Community Safety Paper Series. Out of the Blue: Turning Problem into Opportunity When a Police Partner Moves On
Date Published: 12/01/2007
Author: James Jordan, Criminal Justice Consultant - Former Director of Strategic Planning, Boston Police Department
2007 MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Awards
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Transfers of police personnel to other departmental positions can be difficult for community developers who rely heavily on police support—and in some cases, trusting relationships with individual officers—to keep neighborhoods safe and primed for economic investment. Without notice or care taken in communicating project status and priorities to new police coming in, transfers can hinder specific projects that rely on the expertise and commitment of specific officers and derail delicate efforts to improve community-police trust. This paper draws on the experiences of past winners of the MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Awards (administered by LISC’s Community Safety Initiative) and the input of police leaders around the country to examine:
- Why do transfers of police often come, literally and figuratively, “out of the blue”?
- How can community developers dialogue with police leaders about minimizing the negative impacts of police transfers on their work and community relationships?
- How can community developers turn this problem into an opportunity to build stronger police-community partnerships?
Topics: Economic Development & Safety, --Community Safety
Type: Case study / model practice