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Baton Rouge Community Policing

The Goal of the Southern University Community Police Research is to work with the local law enforcement agencies in developing a systematic program to build relationships with the community by collaborating with local agencies. Furthermore, the goal of this program is to establish best practice strategies for crime reduction and increase community-police relations through the Community Policing Program.  

Objectives

  1. Develop a model of community policing tailored to the Baton Rouge Community,
  2. Increase Citizen involvement in crime prevention and problem-solving activities, and
  3. Increase citizen police interaction tailored toward improving trust in the police through community-police activities.

Research Question:  Broken trust was a repeated and common theme in nearly all conversations. In a few conversations, community members identified areas where police officers were engaging in trust-building activities such as participation in community events and playing “basketball with the cops. How can the Baton Rouge Police Department modify the community policing program to be more effective in high crime and minority communities?  

Research Design  

The research team will work with the East Baton Rouge Parish Police Department, Constable’s Office, and Sheriff Department to develop activities to increase community-police relationships. The program will be implemented using the criteria below:           

  1. Community listening Sessions: The Research team has collaborative partners in North and South Baton Rouge. The team will work with the collaborating agencies to host four listening sessions with vulnerable populations in the city of Baton Rouge. Two listening sessions will be conducted in North Baton Rouge and the other two will be held in South Baton Rouge. The listening sessions will be designed to identify and address issues that affect trust, discuss events that cause barriers to reconciliation, increase citizen involvement in crime prevention, and develop problem-solving activities for community residents and police. The community listening sessions will include dialogue focused on meaningful and respectful ways to connect the community and law enforcement. The sessions will be used to develop activities to provide baseline initiatives for community police relationship building.  

  2. Crime prevention and problem-solving activities. The research team will use the information gathered from the listening sessions to strengthen community policing strategies. The researcher will present the information to the community. Citizens will assist in the development of community police activities to help strengthen community-police relationships. The research team will work with the police to identify two community events to be held in North Baton Rouge and Two events to events in South Baton Rouge. The events will be designed to increase citizen involvement in crime prevention and problem-solving activities. Increase police presence in the community through focus groups, activities, and other events suggested by the community members.