Camden Turns Around With New Police Force

The Department of Justice has ordered the Newark Police Department to make reforms to its policing practices, so that public safety will not compromise the human rights. An investigation into the NPD has shown that officers made too many undocumented stops and used unjustified excessive force, resulting in community mistrust. The Newark mayor has begun re-training the police force, reworked standards for punishing police misconduct, advocated body cameras, and civilian oversight of the police department – all of which has started to improve community relations and build trust.

Los Angeles used to be a hotbed of racial profiling and unrest. Now, in the wake of Ferguson and the police killings in Brooklyn, Chief Charlie Beck thinks his force could be a model for the rest of the nation. The dept. has worked hard in recent years to create a police department that reflects the city it serves and has made fundamental progress on key civil rights issues.

Community members and local organizations on the South side of Chicago collaborate to reclaim their neighborhoods from crime, violence, and poverty by engaging in community conflict resolution, policing and networks of support. Groups like the Southwest Organizing Project and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network banded together to interrupt gang violence in the city, relying on the experience of former gang members and offenders to guide the organizations' missions for non-violence in their communities.

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.

HIghlands area in Southern Washington has been an impoverished and unsafe neighbourhood, however, circumstances have been improve as neighbours have begun to get to know eachother and form a community. HIghlands neighbourhood association and the Family Policy council are two initiatives that have strengthened community ties, lead to leadership opportunities, facilitated citizen-police interactions, and helped children not fall into a poverty cycle.

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.

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.

The New Orleans Police Department did not have the best reputation among the community due to a series of corrupt acts committed by individual officers on the force. Thanks to a series of outreach efforts to marginalized communities as well as oversight by a federal monitor, NOPD has been able to turn perceptions around over the last five years, garnering the department national attention in how to transition to humanistic policing.

The Elgin, Illinois police department has been heralded as having the most successful community policing program in the country. There, officers are embedded within the communities they serve and are expected to create a synergy between police and communities. It has grown in popularity as law enforcement across the country come under scrutiny for being disconnected from the neighborhoods they’re supposed to serve. It bears questioning whether this form of policing can be a useful response, or if it’s just another form of surveillance that upholds power imbalances.