Building police - community trust in Compton through reform and accountability

Across the country, and no less in Compton, the relationships between communities and police are more strained than they have ever been. Officer-involved shootings that result in the deaths of people of color continue to happen with alarming regularity, and the resulting lack of trust has increased dangers for police officers as well. The increasing tension in these relationships is making our communities less safe for everyone.

However, there is hope for a solution. A project in Oakland helped shift from Oakland PD killing a citizen on average once every six weeks to 23 straight months without an officer involved killing. The project fostered community dialogues and trained officers on key tools and concepts and significantly reduced officer-involved shootings while also reducing homicides and officer injury. LA Voice, working with Rev. Dr. Michael Fisher of Greater Zion Church Family, intends to build upon that successful model in Compton, creating a city where the police are more accountable to the community, and both community members and police feel respected and safe. Pastor Fisher and the #Push100 Coalition have already made progress on creating space for dialogue while also addressing gang violence. LA Voice is uniquely positioned to bring community members together with law enforcement as well as create the necessary separate conversations. As a trusted interfaith organization with deep relationships in Los Angeles communities, we have a history of facilitating relationships between community members and police, with particular success on immigration issues.

Our dialogues will begin in conjunction with a statewide project being implemented by our statewide partner PICO California that will implement the successful Oakland model in several communities across the state. We will work with member congregations and partners in Compton to bring together leaders who wish to participate in the dialogues, and prepare them for a truthful, constructive dialogue with law enforcement. We will assemble a team of law enforcement officials who are prepared and ready to have meaningful conversations that can affect real change. Over the course of the next year, local leaders will meet with law enforcement, have difficult and necessary conversations and create a plan to implement reforms and trainings.

We will measure the impact of this project using both short and long-term measures. In the short term, we will track the implementation of the program and collect feedback from participants about their impressions of the program’s success. In the long term, we will track the overall impact that the program has had on police/community relationships and rates of officer involved shootings in communities of color.

Short-term metrics:

Number of conversations facilitated between community members and police.

Evaluations of conversations that demonstrate participants felt the conversations were constructive and created forward motion towards change

Concrete commitments made towards reform and police training on the part of law enforcement

Number of leaders trained to lead trainings with police

Long-term metrics:

# of officer-involved shootings in targeted communities

Homicide rates in targeted communities

Rates of officer injury in targeted communities

Money

Publicity/awareness

Community outreach

Network/relationship support