“While No Official
Grievance Has Been
Filed . . . “
The Evolving Role of
Community Policing on Campus
Draft 6-1-10
Elizabeth Cahn
Planning and Community Outreach
Coordinator, 2007-2010
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Mount Holyoke College
Hampshire College
Smith College
2007+
2008+
2009+
Goals of Presentation
Community policing
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Definitions
History
Challenges
Case studies
Outreach, complaints, profiling
Important lessons
Community Policing
Definitions
History
Community Policing
Challenges
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Time, scheduling, and definitions of
productivity
Not all staff are equally skilled or interested
Campus community norms and values around
police and authority vary enormously
Increased officer visibility may increase
negative responses
Community Policing
Case Studies
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Michigan State University, 1999
Harvard University, 2003
Mount Holyoke College
Hampshire College
Smith College
Mount Holyoke model
Three elite undergraduate liberal arts
colleges in western Massachusetts
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Traditional college age populations
Millenial generation characteristics
Increasingly diverse campus communities
Gender and gender identities
Race, ethnicity, nationality
Sexual orientation
Intellectual and activist identities
Mount Holyoke model
Civilian outreach model – 1.0 FTE
Four approximately equal parts - Intradepartment work
 Easy, obvious outreach
 Extremely difficult outreach
 What the community brings forward
Civilian Outreach
Intradepartmental work
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Advise Director/Chief and Senior Command
Understand department functioning,
strengths, and challenges
Know the staff and their concerns
Know policies and procedures that affect
campus most strongly
Assist in identifying and developing trainings
and outreach opportunities for others
Civilian Outreach
Easy, obvious outreach
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Work on sexual assault and domestic violence
issues with other on-campus and off-campus
groups
Work with student groups that are open to
collaboration with public safety/police
Work with staff/faculty individuals and groups
on campus safety
Create collaborative groups where possible
Civilian Outreach
Extremely difficult outreach
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Connect to groups that typically distrust
police/public safety
Students of color, international and LGBT students
Faculty
Activists, anarchists
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Connect to individuals who have reason to
distrust police/public safety
Some will be part of organized groups, some not
Civilian Outreach
Extremely difficult outreach
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Systematic desensitization of the campus
community to public safety/police
Enter spaces, places, meetings, events where
a uniformed officer or high level public safety
staff member will cause alarm
Connect to marginalized groups in a low-key
way
Introduce profiling as a topic of concern to
department as well as campus
Civilian Outreach
What the community brings forward
Issues include
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Presence of police/security on campus
Power and authority (including weapons)
Specific responses
Profiling and hate crimes
Triangulation of public safety/police into other
campus issues and concerns
Civilian Outreach
Disadvantages of civilian outreach
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Finding the right person
Not fully identified with department
Has to earn trust of members of department
Trust will never be complete
Can be difficult to allow “outsider” access to
Training
Policy
Discipline
Civilian Outreach
Advantages
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Not fully identified with department
No uniform, no enforcement role or
responsibilities
More able to gain trust of community
members
Can represent department to the community
in useful ways
Can engage community in self-critique around
issues of authority and enforcement
Civilian Outreach
Qualities of civilian outreach personnel
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Excellent social skills
Excellent communication skills
Know something about public safety
Know your institution
Able to be in uncomfortable situations with
people they don’t know
Able to tolerate incommensurable views of the
world simultaneously
Special Projects
MHACASA Collaboration, Mount Holyoke
College, 2008-2009
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Mount Holyoke College African and
Caribbean Student Association participated in
a year-long collaboration with DPS, including
reciprocal social events, adoption of staff by
students, and participation in public projects.
Student leadership helped minimize student
reaction to allegations of profiling
Special Projects
Parking ticket study, Mount Holyoke
College, 2008-2009
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Member of the riding team analyzed two
years of parking data for a class project
Research found that members of the riding
team with cars on campus earn parking
tickets at 2.5 times the rate of other MHC
students with cars.
Special Projects
Multicultural Community and Campus Life
Committee (MCCL), Mount Holyoke
College, 2009-2010
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Represented Department of Public Safety on
campus-wide committee to address campus
climate on diversity
Represented a different side of Public Safety
to committee membership
Developed relationships with campus leaders
on diversity
Special Projects
Transgender Policy and Training,
Hampshire College, 2009-2010
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Participated in public meeting about arrests
Engaged in long-term behind-the-scenes work
with staff inside and outside department
Worked with student committee to create
open forums about student rights
Met with individual students at Hampshire and
Mount Holyoke for remainder of academic
year
Special Projects
Community Relations Training, 2010
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Developed training on community relations
using the Henry Louis Gates, Jr. arrest by
Sergeant James Crowley as a case study
Utilized Intergroup Dialogue methods
Two department staff are already trained as
facilitators
Additional staff are being trained this year
Special Projects
Five College Public Safety Community
Outreach group
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Initiated cross-campus discussions about
public safety and policing
Included public safety, police, deans, student
life and multicultural affairs staff, and ombuds
offices
Outreach to SGA leaders, student activities
staff, local police departments, mental health
counselors
Special Projects
Ideas I want to try
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Community dialogue projects using Intergroup
Dialogue methods with students, staff, faculty
Programming with ombuds staff on outreach,
training, and response to incidents and
allegations
Watch crime/legal TV shows with Dean of the
College and Senior Detective
Complaints
Every complaint is an opportunity
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Respond formally and informally
Assess your campus issues
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Voice the unspoken concerns
Work ahead of the complaints
Build a track record of responding
Publicize it every year
Engage and follow up
Profiling
Be realistic about campus beliefs
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Race-based values/experiences
Class-based values/experiences
Intellectual biases against police/authority
Activist biases against police/authority
Role of projection and fear
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Personal, family, subculture, culture
Media and social media
Profiling
Every bad cop anywhere who profiles
reflects poorly on your department
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Initiate topic and discussion of profiling
Definitions of profiling vary by standpoint
Educate about your policy and training
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Complaints
Educate about how to file formal complaints
Respond quickly to informal complaints
Complaints may increase, at least for a time
Profiling
Analytic frames are not equal
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The people who feel safe don’t need to
complain, and the people who don’t feel safe
don’t feel safe enough to complain
Stay in the dialogue and follow up
Increased transparency and accountability
go both ways
Hold your department and the campus
community to a higher standard
Principles of Outreach
Do it or don’t do it
Run your department well
Be sincere, not perfect
Keep an educational focus
Build relationships for the long term
Reach out to key people, not everyone
Look for strategic opportunities
Principles of Outreach
Show up in unexpected places and at
unexpected times
Be respectful of community boundaries
If you can’t work directly, work indirectly
Connect to those who can translate
Plant seeds, water them, and wait
It’s not always who you know, but who
knows you
Thank you!
Please send comments to
ecahn@mtholyoke.edu
or ecahn@larp.umass.edu