National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice

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Summary

The Justice Collaboratory and members of the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice have designed intervention programs that aim to improve police-community relations in six pilot cities around the country. The interventions have been developed based on existing research concerning procedural justice, implicit bias, and race and reconciliation.

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Approach

The Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School played an instrumental role in disseminating research, best practices and training on the use of procedural justice as a tool to improve police trust with the communities they serve. 

Members of The Justice Collaboratory, the Center for Policing Equity and the Chicago Police Department’s Education and Training Division developed a three-day procedural justice training module for law enforcement that addresses the theory and implementation of procedural justice as well as the role implicit bias plays in police-community interactions. 

These three modules were incorporated into the National Initiative on Building Community Trust (NI) and adapted to the unique history and police practices of the six pilot sites: Birmingham, Alabama; Fort Worth, Texas; Gary, Indiana; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Stockton, California. 

Funding

The National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice was supported by branches of the US Department of Justice that include the following:

• Office of Justice Programs

• Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)

• National Institute of Justice (NIJ)

• Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)

• Office of Victims of Crime (OVC)

• Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)

• Office on Violence Against Women (OVW)

• Civil Rights Division

• Community Relations Service

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Select Resources & Reports

• Principles of Procedurally Just Policing 

• National Initiative Procedural Justice Resources Page

• “Model Policies for Procedurally Just Policing,” The Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School.

• “Research Roundtable Report,” National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice. “

• How Do People in High-Crime, Low-Income Communities View the Police?” Urban Institute, pilot sites baseline community perceptions survey

Partners

• The Yale Law School 

• The National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College 

• The Center for Policing Equity 

• The Urban Institute 

• The Office of Justice Programs (U.S. DOJ)

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Researchers

Tracey L. Meares

Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law and Founding Director of The Justice Collaboratory

Tom R. Tyler

Macklin Fleming Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology and Founding Director of The Justice Collaborator

Phillip Atiba Goff

Professor of African American Studies and Psychology

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Procedural Justice Trainers

Please consult the National Initiative webpage for a list of staff and leadership. Below we list Procedural Justice trainers:

Al Ferreira
Trainer

Officer and Trainer at the Chicago Police Department

Angel Novalez
Trainer

Officer at the Chicago Police Department

Dan Goetz
Trainer

Police Officer at the Chicago Police Department

Mike Chatham
Trainer

Officer at the Chicago Police Department

Scott Meadors
Trainer

Officer at the Stockton Police Department