The National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, a 3-year, $4.75 million project funded by the Department of Justice, is designed to improve relationships between law enforcement and communities of color, including special populations, such as youth. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of six cities of the National Initiative, has proven particularly successful in its work with the Youth-Police Advisory Committee (PGHYPAC), an organization co-founded by Chief Cameron McLay of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and students from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. This organization promotes "reconciliation" between students (grades 6-12) and law enforcement representatives, involving participants from the Mayor's Office, District Attorney's Office, and US Attorney's Office. National Initiative Assists Pittsburgh and Minneapolis in Building Police-Community Trust.
Since its inception, the PGHYPAC has defined four "Closing the Gap" resolutions, identifying four critical "trust-building" areas impacting the relationship between youth and law enforcement in Pittsburgh: dialogue, cultural literacy, positive interaction, and youth with disabilities. Recently, as a testament to its existing success-and anticipated expansion-the PGHYPAC received a National Initiative research award, which will support current programs, assess their impact through research surveys of local youth, and ultimately organize a citywide meeting to share these results.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, another of the National Initiative’s pilot sites, has announced several changes to the Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) use-of-force policy to begin repairing the broken relationship between law enforcement and communities of color. Police Chief Janeé Harteau described the new policy as a “first step” toward earning those communities’ trust. The changes, privately shared with a small group of community members during the National Initiative’s first reconciliation meeting, were publicly announced alongside Mayor Betsy Hodges on August 8, 2016.
Based on recommendations made by President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing and the Police Executive Research Forum, the revised policy centers on “sanctity of life” measures designed to keep officers—and communities—safe from harm. Under the new policy, officers are required to both intervene and report if they witness improper use of force by their colleagues. De-escalation, a practice previously encouraged but not enforced, will also be formalized through training delivered to MPD’s current class of 32 police recruits.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, praising the MPD’s “promising changes,” called upon other law enforcement agencies to implement similar model policies for police-citizen encounters. “Valuing human life and prioritizing de-escalation could decrease negative and potentially fatal interactions with the public,” Executive Director Chuck Samuelson said. “We hope that all of the officers take these directives to heart and we begin to see a shift of officer behavior.” These policy changes, designed to address the divide between police and communities, are an example of the “trust-building” central to the work of the National Initiative.
