5 Ways to Strengthen Ties Between Cops and Citizens

During a tense confrontation between white police and a black man, officers drew their guns and fired, leaving a mourning mother and an enraged community.
Sounds familiar, right? But it’s not the story you’re thinking of.
In this case, the year was 1987; the place was Memphis, Tenn. And the man killed by cops? Joseph Dewayne Robinson.
His death has a lot in common with that of Michael Brown’s, the black teenager who was killed by an officer in Ferguson, Mo., last month. But while Brown’s passing was followed by the deployment of armored vehicles, rubber bullets and riot gear, Robinson’s led to community dialogue, partnership and, ultimately, a new national model of how police can de-escalate crisis situations. It’s one example of terrible tragedy leading to positive change.
It remains to be seen what will come out of the disastrous events in Ferguson. Brown’s death — and its turbulent aftermath — exposed a deep disconnect between the local police force and the community it serves. As the tear gas clears in the Missouri town and analysts consider how things went so horribly wrong there, here’s a look at five instances where police and communities have worked together successfully, building trust and making neighborhoods safer for both cops and the people they’re supposed to protect.
1) Memphis calms things down
Robinson, mentioned above, had struggled with mental illness and was just 27 years old when he was killed. On the day of his death, his mother had called the cops because her son — high on cocaine — was cutting himself with a large knife and threatening people around him.
The Memphis police arrived and, after a confrontation, shot Robinson 10 times.
The community was deeply disturbed, and people started coming together to look for solutions. “Family members meeting in the kitchen said there’s got to be a better way to deal with these things,” says Veronique Black, a family and consumer advocate at the Memphis chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), a nonprofit mental-health advocacy group.
Two members of Memphis NAMI approached the police department with a plan: Let’s train cops to safely defuse tense situations involving people with mental illness.
In response, the city’s mayor formed a task force and police met with families and mental health professionals. Together they came up with the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT): a 40-hour training program that teaches police to respond to mental illness emergencies in a calm, safe, caring fashion.
“The CIT officer is working very, very hard to slow things down,” says Maj. Sam Cochran, a former member of the Memphis Police Department who oversaw the city’s CIT program for 20 years. CIT members are trained to respond coolly and carefully in all situations — talking down agitated people using a clear, slow voice, defusing conflicts that might otherwise end in injury or death, and finding ways to reduce anxiety while avoiding the use of force.
They’re also specialists in controlling fear, whether it’s the person in crisis, others who happen to be around or even the officers, Cochran says. People who are afraid can be dangerous: “If you don’t get a handle on that fear, it can cause some very difficult challenges,” he says.
The training gives cops a safer way to respond not only to mental health emergencies, but also high-pressure situations of all kinds, like domestic disputes or confrontations between police and a suspect.
The program has worked well in Memphis. “We had something like a 40 to 50 percent decrease in officer injuries on call events related to mental illness,” Cochran says. And although the department didn’t keep statistics on civilian injuries stemming from those kinds of calls, he says, “we felt very confident that if officers weren’t getting hurt, people with mental illness weren’t getting hurt.”
Based on its success in Memphis, CIT has since become a national standard, adopted by about 2,800 police departments nationwide.
2) California cops chat over coffee
While police departments have been arming themselves in recent years with surplus military equipment from the federal government, there might be a much simpler way to make communities safer: over a cup of coffee.
Hawthorne, Calif., police detective John Dixon tried that tactic back in 2011. He convinced his department to set aside a single morning for Coffee With a Cop, an event where officers would sit in a local McDonald’s and talk with anyone who had a question or concern. The event was so popular that the department started holding it in a different area of the city every six weeks.
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These coffee talks allowed Hawthorne police to connect with their neighbors on a more personal level. The idea, Dixon says, is to reclaim “the small-town feel of knowing a cop on the corner.” They are also a way to break through the barriers that can separate cops and civilians (like the bulletproof glass at the front desk in the police station), Dixon says. “It opened up a lot of lines of communication.”
Previously, cops might only interact with civilians during calls for service, Dixon explains. “Officers tend to go to the call, handle the call and then leave.” But Coffee With a Cop lets officers and neighbors relate as people, to see each other as more than just a robbery victim or a law enforcer.
After the program’s initial success, Hawthorne police Sgt. Chris Cognac wrote about it in a federal newsletter on community policing, and the idea caught fire. The department received a grant and started training other police departments how to commune over a cup of joe.
Some 680 departments in the United States as well as forces in Canada, Australia and Nigeria have held Coffee With a Cop events, Dixon says.
Dixon says police departments often ask what kind of return, in numbers, they’ll get from holding a Coffee With a Cop event — How many arrests will it lead to? How many guns will be seized? But the effect of the events isn’t quantifiable in that way, Dixon says. It’s about relationship-building, not crime stats.
At the events, people often talk about problems that they wouldn’t think to call 911 about, but that add up to diminishing a neighborhood’s safety, Dixon says. One neighbor, for instance, complained to a cop about an abandoned couch in an alleyway, where people were hanging out and doing drugs, he says. The officer immediately pulled out his phone and called the city to have public works haul away the sofa.
3) Boston makes a miracle
Cops and neighbors can bond over a hot beverage — or they can come together to confront violent gang members and convince them to put down their guns.
That’s what the work of David Kennedy, criminologist and author of two books on crime prevention, has shown.
Kennedy is the mastermind behind the so-called “Boston Miracle,” which drastically reduced youth homicides in the city in the 1990s. The method is one of the most high-profile models of police and neighborhood leaders working together to end street violence.
Kennedy’s approach is based on the understanding that most urban violence is caused by a small number of people. Therefore, police shouldn’t treat whole communities as problematic simply because some members are violent, and residents should work with cops who are willing to focus on tackling the troublemakers.
Under Kennedy’s model, cops, probation officers and others identify the people responsible for most of the shootings. These people are invited to a call-in, where they’re given straight talk by neighbors, police, prosecutors, street-outreach workers and clergy. The message: Keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll come down on you hard, prosecuting you in federal court if possible. Or, put the guns down, and we’ll help you secure jobs, find housing and access other social services.
At a call-in, gang members learn that the cops and the community already know who they are and what they’re up to — and most important — that they want to help them make a change.
This tactic, which has since spread to dozens of other communities, isn’t a silver bullet. Boston’s homicide rates crept back up in the 2000s, but Kennedy argues that his approach needs to be an ongoing process with continued investment on both sides.
4) New Haven welcomes newcomers
Almost 10 years ago, leaders in the city of New Haven, Conn., noticed a problem. Undocumented immigrants, who can be among the most vulnerable to crime, were afraid to talk to police.
The solution? A new ID card for all city residents — regardless of their citizenship status.
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“Prior to it coming out, undocumented immigrants were often afraid to report violations for fear of deportation,” says Luiz Casanova, New Haven’s assistant police chief. “We had a number of crimes go unreported. Witnesses of crimes did not come forward. Horrific crimes — sexual assaults, rapes, home invasions.”
And while immigrants were avoiding police by not reporting crimes they witnessed or experienced, they were often the ones most in need of police protection. Why? Many undocumented immigrants couldn’t open bank accounts, so they carried around large amounts of cash, leading to a reputation among muggers that they were “walking ATMs.”
In 2007, New Haven addressed these problems when, under the leadership of former Mayor John DeStefano Jr., the city council voted to create the Elm City Resident Card. Additionally, New Haven issued a general order prohibiting police from asking victims or witnesses of crimes about their immigration status.
The ID card helps people open bank accounts and access public services. It also imparts to immigrants a sense of belonging, leading to a new feeling of trust with the police. After the card was introduced, Casanova says, crime went down in immigrant neighborhoods by about 20 percent — despite the fact that more people were reporting crimes.
Other cities, including San Francisco and Trenton, N.J., have since followed New Haven’s lead, rolling out their own municipal identification cards.
5) Detroit tries to bring cops home
Sometimes cops and communities feel disconnected because they actually are, geographically speaking, far away from one another. Many police officers don’t live in the cities they serve, but commute from other towns.
In an effort to encourage members of the force to live in the communities in which they work, Detroit began offering tax-foreclosed homes to cops for $1,000 and grants of up to $150,000 for renovations in 2011.
Programs like this stem from the theory that cops may be more invested in a community if they see it as their home not just their workplace. They also increase the likelihood that community members develop stronger relationships with officers who also happen to be their neighbors.
It’s difficult, however, for a city to force cops to live in town. Courts across the country have struck down lots of residency requirements. And police officers argue that, in an already dangerous job, it’s safer for them to live away from the people they arrest.
That hasn’t stopped cities like Detroit from trying, though. Atlanta offers discounted apartment rentals to cops, plus incentives to buy homes and bonuses for those that relocate. And Baltimore also offers cash to police officers who buy homes.
The latest town to consider such incentives? Ferguson, Mo.
 
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If Pharmacies are Closed, This App Helps Diabetics Locate Much-Needed Medication

It seems that almost every second, someone is saying “yeah, there’s an app for that.” And while most of these apps no longer generate surprise, once in awhile, there’s one that does.
One such app is called HelpAround. Originally meant to be a resource forum for everyone to acquire the things they needed, HelpAround users would post questions to their community forum and get advice about the best handyman or find a person with ibuprofen.
However, that idea didn’t take off, so the group took a different approach and focused solely on the diabetic community. Since then, it’s been connecting and uniting diabetics across the country — offering them the much-needed support that they couldn’t get from generic online medical forums. And with 29.1 million Americans suffering from the disease, according to the American Diabetes Association, the app has the potential to help countless people.
There’s two layers to it: a local, social one and the professional layer. Using the local layer, participants can find others in their proximity and ask each other for advice or supplies. For instance, if a person forgets insulin strips while out, he or she can contact a neighbor from the group and ask to borrow some. It’s also a way to help those with diabetes cope and live with the disease. Participants can ask each other candid questions and receive open, truthful answers which they may not receive from a doctor.
The professional portion of the app connects users with a 24/7 medical call center. Nurses are available to receive phone calls, and users receive three free calls per month.
Many users are even using this as an alternative to an insurance policy, which is something that co-founder and CEO Yishai Knobel never fathomed. “A lot of people on our system don’t have insurance, and they come here as alternative. We’re finding a really interesting market inefficiency,” Knobel told Fast Company.
Rachel Gillet is a writer for Fast Company, as well as a type 1 diabetic. According to her, this app is a great resource for diabetics, but it needs to be used with discretion so that people don’t rely solely on the generosity of others.
“I can’t begin to tell you the amount of times a pharmacy has been closed or out of supplies or my prescription has run out and it’s the weekend, so [there’s] no doc[tor] around to call in a refill.  Or how many times I’ve been on a road trip and realized I forgot something and I’m not due a refill on yet, so I can’t even stop into a Walgreens and pick something up (technically, I could, but insurance wouldn’t cover it and I would be out about $600 for one box of insulin),” she says.
Helping the diabetes community is just the beginning for the app. HelpAround hopes to not only expand its diabetic community even further, but to eventually introduce the app to those with other chronic conditions as well.
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The New Way for Citizens to Report the Actions of Law Enforcement

In today’s world, it seems almost impossible to separate teenagers from their phones. But while most spend hours and hours checking out social media sites or playing games, some are using the power of technology to inspire change.
Enter Five-O, the new app that allows users to document police abuse in order to create a community base for problem-solving. It’s inspired by the new wave of police violence reported in the news — particularly the continued unrest in Ferguson, Mo.
While an app like this is certainly a new phenomenon, the inventors behind it are even more unlikely: three teenagers from Georgia. Fourteen-year-old Caleb Christian, and his two sisters Ima, 16, and Asha, 15, have always had an interest in coding. After attending MIT’s k12 Scratch and App Inventor program, the three siblings continued to delve into the coding world, learning JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Java — making the programming of the app a breeze.
The process is just as simple for users. Once you’ve download the app, all you do is submit a detailed report on any case of alleged police abuse and rate the officer.
Then the community steps in. The app has county community boards where users can discuss and attempt to solve the problem. Those potential solutions can then be brought to community activists, the media or other forms of law enforcement.
For the Christian siblings, that is the whole point of the app — to find a solution to inspire change.
“We’ve been hearing about the negative instances in the news, for instance most recently the Michael Brown case, and we always talk about these issues with our parents,” Ima told Business Insider. “They always try to reinforce that we should focus on solutions. It’s important to talk about the issues, but they try to make us focus on finding solutions. That made us think why don’t we create an app to help us solve this problem.”
It’s important to note, however, is that this isn’t an app designed purely to rate negative run-ins with the cops; it’s also meant as a place to document the police officers doing positive work. The app welcomes encouraging stories about police actions to act as motivation for the other officers or serve as examples.
The app became available for download two days ago for both Apple and Android devices.
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When a Storm Ravaged This Small Town, Its Members Embraced One Another

After a severe 80 mph storm ripped through Kent County in western Michigan earlier this month, a trail of fallen trees and crushed homes were left in its wake.
But here’s proof that every storm cloud has a silver lining. As FOX17 reports, a band of concerned community members — many who were once perfect strangers — came together in this time of need.
After setting up a Facebook page, “The Helping Hands ~ Kent County Residents Helping Those in Need,” the group organized clean-up events and has also gone door-to-door asking affected residents if they need any help with clearing the destruction.
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“That was so amazing that all these people came out to help my parents. My dad is beside himself, had recently suffered from a heart attack only a month ago,” Kent County resident Kristina Lucas said on Facebook. “I see how distraught he is wanting to help, or just the look on his face seeing his beautiful landscaping he spent so many hours all summer long just turn to shreds from the damage of the recent tornado. I can’t thank you guys enough for everything everyone has done to help.”
But perhaps the best news, according to FOX17, is that the group feels so inspired by helping others that they hope to continue doing good deeds even after the cleanup is finished.
If you also want to participate in west Michigan’s storm relief, you can text HELPWM to 36729. With storm season underway in many parts of the country, the more helping hands, the better.
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One in Five Baltimore Residents Lives in a Food Desert. These Neighbors Are Growing Their Own Produce

Boone St. Farm operates on two vacant plots in the center of East Baltimore Midway, one of dozens of neighborhoods in Baltimore identified as “food deserts.” Cheryl Carmona adopted the land in 2010 with two goals — that it serves as an urban farm that grows and provides fresh produce for its neighbors, and as a community garden where residents can learn about growing their own food.
Dozens of neighbors have pitched in and, four years later, Boone St. Farm has grown thousands of pounds of affordable produce. Residents on food stamps pay only $5-10 a bag. The community plots are used for gardening workshops and offer classes in nutrition to students at the nearby public school. As Boone St. Farm enters its fourth season, Carmona plans to include local cleanup initiatives and other projects aimed at making the farm an essential part of the neighborhood. 
 
 

A New Museum Exhibit Educates About Disaster Preparedness

From ‘superstorm’ Sandy in 2012 to the countless forest fires that ravage the West every year, natural disasters are increasingly becoming a large part of American life. As a result, combating Mother Nature when she’s at her angriest requires not just innovation, but education, too.
That’s exactly what a new exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. aims to do, according to Next City. Organized into categories of earth, wind, fire, and water, “Designing for Disaster” is educating visitors about the history of disaster relief and prevention, as well as what works and what doesn’t.
Tales of large-scale projects such as flexible staircase joints at UC Berkeley’s California Memorial Stadium will surely draw in visitors, though it is the hands-on demonstrations and focus on everyday solutions that this exhibit is making the most difference with.
As the Washington Post writes, “The exhibit’s most compelling demonstrations show how innovative engineering solutions can reduce the impact of disasters and, in fact, already are.”
Whether highlighting family disaster plans, showcasing earthquake drills, or using an interactive feature to help visitors learn about the durability of different roof styles, Designing for Disaster is spreading knowledge.
As Americans flock to our nation’s capital during the summer vacation months, they can learn how others are preparing for natural disasters. And with that education, perhaps they can educate members of their own communities on how best to prevent future damage.
After all, while you can’t avoid Mother Nature’s fury, you can make sure you’re ready to meet it head on.
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Watch How This Empty Intersection Brings a Whole Community Together

With a little bit of duct tape and a handful of volunteers, unused intersections across America are becoming Better Blocks.
You’re probably asking, what’s a Better Block? Well, it’s sort of a temporary community hangout that serves as an attempt to revitalize a run-down or unused area of town.
Thanks to the Better Block Project, an empty street in the Oak Cliff district in Dallas recently turned into a short-term plaza complete with pop-up shops, cafe seating, bike paths, local artists and activities suitable for the whole town.
“This is a street that’s worthless,” a woman says in the video below. “You can get to any point that’s around here without driving on this piece of pavement, so why not activate it and let the people own it?”
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According to founder Jason Roberts, most Better Block events cost less than $2,000 to organize, including the price for permits and insurance. As TreeHugger points out, it’s a small price to pay to revitalize a neighborhood and spur the local economy. Liveable Cities reports that after one event, vacancy rates on one block dropped from 75 percent to 10 percent, and active storefronts rose from 25 percent to 65 percent.
If you check out this map, you’ll see that since its founding in 2010, the Better Block project has caught on in cities from coast to coast.
Interested in organizing your own Better Block? The project happens to be open-sourced, which means it’s free and can be built upon. Check out this link here for information and resources.
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A Parade of Hope: L.A.’s Skid Row Celebrates Its Community

The 52-square-block area in Los Angeles known as Skid Row is home to the densest population of homeless in the United States. In addition to those living on the streets, there are an additional 7,000 people residing in subsidized apartments or welfare hotels in the area. Many of these residents suffer from mental illness or substance abuse. But last Saturday, this distressed community was recognized for something other than its plights.
Skid Row residents congregated at Gladys Park, where they began the celebration of the second annual Walk The Talk parade, put on by Los Angeles Poverty Department, a local theater company. Neighborhood leaders and community members danced as the Mudbug Brass Band played to the tune of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
The event, billed as a project that combines performance, visual art, and community conversations, celebrates the downtrodden area’s sense of community among the more than 3,400 people living in homeless shelters and on the sidewalks of Skid Row.

“It’s a demonstration of Skid Row culture,” said Manuel “OG” Compito, a local who spearheads a three-on-three streetball league at Gladys Park. “And it does have a culture.”

Stanford University students on an urban art walking tour and Christian students from Sunnyvale, California, handing out hygiene kits, joined in the fun while onlookers enjoyed a mobile gallery featuring a Skid Row history display.
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Skid Row preacher Pastor Cue Jn’marie adds the parade also aims to give those suffering from mental illness, depression, or addiction a celebration of hope.

“You never know who’s struggling,” Jn’marie said. “And this is the trigger they need to improve their lives.”

The parade wound along Gladys Park northwest to 5th and Main streets, stopping along the way for the Poverty Department’s sketches, which honored local activists and leaders like General Jeff Page.

Page, a member of the downtown neighborhood council, is a “proud resident of Skid Row.” The local activist and one-time hip-hop entrepreneur has spoken up for the community to bring clean drinking water, chess tables, shaded refuge, and a basketball court to Gladys Park.

Former Skid Row resident Stephanie Bell, 51, attended the parade and was even featured in some of the skits.

“I have seen a vision of all the people here dressed in suits and dresses, high heels, just like in uptown, going to their jobs,” Bell said. “It can happen.”

For many of Skid Row’s residents, including Compito, the parade acknowledges that the area is indeed a community, and that it’s only getting larger and prouder.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Compito said.

This Bride’s Gown Was Stolen Just Weeks Before Her Wedding. What Happened Next Will Inspire You.

The groom had asked for her hand. The date was set. And the dress had been purchased. Kelly Cays was just an ordinary bride-to-be with a June wedding planned until something happened that shook up her dreams and restored her belief in human kindness.
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On March 14, Cays of Colorado Springs, Colorado, picked up the wedding dress she’d ordered four months earlier from Danielle’s Bridal Boutique. Here is where the story then deviates from normal into unthinkable territory: Someone stole Cays’s 2006 Jeep Liberty from the parking lot of her apartment complex. But it wasn’t just her wheels that disappeared. So did her wedding dress.
Ten days later, the car turned up abandoned, but the dress was gone. And Cays’s auto insurance didn’t cover the theft.
Relatives had paid for Cays’s $1,800 dress, and she and her fiancé Zach Rose couldn’t afford to replace it. What’s more, they didn’t have four months to wait for a replacement, as their wedding date loomed just three months away. After the Colorado Springs Gazette ran a story on the pilfered dress, people throughout the city stepped up to help.
“So many people offered me their dresses and their stories,” Cays told Stephanie Earls of the Gazette. She still loved her original wedding dress, though, so she contacted the store to see if they could do a rush order. The store agreed, and allowed her to put down only a small deposit, while Cays and Rose hoped they could come up with the rest of the money in time.
They shouldn’t have worried. Sarah Steinmeyer, who works at the dress shop, told Earls that a Good Samaritan came in and anonymously paid for the dress. “It had been a very busy day working on prom when this woman came in and wanted to know if anyone had paid for Kelly Cays’ wedding dress yet. We said, ‘No,’ and she said, ‘I’d like to do that,’ and whipped out her checkbook. I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “We all want to be able to do that someday, just make someone’s day like that.”
Cays describes the act of generosity as a “breath of angelic awesomeness.” It restored Cays’ belief in the goodness of people. “After my car was stolen, I was thinking people are awful. Then throughout this, so many people have helped me and been really sweet and tried to make things easier for me to deal with. There are so many amazing people out there,” said Cays.
Thanks to the people of her community, Cays’s wedding day will be unforgettable. 
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Watch the One Incredible Spontaneous Act That Helped a Colorado Community in Need

A song can do a lot more than just raise spirits; it can raise cash too. The suburban community of Longmont in Northern Colorado is still recovering from devastating floods that swept through in September. But some much-needed help is now on the way, thanks to the musical creativity of OUR Center, an area nonprofit that provides emergency services to local residents in need. Organizers from the center, along with members of the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, wanted to try something different to solicit donations for its ongoing relief efforts. So, on a sunny day in December, the group staged a surprise flash mob in a local grocery store, Lucky’s Market, with participants all singing “Help” by the Beatles. The sing-along included the church choir, singers from the Rocky Mountain Center for Music Arts and even the Silver Creek High School drum line. “It was just a creative way to help [the OUR Center] reach new donors and build awareness and gather what they really need — cash,” Phil Caragol, one of the flash mob organizers, told the Longmont Times-Call. Local filmmaker Payton Pearson was on hand to capture the whole thing on video, which you can watch above. So far, the singing spectacle seems to have worked wonders. The OUR Center reports that $10,000 in donations can be traced directly to the video, while more than $30,000 has been donated in less than a month — a drastic increase from the same time last year. That’s a whole lot of “help” for a community that needs it.
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