Coffee with a Cop

Community Engagement Programs can be as simple as “Coffee with a Cop”, where police officers sit and talk with local residents who have questions or concerns. “Coffee with a Cop” talks allow police to connect with their neighbors on a personal level. Instead of just interacting with community members during police calls, Coffee with a Cop” lets police officers and community members related to each other as people. To see each other as more than just us and them, it can open up the lines of communication and build strong community relationships that benefit both the community and the police that serve in them.      

Community Engagement Concepts

Community engagement is a process in which community benefit organizations and individuals build ongoing, permanent relationships for the purpose of applying a collective vision for the benefit of a community. The key concepts of community engagement are:

·         Friendraising

·         Community impact planning

·         Community-driven governance

·         Asset-based resource development

·         Vision-based community impact planning

·         Organizational wellness planning

·         Building programs on shared resources

·         Community sleuthing

·         Community-based program development

Should The Baltimore Officers Been Charged?

While these officers innocent is played out in courts and in the public. The large questions maybe is, how did these officers get here and was there anything that could have been done to prevent this situation. Surprisingly the answers are yes. If police departments are proactive in adopting community engagement programs, police officers can learn the skills needed to effectively work with communities. I use the words "work with communities" to highlight that public cooperation is critical to good policing. Through effective community engagement training police officers can shed the "us against them mentality" and come to see the community as their most effect tool in policing and avoid situations like the one happening in Baltimore.      

Pew Poll: Multiple Causes Seen for Baltimore Unrest

According to a Pew Research Poll 66% and 54% of blacks say that people taking advantage of the situation to commit crimes contributed a great deal to the unrest. Blacks are more likely than whites to say that poverty is a major cause: 50% of blacks say this contributed a great deal to the turmoil, compared with 39% of whites. The response was also split along party lines between Republicans and Democrats in their views of the factors behind the unrest in Baltimore.

76% of Republicans say that some people taking advantage of the situation to engage in criminal behavior contributed a great deal to the violence and unrest in Baltimore. 50% say tensions between the police and black community contributed a great deal to the turmoil, and 48% say the same about anger over the death of Freddie Gray.

In contrast, 63% of Democrats say that tensions between the police and African-American community were anger over the death of Freddie Gray. 58% responded it was people taking advantage of the situation to commit crimes. With 54% responding it contributed a great deal to the unrest in Baltimore.

Poll: 96% Expect More Racially-Charged Unrest Nationwide

A NBC News and Wall Street Journal poll reports 96 percent of Americans say that they expect more racially-charged unrest around the country this coming summer, similar to the past week's violence in Baltimore. 54 percent believe a similar disturbance is likely in the metropolitan area closest to where they live. 68 percent believe it is "very likely" that there will be more protests and clashes around the country. Another 28 percent said that they believe such unrest is "somewhat likely." 

Community Engagement Plans

Improving community and police relationships since 2009