Health and Safety Collaborations May 2014 Voiceover: Beat Intro 00:00 This is the Beat—a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics facing our nation. TeNeane Bradford 00:08 Hello and welcome. My name is TeNeane Bradford and, on behalf of the COPS office, I’d like to introduce you to Chief Federico Rocha of the East Palo Alto Police Department in California. He’s here to talk with us today about public health approaches to improving public safety. In East Palo Alto, the police department created Fitness Improvement Training, otherwise known as FIT Zones, as a part of a research project aimed at testing whether improvements in community health can increase community safety in the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. The FIT Zones implement health- related programs in public spaces that have been underused by residents and overtaken by gang members. How did your department decide to pursue this innovative approach to making your community safer? Chief Federico Rocha 00:55 Actually, it began from a very simple statement made by Dr. Iton of the California Endowment, where he stated that if you can tell him what the zip code was, he could tell you what your life expectancy was. That triggered an interest by us, not only about the health part of it, but the implications for managing or abating islands in those very same zip codes. TeNeane 01:30 How did law enforcement encourage members of the community to increase their presence in public spaces to do more outdoor physical activities like power walking, yoga, and Zumba dancing? What public/private partnerships were utilized for this encouragement? Federico 01:45 One of the things we realized early on was that we had to present something that was atypical, something that they had not heard of before. That meant forming collaborative, other than the usual, law enforcement partners. So, what we did was invite members of the public health community, in this case, the San Mateo County Health Department, as well as the Ravenswood Family Medical Center, who serves this very community, as well as other atypical partners to join with us in our messaging. That message was simply this: that we had a strategic initiative, that we were inviting them to be active partners in, to increase outdoor activities and the use of public places to (1) improve their health, (2) learn about health, and (3) enjoy the outdoor spaces with the assistance of public safety officers, commonly referred to as police officers. That presentation sparked an interest because, again, it wasn’t the usual request for them to give information about crime. It wasn’t the usual neighborhood watch types of activities. It did appeal to them that it was a different partnership and it got their curiosity enough to get them to come out to some initial informational meetings whereby they were not only listened to but invited to become leaders in this strategy. TeNeane 03:34 The goals of the program were to improve the health of the community and help them regain control and ownership of their neighborhood. Did your department measure the results of these FIT Zones and did you achieve those ambitious goals? Federico 03:47 Absolutely! In fact, to a greater degree than we expected. First and foremost, we wanted to make sure that we were postured to be able to measure several things. One was, of course, using shots- fired detection to determine or see if there was any impact on the number of incidents of gun shots over the test period/implementation period. To do that, we would gather base data from the previous 18 months. That helped determine which areas would be selected and designated hot spots. The term “hot spot” merely means incidents of gunfire, not actual victimization. That is to say, we didn’t use crime statistics per se. What we used were incidents of gun shots. Once we did that with the assistance of an epidemiologist from the San Mateo health system, we measured some other factors, health factors. As I said, this was a partnership with them and their interest obviously is in public health. Once we determined which of the two hot spots would encompass, which areas they would encompass, then we went about inviting those residents who resided in those areas, to become a part of this initiative. We also used the public health experts and professionals, to invite these people and give an introduction to the types of topics and activities they would be engaging in and presenting in those hot spots. After we selected the hot spots and conducted our initial meeting, then what we decided was the next level would be to designate FIT Zones. The acronym FIT Zones stands for Fitness Improvement Training Zones. Now, that type of training would not only be physical activities, but would also include brief presentations by health navigators. Presentations included such topics as diabetes, obesity, sugary drinks—the effect of sugar drinks— and poor eating, techniques for seniors and how they can remain healthy and active, as well as our juvenile population and the kind of activities they can be engaged in, as well as the adult population. So once we determine interest, then we let them become engaged in designing and outlining which areas within those hot spots would become FIT Zones. TeNeane 06:43 So the residents along with the partners helped developed and identify where the FIT Zones were? Federico 06:50 Yes, because we wanted people to go to areas which were a) accessible, 2) where they felt comfortable taking a chance, if you will, to become active outdoors. Also remember, ultimately we wanted to morph this from our control and design to their control and design. So we wanted to get them involved early in having an active participation in the management of the initiative. TeNeane 07:21 Sounds really interesting. So what are the next steps for sustaining and continuing to improve your communities’ safety along with residents’ well-being through this public health approach? Federico 07:31 Fortunately, we have the support of the California Endowment. They, in no small measure, were critically important to not only launching this effort, but in funding the pre- and post-questionnaires to the residents and funding the researcher who played an honest, third party neutral role by reporting on it—all the statistics and information and reporting on it. That would be the Warren Institute of Law at the University of California-Berkeley. They also funded mini-grants so that the non-profits within these areas could apply for small grants to pay for such things as bicycles, water, uniforms to designate who the leaders were. Those types of things to cause these organized groups to then develop credibility, even within their own community, as to what their participation and leadership role would be in addition to the police. The police started retreating insofar as managing. As of now, we tend to just host or provide that collaborative effort. For example, police officers on Segways, police officers on bicycles when they go for bicycle outings, or they engage in some kind of event at an open space like a park or school playground. By the way, I do want to point out that the school district was also a critical partner in this collaborative. TeNeane 09:18 So you guys are continuing to sustain the project efforts because you transferred ownership and the buy-in is there, and they are continuing to implement this project with little intervention or assistance from you guys because you provided the foundation, and the partners helped develop a project that could be replicated and owned by the residents. Federico 09:42 Absolutely. Once the project got going and got off the ground, the residents not only saw the benefits—that is, the reduction of gunshot and reduction in crime—but they felt very empowered and understood that they had a role in this self-determination and began to take that over. Outdoor activities are not cost-prohibitive. What was the deterrent to that was the presence of a criminal element and the distrust that the community had about their ability to effect any type of change. Once they saw that the criminals were starting to disappear, that there was a reduction in gunshots, that in fact, the police were friends not foes. In fact, they very much enjoy having the police come in. They know them by first name. The kids know them by first name. In fact, they even have nicknames for some of them. They also helped rearrange that paradigm on how they viewed us. They no longer saw us as blue uniforms in a patrol car that only came by when they were looking to arrest somebody. They saw us as people interested in their well- being, and not just when there was an emergency, but when there were fun times to be had. And so they, if you will, adopted us into the community. In fact, it’s not uncommon for them to ask after a certain officer, about a certain officer, if they don’t see them for a while. So now we’ve gone from a professional relationship to a personal relationship. By the way, I might add that, in addition to the questionnaires that were administered after the project period, we also saw tremendous reductions in gunshots. Overall in the city, we had about a 30 percent reduction in the entire city. But in those two hot spot areas—remember the hot spot areas were selected because of the intensity of the shots fired activations—in those two heretofore very active areas for gunshots, the one hot spot area saw a reduction of 60 percent. That’s double the reduction city-wide. In the second hot spot area, there was a reduction of 40 percent; again, exceeding the average for the city. It was not necessary for us to tell residents or share with them those statistics, those empirical statistics. They could feel it. They knew it. My guess is that if we had asked them even before giving them the statistics, they could have told us that there was a reduction in that gunshot activation. TeNeane 12:41 Chief Rocha, I just want to thank you for sharing yet another innovative approach of community policing that impacts the quality of life of your residents. We hope that the listeners will hear about your program and seek to find out more information that will assist them in replicating your efforts. Thank you so much for interviewing with us today. Have a good day. Federico 13:08 Thank you! Voiceover: Beat Exit 13:10 The Beat was brought to you by the United States Department of Justice, COPS Office. The COPS Office helps to keep our nation’s communities safe by giving grants to law enforcement agencies, developing community policing publications, developing partnerships, and solving problems. Voiceover: Disclaimer 13:26 The opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or polices of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the authors or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.