Gaining Community Trust in Police Will Require Use of Informatics Tools

Violence by police or members of the community has become a major public health issue.The lack of trust and satisfaction by many communities with their police departments has lead to conditions fostering violence. This lack of trust and communication became a central focus after George Floyd's killing. New methods are needed to promote community-police communication as a component of any improvement in police community relations. The exploration of existing tools of informatics is a promising path to help to foster such improved communication.

Social Network Potential

There have been sporadic but significant efforts to employ such tools by police departments in the past. The Urban Institute studied whether Twitter can can be employed to measure community attitudes toward police. The Institute's 2019 report concludes, "Social media has the potential to help (police) agencies manage their own reputations and contact community members directly to bolster community-police relations."

A Palo Alto, Calif., Police Department case study buttresses this view. One officer noted that high schoolers check Twitter more often than any other group. He said, "If we have a police shooter, I want those kids to see on Twitter what we know and what we're telling them to do -- directly from us." He says in non-emergency tweets, it's key to use humor as much as possible to keep people coming back, especially young people.

Customer Relation Management Software

Police forces have begun adopting customer relations management software (cms) originally created to help corporations to better understand their customers’ satisfaction. One example comes from the Durham Constabulary, the police Department in Durham County in the northeast part of the United Kingdom. The crm program picked in 2015 uses the Microsoft Dynamic program. The constabulary's information technology chief, Stuart Grainger, raved about the new tool. He said it's been instrumental in meeting chief agency aims. In 2021, two of three top aims are "Inspiring confidence in the police" and "Keeping communities safe." Facing budget cuts but fully determined to fully meet citizen expectations, Grainger said the Microsoft Dynamic crm came to the rescue. "People appreciate our consistency and rapid response," Grainger said.

Machine Learning

Machine learning continues to draw robust debate in law enforcement. Two criminal justice experts writing in "The Hill" published in Washington, D.C. (one a long-time police official in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., the other a former New Jersey attorney general and now a resident scholar at New York University) said in their 2017 essay that police can make machine learning a very strong police and community ally. But the authors have these three caveats: use really good technology, listen closely to the community, and "show your math." This means letting everybody, absolutely everybody, see numbers you crunch and how you use them. This builds trust.

Former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and resident NYU scholar Anne Milgram say they have built a tool using 311 call and other data capturing "community input. “We have a tool that identifies patterns and 'hotspots' of community concern. It's possible to use data and technology in a way that improves transparency, openness, and community trust. We post everything there is to know about our tool; what's in it and steps we take to reduce data bias. This must be the norm if smart technology is ever going to find a lasting role in improving public safety. By adhering closely to these three norms, we believe this technology can prevent and solve crimes (more efficiently) while helping rebuild community trust in the police."

Community Safety Team Dependence on Informatics

An experimental community policing plan for Chicago needing extensive informatics support was announced July 27,2020. Police Supt. David Brown said the department's Community Safety Team (CST) is made up of hundreds of officers assigned to areas where problems and trust between the police and residents are nearly intractable. As with previous such efforts, CST police will contact community leaders to strengthen community ties. But CST will do much more, Brown said. "Working with district commanders and community policing offices, CST will be serving these neighborhoods, really serving." CST will work with block clubs and faith and community leaders. They will participate in peace marches, food drives, COVID-19 resources distribution, and other neighborhood activities. "Until you know the community, you can't very well protect the community," Brown said.

The Future

Past efforts have only begun to realize the potential of informatics tools as a bridge to foster community police trust. Database registries to record the service histories of police officers are being discussed. Customer relations management software is a versatile tool widely used by the commercial sector to improve service. Redesigning CRM software to allow communities to have a voice in assessing local police service should be possible.

Communication is a two way street. The police also need ways to communicate to the neighborhood. The recruitment of community groups such as block clubs, churches, schools in the use of informatics tools may hold promise. Finally periodic online surveys of the community regarding police service , if properly designed, may open avenues of communication and contribute to greater trust.

Informatics applications will only achieve their expected objectives if there are credible police reforms such as searchable and interoperable database on police abuse of power, community complaints, effective whistle-blower protections, the sharing of best practices, and others.