The Process of Developing a Community-Research Partnership to Inform Community Policing and Neighborhood Revitalization

Background and Purpose:  Restore Rundberg is a federally-funded community revitalization initiative driven by a cross-sector partnership between the community, the local Police Department and social work researchers from a Research I University in an urban, Southwestern city.  One of the essential elements to Restore Rundberg was a Revitalization Team made up of community representatives, city officials and representatives of nonprofit agencies.  This Team served as a community-based steering committee for the revitalization efforts, setting priorities, engaging stakeholders, and supporting the overall effort.

The research team evaluated the process for establishing and maintaining the Revitalization Team, and discovered important that may be valuable to other communities and researchers.

Methods:  A series of qualitative, semi-structured interviews was conducted with nearly all current and former members of the Restore Rundberg Revitalization Team (n=15).  All minutes from Restore Rundberg Revitalization Team and Community meetings were also reviewed and coded.   Interview guides focused on the strengths and weaknesses of the development process, opportunities for the future and threats to success, as well as community engagement and sustainability.  Meeting minutes were evaluated for process-related information.  Interviews were conducted by 2 trained members of the research team, and one additional person was available to take detailed notes.  The notes were analyzed thematically by the research team.

Results:  Interview responses reflected that community members and the police department had differing conceptualizations of the role of the Revitalization Team at the start of the Initiative.  Identification of members to invite to participate on the Team was seen as problematic by the community, and the process generated concerns that neighborhoods were not fairly represented on the team. Additionally, structures for the Revitalization Team (e.g. team composition, leadership, focus, rules of order, meeting logistics) were not laid out, resulting in tensions between stakeholders.  Lags in communication plagued early interactions.  Members of the Team generally recognized these issues to be a lack of community organizing resources rather than intentional missteps.

In Year 2 of the Restore Rundberg Initiative, interviewees generally believed the Team was operating more smoothly. Beneficial changes included: hiring community organizing staff within the police department, creating a clearer process for serving on the Team, and defining specific priorities for the Team. Use of an online project collaboration tool (Basecamp) for communication was also identified as helpful. Concerns around representativeness of the community at-large and some specific processes within Team operations remained throughout the effort.

Conclusion and Implications:  Based on the early experience of Restore Rundberg, the research demonstrates lessons for police departments seeking to establish neighborhood partnerships to support community policing initiatives.  Roles for the partnership should be clearly identified.  Orientations and training for the neighborhood team, community organizing staff, and/or the police department appear to be beneficial to the process. Active community partnership is essential for sustainability of community policing initiatives.