Circle Of Respect Beat Intro Voiceover 00.00. This is the Beat – a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics facing our nation. Circle of Respect Interview Jeremy 00.00 Hello. I’m Jeremy Writt with the Cops Office and today I’m with Ann Harkins, the president of the National Crime Prevention Council to talk about the Circle of Respect. Thank you for taking the time for us Miss Harkins. Ann 00.12 Thank you Jeremy. It’s great to be with you. Jeremy 00.14 Okay, let’s go ahead and get started. What is the Circle of Respect? Ann 00.18 The Circle of Respect is a new initiative at the National Crime Prevention Council. McGruff, the Crime Dog, is celebrating his 30th anniversary this year and he’s introducing this new initiative to address relational crimes. 00.35 We’re starting with bullying and cyberbullying. But, we’re really talking about the kinds of crime that are marked by a lack of respect – dating violence, workplace violence, assault… 00.50 …and through this initiative, we want to work with law enforcement and encourage respect so that we can have, we can reduce the number of crimes that are plaguing our communities – especially bullying and cyberbullying, which are having a tremendous negative impact on our young people. Jeremy 01.10 And who would you say is part of this Circle of Respect? Ann 01.14 A number of researchers, crime prevention experts, authors, organizations and other partners. 01.22 Simon Property Group, which owns and develops malls all across the country, made a major contribution to this effort by doing a teaser campaign and starting to show aspects of the Circle of Respect on their in-mall videos. 01.38 Uh, Deborah Norville joined noted researchers and authors when we launched the Circle of Respect at the National Press Club in January of this year. 01.48 Wired Safety, the Cellular Telephone Industry Association and the Wireless Foundation who have supported our work and want to help kids who are using new technology (like cell phones), help keep themselves safe. Jeremy 02.02 And obviously law enforcement is a major part of that Circle of Respect. How does the Circle of Respect help law enforcement combat these kinds of problems like bullying and cyberbullying? Ann 02.13 Well I think in many different ways – the way I think of the Circle of Respect, for the first circle inside is: respect yourself. Don’t use drugs. Don’t send nude photographs of yourself across your cell phone. Respect your family, respect your school, respect your community. 02.33 Law enforcement is a key part of any community. And I’m always struck – Director Malekian talks about communities of trust. Communities of trust and the Circle of Respect go hand in hand. If people know their law enforcement officers and are working with them and law enforcement knows the people in the community… that’s what the Cops Office is all about – community policing, respect for one another, and understanding where the other person comes from. So one of those circles is also law enforcement community relations. Jeremy 03.05 And why did you choose bullying and cyberbullying as the initial Circle of Respect focus? Ann 03.11 Um, it almost is the other way around. We have been working on bullying – at the National Crime Prevention Council, when you think about school yard or playground bullying – for decades. And we, six or so years ago, got involved in preventing cyberbullying to help young people keep themselves safe. 03.33 The Circle of Respect arose out of our work on bullying and cyberbullying prevention. Jeremy 03.40 Okay. You mentioned the Simon Group. What are some of the other creative ways this initiative is spreading its message? Ann 03.48 Well one of the really exciting things we have is an online book club. We’ve brought together well-known, accomplished authors to get a dialogue going about online aggression among teens and help parents help their teens handle this problem and protect themselves from becoming victims. 04.09 Among the authors we featured, are Trudy Ludwig who wrote Confessions of a Former Bully, Deborah Norville, who’s book is called The Power of Respect. Rachel Simmons, Odd Girl Out – the Hidden Culture of Agression, Tina Wells, Mackenzie Blue, Rosalind Wiseman who wrote Queen Bees and Wannabees – the book on which Mean Girls is based. Sharon Flake, The Skin I’m In. Dr. Forni, The Civility Solution and Dr. Sameer Hinduja, Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard – Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. And Dr. Hinduja, in particular, does a lot of work with law enforcement in this area. 04.50 So all of these people are writing about, thinking about and encouraging thoughtful discussion about bullying, cyberbullying and how we relate in society. 05.04 If you think about it, one of the basic principles of criminal justice is that in order for a crime to occur, you need ability, opportunity and desire. It’s a very basic principle of crime prevention that if you can take any one of those three away, you will prevent the crime. 05.27 So, the Circle of Respect is about reducing the desire for people to commit crimes and as the circle expands and gets bigger, I think we’ll also be reducing the opportunity for crimes to occur. Jeremy 05.41 Outstanding. Are there any other immediate or long-term goals the program has? Ann 05.46 Well, long-term goals are to encourage respect and, and civility in society as a way of reducing the desire to commit criminal behavior. 05.57 We are, as I mentioned, celebrating McGruff’s 30th Anniversary. He has introduced the Circle of Respect through a new animated short called Samantha’s Choice. It’s available on our website and we encourage people to use it in their schools…When you asked about law enforcement before, we talked about community relations, but school resource officers are at the front line of helping kids learn respectful behaviors and preventing victimization. 06.30 So that’s another avenue for law enforcement and we hope that every school in the country will be looking at Samantha’s Choice – it’s a little girl who’s being bullied and McGruff and Scruff teach her to ‘Stop, Talk, and Walk’ in order to protect herself from the bullies. Jeremy 6.50 Well we’re starting to run out of time here, but I want to make sure we let people know how they can start a Circle of Respect in their community. Ann 07.00 Please go to our website, circleofrespect.org. Beat Exit Voiceover: 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. ####END OF TRANSCRIPTS#### Cops Office Transcript 10-15-10 1