BCJI emphasizes the role that community members play in keeping neighborhoods safe, and highlights the importance of building collective efficacy and mutual trust between residents and law enforcement to enhance safety in the long term. Key elements of successful community engagement include:
- Community Capacity: BCJI teams work to increase community and resident engagement in shaping crime prevention and revitalization efforts. This requires community-serving organizations to have the ability to bring residents and key leaders together and to plan and execute strategies, both independently and in collaboration with others.
- Collective Efficacy: Neighborhoods are safer when people are willing and able to come together to solve problems and maintain community standards. BCJI supports efforts for neighbors to get to know one another, share their vision for their community, and pursue projects that move toward that vision.
- Trust and Legitimacy: BCJI efforts seek to improve the fairness and effectiveness of the criminal justice system in a community and build mutual trust between residents, police officers, and other criminal justice officials.
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