Biography
Biography: Nina Rose Fischer
Abstract
Statement of the Problem: The volatile climate between police officers and community members throughout the United States, especially in low-income urban areas, creates a dire need for interventions that mitigate harmful interactions. Interventions are necessary to alleviate the collateral damage of policing tactics. Youth ages 16-25 years old, especially of color in low-income urban areas, have more police contact than adults. The YPI attempts to address these issues by bringing youth who have had or are most vulnerable to police contact together with the local beat officers to share personal stories, meals, cultural norms, job expectations, tactics and ultimately community actions plans. Police and youth let their guards down long enough to have the difficult and honest discussions that are necessary in order for real change to take place. This paper is a mixed methods evaluation of the Youth Police Initiative (YPI) to understand its ability to impact the attitudes and behaviors of the youth and police officers that participated. Although the YPI has operated for almost fifteen years in cities across the US and two other countries, this is the first time it was evaluated to determine the outcomes and effectiveness of the approach. Evaluation of the YPI employed a mixed methods approach. Attitudinal and behavioral outcomes were assessed using a combination of pre and post interviews, and pre, post, and follow-up surveys of both youth and police participants. The evaluation benefits the fields of Policing and Juvenile Justice by providing evidence about the efficacy of a unique program approach in the area of police-community relations.