Benchmarking Racial Inequity in St. Louis

Chicago suffers from violence and tension between police officers and low-income predominantly Black communities. In 2011, the chief of police consulted with a network of university academics and began implementing “procedural justice,” which was an approach that trained police departments to surmount the lack of confidence that residents felt towards officers. The academics and police chief found that by directing social workers to the homes of at-risk community members, and regarding them with respect, there was a reduction in violence—but now the program has stalled.

After serious issues with excessive force and police discrimination reached a head in East Haven, Conn., major department overhauls that focused on more diverse hiring, de-escalation techniques, crisis intervention, and conflict resolution have led to much healthier law enforcement for the community. Their model offers hopeful lessons to Seattle and other cities whose police departments also have been required to adopt federally mandated reforms.

Canton police walk door-to-door in high-crime neighborhoods, playing basketball, picking up trash, and participating in community meetings. The approach is decreasing violence and improving relationships with residents.

In Chicago, a white police officer shot Laquan McDonald, a young black man, 16 times, for refusing to stop. The city created a task force in the midst of an already existing investigation by the Department of Justice into the Chicago Police Department’s use of force. "The No. 1 good thing about these federal interventions is they force local municipalities to face the issue of police misconduct head-on.”

What if a computer program could tell you who was at risk for shooting someone or being shot themselves? This is now a reality for Chicago Police Department. By piloting the use of this technology, and assembly a cohort of cops, social workers, ministers and moms to visit the names of those the computer names, the city has seen a decrease in violence over the last year.

After charged discussions and protests around racial injustice within police departments, Baltimore set out to find a solution to bridge the divide created between the city's police force and the kids that lived in stereotyped neighborhoods. Using nature as a common ground, the Outward Bound Police Youth Challenge was born to bring the two sides together and teach them that they have more in common than they may think.

With the police killings of Freddie Gray, Laquan McDonald, and other black lives across the country, the problem remains how to reform police departments and reduce excessive force on unarmed men and women. Procedural justice is a strategy that centers on legitimizing the law for at-risk communities by building trust, so that the environment of policing changes to one of respect and less crime results. Procedural justice has begun to be implemented across U.S. police departments with some measurable successes, although police accountability remains important and should be an extension of the strategy.

ClaimStat is a New York city program that uses data to track allegations of police misconduct on a neighborhood level and shares the information with the public, helping prevent lawsuits against the city and diverting settlement funds to core city services like education or street cleanup. Chicago looks to learn from the program and reduce the millions spent on police misconduct lawsuits each year.

Since 2016, Chicago has seen a 37% decrease in homicides with a comprehensive, targeted approach toward violence. The city developed a multi-pronged approach, including a collaboration between foundations and funders, a partnership that analyzed police decision-making, resource allocation toward a new gun-violence-focused prosecution unit, and targeted investment in high-risk individuals. With such success, cities like Philadelphia – also experiencing an increase in homicides – look to Chicago for lessons learned.

In Chicago, community organizations, public officials, and private funders have come together behind a campaign called “<399” – with the goal of bringing homicides to under 400. This collaboration has taken on a comprehensive, community-centered approach that includes initiatives like community outreach, individual support, and mentoring. While they’ve received significant funding from the city, they’re hoping to secure long-term financial and political support from all levels of government.