Matrix) of San Francisco, CA to produce a report which could improve workload balance, management, and operations. The Matrix report identified four district bureaus within the department and categorizes their recommendations based on those divisions of labor. In total, the Matrix team makes 87 specific recommendations. The final Matrix report, agreed to and approved by the Syracuse Police Department (SPD), is attached as Appendix 1. Grouping recommendations based on those four bureaus an excellent way for the SPD to understand and implement changes but it is not particularly useful for the public. For ease of public consumption, the Office of the City Auditor re-categorized the Matrix recommendations into eight (8) categories which better help explain the types of changes suggested. The chart below identifies the number of Matrix recommendations by category. Matrix conducted a thorough and meaningful review of the SPD. Their recommendations touch on thematic areas that need to be addressed, and that the SPD has agreed to pursue as part of their own evolution. Some recommendations from the Matrix report could be implemented quickly, while others require a longer time horizon, understanding capacity within the department and other city agencies or external partners. Other recommendations are subject to union bargaining agreements. To further aid the public and lawmakers in understanding and implementing the recommendations, the Office of the City Auditor has identified ten (10) areas where SPD and the City should focus their attention to deliver the most efficient and effective improvements to the department and their delivery of service for the residents of Syracuse   

Syracuse, NY: Office of the Syracuse City Auditor , 2024. 192p.