Many of our children live in communities where violence, fear, and despair are commonplace. This book describes how one city developed a collaborative effort between law-enforcement and mental health professionals in order to help these children and their families. The Child Development-Community Policing Program in New Haven, Connecticut, was initiated in 1991 to deal more effectively with children who are victims or perpetrators of violence. Police officers, preparing for the new responsibilities of community-based policing, have become familiar with an array of strategies for preventing and responding to community violence. Mental health professionals have learned firsthand about the texture and trauma of the lives of children at risk. Police and mental health professionals working together have been able to mobilize treatment services more quickly and effectively and to assure that treatment plans are carried out. This manual provides a model, case studies, and guidelines for training the participants, operating a consultation service, and evaluating the program on an ongoing basis, all of which will be useful for other communities seeking to implement a similar project.

ABSTRACT: The Charlotte, North Carolina division of the Child Development-Community Policing program was developed to provide specialized services to youth that have been the witness, victim, or perpetrator of violent crime. This program aims to increase officer awareness of at-risk children in their respective neighborhoods, increase access to mental health services, and provide alternatives to the criminalization of high-risk youth. The effectiveness of the program was evaluated by examining police archival data using the following outcome measures in both the pilot and comparison police districts: Rate of violent offenses, juvenile arrest rates, adult arrest rates, location of crimes, and complaints filed against police officers. Results revealed significant decreases in assault offenses and adult arrests in both districts that were not attributable to the intervention. Significant decreases in robbery offenses were found in both districts, but were found relative to the target intervention only in David-2. Significant decreases in the number of indoor crimes were determined in both districts, but were parallel to intervention efforts only in David-3. Complaints against police officers were found to significantly increase in both districts, but were not found to correspond with the program's implementation. Implications and future recommendations are discussed.

Many of our children live in communities where violence, fear, and despair are commonplace. This book describes how one city developed a collaborative effort between law-enforcement and mental health professionals in order to help these children and their families.

This report is designed to help law enforcement administrators and officers understand and institute a strategy to help prevent violence -- community-oriented policing services carried out in collaboration with youth-serving organizations. Popular police prevention approaches such as DARE have helped prepare police officers to work hand in hand in a variety of ways with local affiliates of national youth-serving organizations. In a growing number of cities, police are working with youth groups and finding that violence involving youth is rapidly decreasing. The research involved a survey of 579 affiliates of 7 national youth-serving organizations.

By focusing on the dual themes of community/police collaboration and problem-oriented policing, this book focuses on police involvement and interaction with the communities they serve. It explores the practical strategies of community policing as well as the philosophy behind the community policing movement. The book gives a historical perspective to community policing, examines it as a philosophy, and introduces the skills criminal justice professionals need to implement an effective community policing program.