In its grant application (sought and obtained by LBREPORT.com), the City of Long Beach told the California Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC):
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| (July 31, 2016, 7:10 p.m.) -- In seeking a $600,000 grant from a recently created state agency to train LBPD officers on issues including "implicit bias" and "procedural justice," the City of Long Beach said the Long Beach Police Department lacks sufficient diversity, is seeing a decrease in public support in high crime areas and cited angry public reactions to two 2015 LBPD officer-involved shootings.
In its grant application (sought and obtained by LBREPORT.com), the City of Long Beach told the California Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC): [Scroll down for further.] |
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In describing its grant award to Long Beach, BSCC states [website text] that LBPD... "...aims to further advance our efforts to foster open communication between law enforcement and the communities served. Program elements will focus on community police academy programs, community- and youth-police dialogues and the implementation of a procedural justice and implicit bias training course. Long Beach Police Department will engage in positive non-enforcement activities with a particular emphasis on residents living in communities with high rates of police contact. These dialogues will be facilitated and coordinated by community partner, the California Conference for Equality and Justice (CCEJ) particularly in the realm of increasing cultural competency." [BSCC, created by the state legislature in 2012, describes itself and its activities on its website at this link] Under the terms of grant fashioned by the City and approved by BSCC, nearly one third of the grant sum will be paid over two years ($180,000) to CCEJ, a LB 501(c)(3) non-profit, to implement "Community- and Youth-Police Dialogues and Implicit Bias" trainings for LBPD. CCEJ lists its governing Board members here and says [website text] its work focuses on "manifestations of discrimination and oppression based on religion, race, gender, age, ability, gender identity, and sexual orientation -- ranging from bias-related crimes and violence to racial profiling to systemic oppression..." Over a period spanning several years and in multiple reports, LBREPORT.com has independently described Long Beach as a "Tale of Two Cities" in which residents of working class neighborhoods endure shootings and murders at disproportionately high levels while other parts of the city remain totally or nearly entirely untouched. Long Beach violent and property-related crimes have increased following Sacramento's budget driven "realignment" (sending some convicted felons from state prison to County jails), Prop 47 (turning some felonies into misdemeanors) and LB City Council budget actions (recommended by Mayor Bob Foster since Sept. 2009, perpetuated by Mayor Garcia since 2014) that have left Long Beach residents with roughly 20% fewer citywide deployable police officers than the City previously had, including the complete elimination of LBPD's former field anti-gang unit.
A July 19 City Council agendizing memo (co-signed by LBPD Chief Robert Luna and Development Services Director Amy Bodek) summarized the grant as "intended to fund collaborative law enforcement-community approaches that aim to improve, strengthen, establish or re-establish positive and meaningful relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve. This opportunity aligns with President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which was created to strengthen community policing and trust among law enforcement officers and the communities they serve." The Council, with only Councilwoman Jeannine Pearce speaking (voicing her support), approved the item in less than 90 seconds (7-0, Andrews and Austin absent.) A week later on July 26, the City issued a release quoting Mayor Robert Garcia as stating that "Every day our Long Beach Police Officers are working hard to keep our community safe under extremely challenging circumstances. This grant award will help to build on the City's continued efforts to implement 21st Century Policing and practices that foster trust and build community." The same release quotes LBPD Chief Robert Luna as saying, "This grant will allow the Long Beach Police Department to provide officers with ongoing training in procedural justice, as well as enhanced training in de-escalation and implicit bias. Such training is consistent with the Strategic Vision of the Long Beach Police Department and reflects the recommendations provided by the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing." The City release continued: [July 26 City of LB release text] The LBPD has a long-standing commitment and many ongoing efforts to improve performance, ensure accountability, and serve the community. These efforts include developing a new curriculum to learn best practices to deal with the mentally ill and homeless, investing in new equipment, developing comprehensive communication plans to increase communication with the public, and enhancing investigatory capabilities for the Citizen's Police Complaint Commission.
In August 2015, Mayor Garcia made comments to the effect that LB had basically no increase in murders from the previous year (about the same as the previous year, give or take one or two) and noted that the previous year was a historic low. "From a murder point of view, we're still kind of facing a historic low number," Mayor Garcia said. Within a few weeks by the end of of September 2015, LB had an increase of 16.6% in murders. A month later in October 2015, LBREPORT.com reported that within a thirty day period, two Central Long Beach Council districts (1 + 6) had more hit-shootings On Monday August 1, Mayor Garcia is scheduled to unveil his recommend a FY17 budget; LBREPORT.com will provide complete coverage.
In LB's grant application (dated March 17, 2016), the City Manager's office (signed by Assistant City Manager Tom Modica) and listing LBPD as the lead agency, the City stated in pertinent part:
In November 2015, the City of Long Beach welcomed its first Latino Chief of Police, Robert Luna. The Chief has acknowledged publically that the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) "has a lot of work to do" to improve the relationship between officers and the community they serve. During his first community town hall, Chief Luna gave the LBPD a rating of five on a ten point scale regarding community relations between the Department and the residents of Long Beach
Strained community-police relations is a challenge that is not unique to Long Beach; police departments across the nation have acknowledged issues with increasing legitimacy and garnering community trust. However, what is unique to Long Beach is that the Police Department has begun to honestly identify possible contributing factors and solutions. One of these contributing factors is a lack of diversity within the LBPD police force, as Chief Luna has identified that the LBPD is not reflective of the community that it serves. According to a 2015 article written in the Long Beach Press Telegram, Caucasian officers are disproportionally represented at 53% of the sworn officers, despite making up 28.1% of the population in Long Beach. Alternatively, Hispanic/Latino and African American officers are drastically underrepresented.
Unlike other departments, the LBPD is working to make corrective actions to help ensure a diverse force. In an editorial written for the Long Beach Press Telegram, Chief Luna acknowledged the disproportionate underrepresentation of Hispanic/Latinos and African
Americans in higher ranking roles within the Department, but that this issue is not a quick fix, as it begins with who applies to become a police officer. As a long-term solution, Chief Luna has proposed to move away from cadet testing that relies heavily on reading and
writing, but rather focusing on critical thinking and decision-making skills. This shift works to better assess heavily used skills rather than disqualify otherwise qualified candidates. However, Chief Luna notes, "I want a diverse police department, I want a rainbow that
reflects this community but I won't lower the standard." Chief Luna's action is aligned with the Final Report of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing (21st Century Policing Report), specifically Pillar 1: Building Trust and Legitimacy, Recommendation
1.8. This recommendation states that law enforcement agencies should strive to create a diverse workforce and, Action Item 1.8.2, law enforcement agencies should adopt best practices for recruitment, training and outreach to improve diversity of the workforce.
Recurring issues of concern between law and communities
Similar to national trends, 2015 brought an increase in the number of community protests against the LBPD. Long Beach residents voiced their anger in reaction to the fatal officer involved shootings of two local young men. On April 23, 2015, an officer responded to a
trespassing call and when 19-year-old Hector Morejon turned to face the officer with an unknown object in his hand, he was shot. Morejon later succumbed to the injuries.
Nearly 30 days later, on May 27, 2015, Feras Morad was fatally shot by a LBPD officer. Witnesses claim that Morad was acting erratically due to the use of illegal drugs and that he was unarmed when he attacked the LBPD officer. In both cases, LBPD has conducted
internal reviews to determine whether the officers responded within Department standards. Also, as is standard in all officer involved shootings, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office conducted an independent investigation regarding both incidents. However, both instances received substantial media attention, and some community members complained that LBPD did not deliver information about the
investigation in a timely, transparent fashion. Subsequently, both families have filed civil lawsuits prior to LBPD's review findings. The preemptive filing by the families may speak to the level of distrust certain segments of the community have with LBPD. This distrust
is most evident in high crime neighborhoods of the City (see GIS map on page 4 [reproduced below]).
Chief Luna has heard the community voice their distrust in person. During Town Hall Meetings, residents expressed their concern about how LBPD interacts with the public. In addition, LBPD and local newspapers have observed a stark decrease of cooperation with community members coming forward as either victims or witnesses of a crime. This lack of cooperation may be an unintended consequence of tension between the community and the Police Department.
Process to Ensure Community Input in Identifying Needs
...Chief Luna and the LBPD Command Staff have committed to meeting with the Long Beach Minister's Alliance, a group of predominantly African American and Latino faith leaders on a monthly basis over the last year to talk through community-police mistrust and how to obtain mutual understanding. The concept for this grant proposal came out of those conversations, ongoing community surveys, community Town Halls, and the development of the multilingual community-police trust survey that is currently being distributed.
As part of the development of the Safe Long Beach Violence Prevention Plan, a Community Survey was first conducted in 2013 to gauge community safety, community-police interactions and the need for social services. This survey was critical in gauging the communities' attitudes and perceptions about the degree to which community members feel safe in Long Beach. Community outreach workers went door
to door in a City-wide canvassing effort to provide all residents with an opportunity to participate in the survey. Additionally, residents were given opportunities to participate in Safe Long Beach focus groups. In 2015, the community survey utilized graduate students from University of California, Los Angeles to go door-to-door in targeted neighborhoods to engage residents to participate in the survey. North and Central Long Beach were the targeted neighborhoods, both of which have the highest crime and highest poverty rates
of the City.
The first Community Survey established a base line of the communities' perception of community safety, school safety and perception of crime occurrence. The data collected in 2015 paints a different picture than the one captured in 2013. Between 2013 and 2015, there was a shift in the communities' perception of safety and neighborhood crime. The 2015 Community Survey illustrated a decrease in the residents' overall satisfaction of the LBPD. More specifically, the areas of customer satisfaction, the perceived friendliness of officers and LBPD's communication, indicated the largest increase to the "poor" rating by almost 10% (see tables 1.1, 1.2, & 1.3). In the areas of perceived friendliness and LBPD's communication, the rating of "excellent" decreased by nearly 13%.
In addition, in collaboration with the Long Beach Minister's Alliance, the LBPD hosted several town hall meetings to address police-community tensions, specifically around officer involved shootings - http://photos.presstelegram.com/2015/01/photos-lbpd-andchief-
luna-answer-questions-in-town-hall-forum/#2. Chief Luna has not been afraid to tackle tough questions about community police relations, officer involved shootings, use of force and body cameras. He has taken the questions head on and developed a dialogue with the pastors and community members about these concerns. He also has encouraged his Deputy Chiefs and Division Commanders to host Leadership Forums, attend neighborhood association meetings, host Coffee with a Cop, and even host ad hoc meetings in willing residents' front lawns to open the dialogue even further. There is no easy solution or one size fits all campaign that will repair this tenuous relationship, but the City of Long Beach has both Mayoral and Police Department leadership willing to dedicate time, attention and staff resources to build relationships in high and low crime communities throughout the City.
Needs, Challenges and Tensions with Protected Classes
Tension between the community and the LBPD is on the rise. Both the external national media focus and the citywide increase of rallies and recent decrease in police satisfaction ratings have impacted this tension. In 2013, there were a total of 22 officer-involved shootings, an increase from the previous year. Of these officer-involved shootings, fifteen of them involved a suspect engaged in a crime. However, officer-involved shootings dropped to 10 in 2014...
...In the case of the LBPD, having officers who are provided minimal insight into the cultures that they serve, combined with a police force that does not accurately reflect the diversity of the community it serves are factors that may be contributing to the tensions in the City. If officers are not made aware of their implicit biases then it would be suffice to say that those biases may negatively impact how those officers interact with particular members of the community. Research has shown that acknowledging implicit bias and training how
to manage it, as well as adopting policies to ensure procedural justice is occurring, can help strengthen the relationship between a police department and the community that it serves. By developing internal/external procedural justice, and acknowledging implicit
biases the LBPD will enhance their ongoing effects to build public trust and legitimacy. In addition to building the cultural competency of the police force, there is an additional need to educate the community about police procedures, as well as engage with the
community in positive ways in order to minimize tensions and improve understanding between the police and community. The strategies to address these needs are outlined in the following section.
SECTION II: PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
...Established in 1992 as a response to build trust with the community after the Rodney King Riots, the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) launched the Community Police Academy (CPA). The CPA was initially a 15-week course attended by residents of Long Beach. Twenty-one (21) CPA courses were held with over 450 participants, and was offered in English, Spanish and Khmer, the City's most commonly spoken languages. Although this program yielded positive results, LBPD was forced to discontinue the CPA due to budget reductions in 2010.
With support from BSCC, the CPA will be reinstituted and modified to address contemporary law enforcement and community relations issues. The new forum will consist of a one-day (9.5 hours) class held on a bi-monthly basis (six per year for a total of twelve during the two-year grant period) where participants will gain insight and an understanding of LBPD procedures. Police Department subject-matter experts in the areas of Patrol Operations, Criminal Law, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), Emergency Communications (911), Internal Affairs and Community Engagement will provide presentations as well as conduct scenarios to help community members understand the role of police and how/why the department responds to certain situations in certain ways.
...[T]he CPA program will allow residents to gain insight into LBPD protocols, ask questions and engage in dialogue with LBPD officers of various ranks. It is the sincere belief of LBPD that educating the public and engaging in open conversation about police procedures will also increase public perception that the department conducts business both ethically and transparently. Given that the CPA program has been successful in the past, particularly during an era of diminishing police trust, reinstituting the CPA will likely achieve the same result. For example, during the Internal Affairs presentation, residents will learn that the police department is required, by law, to keep certain information confidential. Learning this will likely decrease the community's perception that LBPD is unwilling to disclose
information, when in fact, doing so would be illegal.
LBPD personnel will recruit community leaders, residents and other persons expressing an interest in participating in the CPA. Given that communities of color experience police contact disproportionately, special outreach efforts will be made to engage the African-
American and Latino communities. To be eligible to participate, all CPA participants must live or work in Long Beach, be 18 years of age or older, must not have any outstanding warrants, pending criminal cases, felony convictions or gang membership or association.
Each applicant will be screened through Gangs, Crime Intelligence Section, and Records to ensure they meet the requirements.
LBPD also recognizes that educating the public about department protocols and processes will not improve community relations on its own. Likewise, opportunities to engage with the department should also be made available to members of the public who do not meet the eligibility criteria of the CPA (for example, individuals under 18 years of age or those with a felony conviction). To ensure that opportunities to meaningfully connect with LBPD are made available to all members of the community, community- and youth-police dialogues will be implemented as well. Aligned with Recommendation 1.5 of the 21st Century Policing Report, and with support from BSCC, LBPD will engage in positive non-enforcement activities through the use of community- and youth-police
dialogues, with a particular emphasis on residents living in communities with high rates
of police contact. These communities (i.e. North and Central Long Beach) are also
predominately composed of African-American and Latino residents.
These dialogues will be facilitated and coordinated by community partner, the California Conference for Equality and Justice (CCEJ), a Long Beach-based organization that has collaborated with LBPD for over 15 years, particularly in the realm of increasing cultural
competency. LBPD recognizes the importance of the role of CCEJ in this process, as CCEJ represents a neutral third-party convener, with equal partiality to all participating parties. CCEJ's history of working together with LBPD has focused on fostering policing methods that are delivered through enhanced customer service skills, professional attitudes and tempered with respect and understanding of all residents of Long Beach.
CCEJ has also provided training to improve department climate and culture through teambuilding, enhanced internal communication and leadership development. In 2010, in partnership with the City of Long Beach, Human Dignity Program and the then newly appointed Chief of Police, Jim McDonnell, CCEJ was contracted to deliver three youth-police dialogues and three community-police dialogues to foster mutual
understanding between officers and community members. Participating officers were paid for their overtime work and youth were recruited from Long Beach high schools. An open call for community participants was made through faith and community-based organizations to participate in the community dialogues. All participants, including the officers, shared a meal together and then moved into a dialogue ranging from light "getto-know-you" activities to more in-depth sharing of personal stories, including experiences (positive and negative) with officers, in a neutral and safe environment. After the dialogue, officers and youth reported a better understanding of each other and a reduction in stereotypes of each other. Given that this approach has been effective in strengthening community-police relations between LBPD and the community in the recent past, LBPD believes this program will be successful once reinstituted.
Pillar Three: Technology and Social Media
Current efforts of LBPD to communicate and engage with residents has been achieved through the use of web-based technology and social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) to share information about real-time police activity and incidents of crime, as well as to promote non-enforcement related activities and events.
In 2013, LBPD launched the free mobile application, Go LBPD, an innovative "one stop shop" tool which allows residents to receive news, crime prevention information, crime alerts, events, videos, photos, and to submit tips regarding a variety of crimes. For residents who utilize this form of technology, the app allows for user-friendly access to information regarding where and when crime is occurring and encourages residents to assist LBPD by reporting crimes in a convenient fashion. Recently, the department has realized that many residents are unaware of the Go LBPD app and have not connected with LBPD via social media. Additionally, LBPD has realized the need for a strategic
external communication plan in order to implement best practices to deliver clear and concise messages to residents, demonstrate transparency and accountability, and to gauge their perceptions and attitudes toward the department.
...The strategic external communications plan currently being developed (set to be completed in May 2016) will address this principle. Just as the purpose of the CPA is to communicate and educate the community about police procedures, the external communications plan will
also work to accomplish this goal to the broader community, particularly as it relates to matters of high-importance to the community, such as officer-involved shootings, use of force, citizen complaint process, police discipline, and what to do if stopped by the police.
With support from BSCC, LBPD will continue to promote and increase visibility and communication with the community. Specifically, LBPD will develop promotional materials (e.g. brochures) and produce press releases and utilize social media as it relates to this grant program, including information about joining the CPA or the youth and community-police dialogues. Likewise, as part of the Project Evaluation for this grant, an assessment of the effectiveness of LBPD's use of technology and social media will be evaluated, and any weaknesses or gaps will be identified and addressed to further strengthen current efforts.
Pillar Five: Training and Education
As mentioned in the Project Need section, the LBPD police force has an under representation of police officers of color. This, coupled with disproportionate police contact with residents of color and community concerns regarding use of force and law enforcement trustworthiness, speaks to the need for the implementation of procedural justice and increased efforts to minimize the influence of bias.
A prominent gap and weakness in the existing LBPD Advanced Officer Training Course (AOTC) curriculum is the absence of a class dedicated to implicit bias and procedural justice. Existing AOTC courses, such as Interpersonal Communications (formerly Tactical Communications) or Dealing with the Mentally Ill touch upon the importance of community relations, fair and impartial policing and anti-bias concepts. However, this is not sufficient in adequately educating the police force about a topic as important as bias. This poses a major problem for LBPD, as the department is currently out of compliance with the California legislative mandate regarding Bias-Based Policing (formerly Racial Profiling), which requires that officers receive two hours of Bias-Based Policing training every five years. At the end of 2015, a large majority of LBPD officers exhausted the five year time limit.
To fill this gap, the LBPD Training Division is preparing to implement a two-part Procedural Justice and Implicit Bias training course. Each module is a 9-hour course, with the first session focusing on Procedural Justice and the second focusing solely on Implicit Bias training, which exceeds the State minimum anti-bias training requirement of two hours. Research and feedback from other jurisdictions have illustrated the importance of implementing Procedural Justice training before Implicit Bias, as the former is the foundation for anti-bias training. Procedural Justice provides officers with a framework and an understanding of how to effectively police without bias, and also
provides the "why", as it enlightens officers with both a historical and current events perspective that speaks to the need for taking an unbiased approach to policing within the diverse communities that exist in Long Beach. This approach echoes the values of Pillar Five of the 21st Century Policing Report, which emphasizes "the need for understanding, tolerance and sensitivity" to all minority groups."
Operationally, LBPD will work collaboratively with CCEJ to implement this training curriculum, with LBPD taking the lead in facilitating part one of the Procedural Justice training, and CCEJ leading the Implicit Bias training. The Procedural Justice training will be 9 hours, and the Implicit Bias training will be an 8-hour course.
The CPA program, community- and youth-police dialogues, and Procedural Justice and
Implicit Bias trainings will benefit the City of Long Beach far beyond the two-year funding
period. As California and Los Angeles County experiences rapid criminal justice reform,
and as the community has urged local government to increase accountability,
transparency, and cultural awareness and sensitivity, instituting these programs will
contribute to and strengthen the City's existing efforts to demonstrate legitimacy and
credibility with our residents, and contribute to internal paradigm shifts that the nature of
policing involves partnering with and supporting the community
Goals, Objectives and Performance Measures
To address the challenges identified previously, the following goal, objectives and
performance measures have been identified.
GOAL: Increase mutual communication and understanding between Long Beach Police
Department and community residents.
Community Partner Selection
To assist the Department in implementing the strategies outlined in the previous section, particularly the community- and youth-police dialogues and Implicit Bias trainings, the Long Beach Police Department is partnering with the California Conference for Equality
and Justice (CCEJ). LBPD has chosen to work with CCEJ for this project because of their long-standing positive relationship with the police department and their commitment to the community of Long Beach. CCEJ is frequently sought out in Los Angeles County and Southern California for their expertise in providing anti-bias trainings and providing conflict mediation in various forms, including community-police tension.
Long Beach Police Department believes that CCEJ's mission and vision brings the unique perspective needed to increase law enforcement and community relations. CCEJ focuses on confronting the manifestations of discrimination and oppression based on race, religion, gender, age ability, gender identity and sexual orientation and recognizes that Long Beach has a unique demographic makeup in need of programs with the community's unique characteristics in mind.
Involvement of Communities Most Impacted by Criminal Justice System
In 2015, 713 youth were on probation in the City of Long Beach. To address the increase of justice-involved youth as well as the increase in national and local tension between police and communities, LBPD will collaborate with CCEJ to provide youth-police and
community-police dialogues that aim to promote improved relationships, trust and communication between law-enforcement and the community.
The Long Beach Police Department and CCEJ will also invite community members to participate in positive non enforcement interactions with the police by providing six (6) Community Police Academies per year that focus on engagement with the communities that are most impacted by the justice system. As mentioned previously, the Police Academies will assist community members in understanding the role of police as well as understanding how and why the department responds to situations in a variety of ways.
Recognizing Long Beach's diverse population and the disproportionate impact on African American and Latino communities, the focus will be on outreach to those affected communities. The Police Department will promote fair access to this program by providing trainings with interpretation services in Spanish, Khmer, and Tagalog.
Additionally, justice-involved individuals and their families can interact with LBPD through the community- and youth-police dialogues.
Partnership Between Lead Agency and Community Partner For over 15 years, CCEJ and the Long Beach Police Department have collaborated with
each other with a focus on improving policing through enhanced client-centered approaches and the cultivation of professional attitudes of officers that embody respect for community members in Long Beach. In addition to providing internal trainings to the Long Beach Police Department focused on improving departmental climate and culture through communication and leadership, CCEJ contracted with the City of Long Beach's Human Dignity Program to deliver three (3) Community- and Youth-Police Dialogues, which would be reinstated through this grant. This partnership is mutually beneficial, as both LBPD and CCEJ are interesting in and dedicated to the empowerment of the Long
Beach community.
Partnership Between Lead Agency and Community Partner
For over 15 years, CCEJ and the Long Beach Police Department have collaborated with each other with a focus on improving policing through enhanced client-centered approaches and the cultivation of professional attitudes of officers that embody respect for community members in Long Beach. In addition to providing internal trainings to the Long Beach Police Department focused on improving departmental climate and culture through communication and leadership, CCEJ contracted with the City of Long Beach's Human Dignity Program to deliver three (3) Community- and Youth-Police Dialogues, which would be reinstated through this grant. This partnership is mutually beneficial, as
both LBPD and CCEJ are interesting in and dedicated to the empowerment of the Long Beach community.
Process to Engage Community Partners and Plan to Address Community Needs
With the media's sensational coverage of policing and the influence media has on the public, maintaining positive community relations has become more challenging. Long Beach has been working the past several years to improve the relationship between law enforcement and community members. One strategy to achieve this has been through the engagement of residents in identifying community needs and subsequent solutions.
In addition to the Safe Long Beach Community Survey conducted in 2013 and 2015, the Long Beach Police Department is in the process of administering a multi-lingual, multifaceted, community wide survey to gauge the community's awareness of policies and procedures as well as their general attitude towards the police department. This survey works to satisfy The President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Pillar 1: Building Trust and Legitimacy's recommendation 1.7: law enforcement should measure public trust annually. Moreover, LBPD also measures public trust through interaction. For example, shortly after the nationally broadcast police-involved shooting in Ferguson,
Missouri, Chief Luna held public forums in Long Beach where he ascertained that communication between the Long Beach Police Department and the community needed improvement. It is clear that law enforcement officials and community members alike sense a need for improved communication between parties. As previously mentioned, CCEJ has a long history of working collaboratively with the
police department as a part of the Hate Crimes Response Team. Recently, CCEJ has worked with the police department to identify the needs facing the community as well as potential interventions, particularly as it relates to improving community relations. Utilizing CCEJ's experience and history, CCEJ and the Long Beach Police Department have developed a plan to meet the needs of the community through community- and youth-police dialogues and implicit bias trainings for the entire police force. Long Beach Police Department and CCEJ have also decided to reinstate 3 youth-police and community-police dialogues per year to improve the relationships between residents
and the police. While these dialogues are vital to building trust and establishing rapport and understanding between both parties, CCEJ will also collaborate with Long Beach Police Department to conduct an 8-hour implicit bias training for Long Beach police officers.
Mutual Involvement, Shared Decision-Making, Sharing of Data, Shared Planning Process, Responsiveness and Transparency
Long Beach Police Department and CCEJ both have unique skill sets and will work together to reach mutual goals. Fostering open communication and promoting trust between law enforcement and communities takes a collaborative effort on all fronts and requires transparency among groups. The nature of the Police Academy curriculum is to build trust and legitimacy between law enforcement and community members. Since the curriculum is public information, it offers transparency and accountability to both parties in regards to how the police department responds to critical incidents.
The City of Long Beach is also fostering transparency and accountability through City of Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia's Open Data Policy. Under the leadership of Mayor Garcia and City Manager Patrick West, the City of Long Beach has been working to develop an Open Data Policy that reflects the City of Long Beach's commitment to open, honest, and effective government. This will not only empower the community to engage with government on a new level, but it will also provide a new platform to increase the
sharing of information among City Departments. The policy is close to being finalized,
and the goal is to have data, including the Safe Long Beach Violence Prevention Plan
indicators, available online by the end of 2016.
Over the past nine months, the Safe Long Beach Violence Prevention Plan has also been developing data sharing strategies, both across partner organizations and with the broader public. Safe Long Beach partners, including LBPD, have been piloting data sharing strategies such as a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) approach to better addressing the needs of repeat offenders, and data sharing across agencies to support LBUSD students who are chronically absent. Safe Long Beach hosted a Data Summit on March 18, 2016. Over 150 Safe Long Beach partners and stakeholders came together to identify key activities, data sources, data challenges, expected outcomes, and data gaps for Safe Long Beach initiatives. This identification and prioritization of data is helping to inform collaboration across stakeholders, and technical assistance from the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs.
Safe Long Beach is also committed to ensuring that Safe Long Beach initiatives and goals reflect the needs and concerns of the community, based not just on quantitative data, but also through direct community feedback, as evidenced by the 2013 and 2015 Safe Long
Beach Community Surveys. In addition, the Community Leadership Development Subcommittee of Safe Long Beach began cataloguing existing community surveys in early 2016, to better understand how different community organizations and stakeholders are assessing perceptions of safety, community needs and assets. To date, the group has identified 15 existing community surveys that are either conducted regularly or have been recently completed. During the Data Summit, the Subcommittee analyzed these existing surveys, identifying key issues, opportunities and potential for future collaboration. The group found that each survey frames questions about safety and perceptions of safety in different ways, and that working together to frame and operationalize these questions and definitions could lead to more useful data. The group is looking at how to better frame survey questions to get beyond perceptions of safety and a purely deficit-oriented framework, in order to look at what makes a thriving, connected community.
As mentioned previously, LBPD is working with an outside firm to survey residents of Long Beach in order to gather and gauge issues, perceptions, questions, and attitudes towards LBPD. This effort is intended to help LBPD determine the awareness level of the community and measure the attitudes toward the department. It will also assist in identifying best practices to deliver clear and concise messages, both internally and externally, including best methods of rolling out information to the community. The main goals of the Police Department are to demonstrate transparency within the limits of the law and accountability within the department. There will be two distinct surveys. First, a Random Digit Dial (RDD) sample telephone survey of 400 residents in English and Spanish (Khmer and Tagalog to be added). The random sample of phone numbers will include listed and unlisted, landline and cellular numbers, ensuring a valid sample of the adult population. Second, an online survey will be distributed through community organizations, including Business and Neighborhood Associations, nonprofits and faithbased organizations
PROJECT EVALUATION
The Long Beach Police Department is seeking funding to implement four programs designed to improve community-police relations. The efforts include: 1) a Community Police Academy (CPA) program, 2) community/youth-police dialogues, 3) an improved use of social media and technology to engage and inform community members, and 4) procedural justice and implicit bias training for officers. Both process and outcome evaluations will be provided on each of the four programs. A process evaluation examines how program activities were delivered, the degree to which the services were implemented as planned, and the extent to which targeted participants were serviced. Participants, service providers, staff members, and other relevant stakeholders will be included in the process evaluation. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected throughout the course of each program and the results will be used to identify barriers to program delivery and to make improvements to the programs while service delivery is underway.
An outcome evaluation measures the extent to which the program goals were achieved. In this case, the four programs are designed to meet the overall program goal of improving police-community relations. Survey data will be used to determine if program goals were
met. Surveys will be translated into Spanish or Khmer as needed. Pre-test, posttest, and 6-month follow-up data will be collected. Analysis of data at three points in time (pre, post, follow-up) will indicate whether or not the goals of the program were met and the
extent to which they endure over time.
The CPA program is a one-day (9.5 hours) class held on a bi-monthly basis. Twelve academies (six per year) will be held over the course of the two-year grant period. A process evaluation will be utilized to determine if the academies were implemented as
planned and to identify and address any impediments to implementation. The process evaluation will include focus groups and/or interviews with the individuals involved in planning and delivering the program. Focus groups and/or interviews will be held at 6-month intervals throughout the course of the grant period in order to track to planning, recruiting, and implementation of the academies. The outcome evaluation will include pretest, posttest, and 6-month follow-up surveys measuring knowledge of police procedures, attitudes toward the LBPD, perceptions of police legitimacy, and participant demographic information. Participants for the 6-month follow-up will be solicited on the post-test. Follow-up surveys will be administered via telephone.
The community/youth-police dialogues will be facilitated and coordinated by the California Conference for Equity and Justice (CCEJ). The process evaluation will be utilized to determine if the dialogues were carried out as planned and to identify and address any
impediments to implementation. The process evaluation will include focus groups and/or interviews with the CCEJ partners and the LBPD personnel who are coordinating the dialogues. Focus groups and/or interviews will be held at 6-month intervals throughout the course of the grant period in order to track the scheduling, implementation of and recruitment for the dialogues.
The outcome evaluation will include pretest and posttests measuring the participant (both youth/community members' and officers') attitudes toward each other, empathy toward each other, adherence to stereotypes, degree of trust, perceptions of legitimacy, and demographic information. During the post-test, participants will be asked to volunteer for a 6-month follow-up survey. Follow-up surveys will be administered via telephone. In an effort to improve upon its communication with the larger community, the LBPD seeks
to increase or enhance its use of three social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and the app Go LBPD to inform and engage the community. The process evaluation will be utilized to determine if the plan to increase social media use was implemented as planned and to identify and address any impediments to implementation.
The process evaluation will include focus groups and/or interviews with the members of LBPD's public information office. Focus groups and/or interviews will be held at 6-month intervals throughout the course of the grant period.
The outcome evaluation will include monthly tracking of the number of official, LBPD Facebook posts and Tweets, the number of times community members re-post or re-Tweet LBPD postings and Tweets, and the number of Go LBPD downloads.
In partnership with CCEJ, LBPD will provide 25 (12.5 per grant year) procedural justice and implicit bias trainings for officers. It is anticipated that 50-55 officers will attend each training. A process evaluation will be utilized to determine if the training was implemented as planned and to identify and address impediments to implementation. The process evaluation will include focus groups and/or interviews with the CCEJ partners and the LBPD personnel charged with implementing the training. Focus groups and/or interviews
will be held at 6-month intervals throughout the course of the grant period.
The outcome evaluation will include pretest, post-test, and 6-month follow-up measures of officer attitudinal and behavioral changes and demographic information. During the post-test, participants will be asked to volunteer for a 6-month follow-up survey. Followup
surveys will be administered via telephone.
A written report of the results of these evaluations will be shared with the City of Long Beach, the Long Beach Police Department, and other affiliated groups.
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