Over the past three years, about 30 communities in Pennsylvania have success-fully implemented various phases of this program. To learn more, contact PMR Project Coordinator Bill Regan at (717) 236-1059.

The goal of this project is to promote police effectiveness and improve officer safety when responding to stressful situations in minority communities. These goals are accomplished through customized training, consultation, facilitation and resources to local police departments and communities.

In 1999, Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association received a grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to provide these services to your community. This program can be implemented in your community, at no cost to you.

Phase One
An initial, one-day training session, open to all members of the law enforcement agency, elected officials, and community leaders is available—free of charge—upon request. This training will focus on providing conflict resolution skills, tension reduction techniques, civil liabilities, action planning, profiling and will define and provide better strategies for policing and interacting with the minority community. This program is geared toward operational procedures as opposed to philosophical concepts.

Phase Two
Strengthening Local Relationships for Prevention—developing local teams/task forces that meet periodically in order to proactively and coactively:
Share information concerning any potential tensions that could develop in the community.
Identify any “early warning signs” that exist in the community.
Build relationships of trust and cooperation that will be critical if/when tensions do escalate.
Identify all community resources that are currently in place or that need to be developed to support effective prevention and response.

These teams/task forces would include representatives from local government, law enforcement, human services, faith community, educational institutions and community groups.

Training for this component will include rationale and guidance for the formation of these teams; skills on convening, conducting and facilitating meetings; common topical areas for study and discussion for these teams; guidance for the development of local prevention resources and activities.

Local Crisis Response Teams—developing a small local response team that is prepared to lead and coordinate the response to emergency tension situations. The team would be a subset of the team/task force of the aforementioned. This team would have crisis response plans in place and all resources identified in advance for immediate response to emergency situations. The team would be relatively small, and would include a key leader from law enforcement; local government; and a highly respected and trusted community leader.

Training for this component will develop the knowledge, skills and capacity for effective local response, including response planning; training and development of local responders; and communication and coordination skills.

Regional Support—when local resources are not sufficient for either adequate prevention work or local crisis response, regional support must be in place that can be assessed by local teams/task forces. Local efforts can be supported by pre-existing relationships with other local teams, and with regional and/or state-level or federal-level resources.

Training for this component will acquaint participants with the resources that are available at the regional, state and federal levels to support both prevention work and crisis response work at the local level.

Phase Three
Develop a small, local response team—that will act as a resource to the police chief or mayor during tension situations.

This team will be skilled in conflict resolution techniques and will have two primary functions—(1) to accurately convey community-based perceptions to the police department and (2) to defuse and de-escalate community/police tension to the point that productive communication and problem solving can occur.

The team would be relatively small and would include a key figure from law enforcement (i.e. the chief of police), local government (i.e. the mayor’s office), council president and highly respected and trusted community leaders.

The Phase Three training program can be adapted to meet the needs of the specific community. The training will consist of a 12 hour workshop series that will qualify citizen participants to effectively participate in the local police/community crisis response team. Participants will master core concepts in conflict management and conflict resolution, such as conflict cycle, conflict styles, “third side” roles and problem solving strategies. Through activities and practice, participants will become familiar and comfortable with core skills such as de-escalation, dealing with the angry person, positions and interest, and reframing. Working under guidelines to be established by the chief of police and elected officials— members of the local police/community crisis team will be an added resource to de-escalate police community tension situations when they arise.

General guidelines for the roles and operational procedures of the crisis response team will be available for adaptation to meet local community needs.

To learn more about the Police/Minority Community Relations program, contact Bill Regan, PMR Project Coordinator at (717) 236-1059.