“While No Official Grievance Has Been Filed . . . “

1. “While No Official Grievance Has Been Filed . . . “ The Evolving Role of Community Policing on Campus Draft 6-1-10

2. Elizabeth Cahn • Planning and Community Outreach Coordinator, 2007-2010 • Mount Holyoke College 2007+ • Hampshire College 2008+ • Smith College 2009+

3. Goals of Presentation • Community policing • Definitions • History • Challenges • Case studies • Outreach, complaints, profiling • Important lessons

4. Community Policing • Definitions • History

5. Community Policing • Challenges • Time, scheduling, and definitions of productivity • Not all staff are equally skilled or interested • Campus community norms and values around police and authority vary enormously • Increased officer visibility may increase negative responses

6. Community Policing • Case Studies • Michigan State University, 1999 • Harvard University, 2003 • Mount Holyoke College • Hampshire College • Smith College

7. Mount Holyoke model • Three elite undergraduate liberal arts colleges in western Massachusetts • Traditional college age populations • Millenial generation characteristics • Increasingly diverse campus communities • Gender and gender identities • Race, ethnicity, nationality • Sexual orientation • Intellectual and activist identities

8. Mount Holyoke model • Civilian outreach model – 1.0 FTE Four approximately equal parts -- • Intradepartment work • Easy, obvious outreach • Extremely difficult outreach • What the community brings forward

9. Civilian Outreach • Intradepartmental work • Advise Director/Chief and Senior Command • Understand department functioning, strengths, and challenges • Know the staff and their concerns • Know policies and procedures that affect campus most strongly • Assist in identifying and developing trainings and outreach opportunities for others

10. Civilian Outreach • Easy, obvious outreach • Work on sexual assault and domestic violence issues with other on-campus and off-campus groups • Work with student groups that are open to collaboration with public safety/police • Work with staff/faculty individuals and groups on campus safety • Create collaborative groups where possible

11. Civilian Outreach • Extremely difficult outreach • Connect to groups that typically distrust police/public safety • Students of color, international and LGBT students • Faculty • Activists, anarchists • Connect to individuals who have reason to distrust police/public safety • Some will be part of organized groups, some not

12. Civilian Outreach • Extremely difficult outreach • Systematic desensitization of the campus community to public safety/police • Enter spaces, places, meetings, events where a uniformed officer or high level public safety staff member will cause alarm • Connect to marginalized groups in a low-key way • Introduce profiling as a topic of concern to department as well as campus

13. Civilian Outreach • What the community brings forward • Issues include • Presence of police/security on campus • Power and authority (including weapons) • Specific responses • Profiling and hate crimes • Triangulation of public safety/police into other campus issues and concerns

14. Civilian Outreach • Disadvantages of civilian outreach • Finding the right person • Not fully identified with department • Has to earn trust of members of department • Trust will never be complete • Can be difficult to allow “outsider” access to • Training • Policy • Discipline

15. Civilian Outreach • Advantages • Not fully identified with department • No uniform, no enforcement role or responsibilities • More able to gain trust of community members • Can represent department to the community in useful ways • Can engage community in self-critique around issues of authority and enforcement

16. Civilian Outreach • Qualities of civilian outreach personnel • Excellent social skills • Excellent communication skills • Know something about public safety • Know your institution • Able to be in uncomfortable situations with people they don’t know • Able to tolerate incommensurable views of the world simultaneously

17. Special Projects • MHACASA Collaboration, Mount Holyoke College, 2008-2009 • Mount Holyoke College African and Caribbean Student Association participated in a year-long collaboration with DPS, including reciprocal social events, adoption of staff by students, and participation in public projects. • Student leadership helped minimize student reaction to allegations of profiling

18. Special Projects • Parking ticket study, Mount Holyoke College, 2008-2009 • Member of the riding team analyzed two years of parking data for a class project • Research found that members of the riding team with cars on campus earn parking tickets at 2.5 times the rate of other MHC students with cars.

19. Special Projects • Multicultural Community and Campus Life Committee (MCCL), Mount Holyoke College, 2009-2010 • Represented Department of Public Safety on campus-wide committee to address campus climate on diversity • Represented a different side of Public Safety to committee membership • Developed relationships with campus leaders on diversity

20. Special Projects • Transgender Policy and Training, Hampshire College, 2009-2010 • Participated in public meeting about arrests • Engaged in long-term behind-the-scenes work with staff inside and outside department • Worked with student committee to create open forums about student rights • Met with individual students at Hampshire and Mount Holyoke for remainder of academic year

21. Special Projects • Community Relations Training, 2010 • Developed training on community relations using the Henry Louis Gates, Jr. arrest by Sergeant James Crowley as a case study • Utilized Intergroup Dialogue methods • Two department staff are already trained as facilitators • Additional staff are being trained this year

22. Special Projects • Five College Public Safety Community Outreach group • Initiated cross-campus discussions about public safety and policing • Included public safety, police, deans, student life and multicultural affairs staff, and ombuds offices • Outreach to SGA leaders, student activities staff, local police departments, mental health counselors

23. Special Projects • Ideas I want to try • Community dialogue projects using Intergroup Dialogue methods with students, staff, faculty • Programming with ombuds staff on outreach, training, and response to incidents and allegations • Watch crime/legal TV shows with Dean of the College and Senior Detective

24. Complaints • Every complaint is an opportunity • Respond formally and informally • Assess your campus issues • Voice the unspoken concerns • Work ahead of the complaints • Build a track record of responding • Publicize it every year • Engage and follow up

25. Profiling • Be realistic about campus beliefs • Race-based values/experiences • Class-based values/experiences • Intellectual biases against police/authority • Activist biases against police/authority • Role of projection and fear • Personal, family, subculture, culture • Media and social media

26. Profiling • Every bad cop anywhere who profiles reflects poorly on your department • Initiate topic and discussion of profiling • Definitions of profiling vary by standpoint • Educate about your policy and training • Complaints • Educate about how to file formal complaints • Respond quickly to informal complaints • Complaints may increase, at least for a time

27. Profiling • Analytic frames are not equal • The people who feel safe don’t need to complain, and the people who don’t feel safe don’t feel safe enough to complain • Stay in the dialogue and follow up • Increased transparency and accountability go both ways • Hold your department and the campus community to a higher standard

28. Principles of Outreach • Do it or don’t do it • Run your department well • Be sincere, not perfect • Keep an educational focus • Build relationships for the long term • Reach out to key people, not everyone • Look for strategic opportunities

29. Principles of Outreach • Show up in unexpected places and at unexpected times • Be respectful of community boundaries • If you can’t work directly, work indirectly • Connect to those who can translate • Plant seeds, water them, and wait • It’s not always who you know, but who knows you

30. Thank you! Please send comments to ecahn@mtholyoke.edu or ecahn@larp.umass.edu