3.4: Community Engagement

As has been discussed throughout this chapter, community engagement is an essential component of police reform strategy. At the remedies stage, the focus shifts from the Division’s engagement with the community to the law enforcement agency’s engagement with the community, as well as the broader question of the agency’s accountability to democratic processes and the public. Community engagement, oversight, and democratic accountability go hand-in-hand in the Division’s current generation of reform agreements. All of the Division’s current generation of consent decrees require some form of community outreach and engagement, including mechanisms to institutionalize strong relationships between the law enforcement agency and the community it serves, ensure the community has a role in setting priorities for a police department, and make police practices and data transparent to the public.

Community Outreach Plans

Nearly all of the Division’s current generation of reform agreements require law enforcement agencies to develop a plan for institutionalizing community engagement, whether by appointing community liaison officers, fostering police community partnerships, holding regular community meetings, or tracking and rewarding positive interactions between officers and community groups. For example, in East Haven, Connecticut, the Division’s reform agreement requires the appointment of a Community Liaison Officer fluent in English and Spanish whose responsibilities include monthly community meetings, review of civilian complaints to identity trends in community concerns, and regular briefings on community engagement with police leadership.

Community Committees or Councils

The Division’s current model emphasizes the creation of or investment in standing committees or councils of community members with authority to advise the law enforcement agency about community concerns and proposed reforms. For example, in Seattle, Washington, the Division’s reform agreement established a Community Police Commission with diverse membership and broad authority to review and provide input on police reform and to receive and incorporate community feedback.

Civilian Complaint Review Boards

Civilian review boards, which are a focus of the discussion of accountability mechanisms in the section that follows, provide another mechanism for community members to engage with police practices.

Community-Based Mediation Programs

Some agreements—notably those in Ferguson, Missouri and New Orleans—provide for neighborhood-based mediation programs to promote the diversion of community disputes out of the criminal justice system and into community based, community-run institutions.

Data Collection and Transparency

Robust collection of data about police activity, as well as ensuring transparency and accessibility of that data—also discussed as part of accountability measures below—are important to ensure that communities have the tools to provide informed input.

The Role of the Independent Monitoring Team

As previously discussed, laying the foundation for strong police-community relationships is one of the most critical roles of the independent monitoring team. The Division’s agreements generally institutionalize face-to-face meetings 30 between the monitoring team and the public, to ensure that communities are engaged in the process of reform. The Division also maintains ongoing community engagement during the lifetime of a reform agreement, drawing upon the relationships established from the earliest days of an investigation. But the goal of the Division’s reform agreements is to ensure that once the Division and the independent monitor leave the jurisdiction, vibrant police-community relationships will remain as the foundation of sustainable constitutional policing.