Ron Davis Interview Bernard Melekian Intro: This is The Beat, a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics facing our nation. Katherine McQuay: This is Katherine McQuay with the COPS Office, and today we are with Chief Ron Davis with the East Palo Alto Police Department. And East Palo Alto Police Department is the only department in the state running a re-entry program with the Department of Corrections, and, Chief, we wanted to ask you how that came about and what it’s all about. Chief Ron Davis: Well, first, thanks for having me on your show, on this podcast. It started in 2006, actually. I had a police officer that was shot and killed by a parolee who had been out of prison for less than three months. And so, working with our legislator, we actually crafted legislation that required the Department of Corrections to start a pilot program in East Palo Alto for re-entry. And the focus was partnering the police department, the local community, and the Department of Corrections to deal with re-entry services, so it balances program services along with enforcement services. And so, as a police department, that means we’re the only department in California that runs a re-entry program. So, we run a day reporting center, which provides cognitive life skills training from GED to financial management to anger management. We have a parole re-entry officer, which is one of our officers full time, that helps with the counseling, mentoring, and enforcement. We also have a job component where they get paid $10 an hour to work with the Department of Transportation on a freeway doing litter abatement. And so it brings a unique approach to where we -- as a part of our program, we partner with at least five community-based and faith-based organizations to provide services, so that’s why it’s called the East Palo Alto Community-Based Coalition. Katherine McQuay: Why should law enforcement be involved in re-entry? Chief Ron Davis: My basic concept is, one, you can’t address crime without addressing the citizen. Equally important is people were not born in prison. They were born in communities, and they lived in communities before they offended and went to prison. So, to abdicate your responsibility as a community to the state corrections department for somebody that’s lived most of their live in your community and not a prison, I think, is missing the point, and re-entry, to me, only works if local communities embrace the idea that the people coming out of the community are your residents. They’re coming home and they need services, otherwise they will recidivate. And if you don’t -- we don’t address it this way, then the only thing left for them is incarceration; the old phrase, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” So, I think local governments, especially police departments, have to take responsibility that re-entry is a core function of the new police department. Katherine McQuay: What’s been the reaction of your officers? Chief Ron Davis: Initial, wanted to know why we would do this. Re-entry, to them, meant that it was my job to re-enter you back into prison, if you violated. But watching a transition where the officer who’s assigned parole re-entry, looks at the parolees in a different light, and equally important to look at him in a different light, as a true partnership. The officers see the benefit of understanding who’s on parole, the challenges they face, so when there are violations, we have a lot more knowledge and intelligence. And it has brought a lot more legitimacy to the department as us being viewed more of trying to solve problems and not just trying to put people in jail. And at the end of the day, it has resulted in a recidivism rate of less than 20 percent, which is lower than the state average of 70, and it has resulted in 16 percent crime reduction in the city, and, like, a 30 percent reduction in homicides. Katherine McQuay: What’s been the reaction of the community to the police involvement in re-entry? Chief Ron Davis: You know, the greatest thing was there’s this issue of “not in my backyard,” NIMB, and so initially the program was East Palo Alto only, but because of budget crises in the state, they asked us to expand the services, and I’ll quote one of my council members: “Chief, do what you have to do to make this program survive.” So, they’re willing now to accept parolees outside the community, in the community, in order for the parolees in our community to have service. So, I think the idea that an entire culture of community to embrace the idea of re-entry is going to be very exciting. It’s very exciting, and it should be very successful. Katherine McQuay: With the tight budget situation, is this something that will make the economics better or worse? Chief Ron Davis: Oh, definitely worse. The job programs are tough. There’s people that are not employed are having problems finding jobs, so imagine if you are on parole. The state is cutting hundreds of millions if not billions from re-entry and from programs, so we’re still subject to getting cut every year. So, one of the big challenges we have now was to go outside of the Department of Corrections to try to raise monies through federal grants, through private foundations, so it’s going to be a fiscal challenge every year. Katherine McQuay: Is it something you think you can sustain? Chief Ron Davis: I think we have to. As a matter of fact, this year -- my contract this year, if it goes through, will look different in that the parole re-entry officer and an enforcement component will be picked up by the city. In other words, it’s so valuable to me that I’ve now -- we’re going to offer it as in-kind services so that all of the annual funds that we get will go toward program services. So that now will be an equal match, and I think it demonstrates the importance to local government. Katherine McQuay: I would think it would be a big help to the Department of Corrections. Chief Ron Davis: It should be. They say that for every person that does not go back to prison is about $15,000 a year. Katherine McQuay: Do you think this is something that could serve as a model for other departments, how you’re doing it? Chief Ron Davis: We hope so. I don’t know if every department can do it. I think individual jurisdictions, depending on their number of parolees, regional concepts, but I think people can embrace the idea of re-entry locally, that the local police have a role in it. We hope that it’s going to be replicated throughout the state and throughout the country. Katherine McQuay: What would the biggest challenges be for a department that wants to emulate this? Chief Ron Davis: One, stepping out of their comfort zone and engaging in a practice that historically is not that of the police department. Two, convincing communities that parolees deserve, quite frankly -- and this is counterintuitive, but you have to convince people that parolees deserve a second chance. And take away the misnomers about bringing parolees into the community, and try to convince people, as we did in our community, that whether you have a program or not, that the parolees are coming home, they’re already in your community; the only question is what service do you want to provide them to reduce the recidivism rates. Katherine McQuay: Well, congratulations on the success you’ve been having, and thank you for sharing your program with us. Chief Ron Davis: Thank you very much. Bernard Melekian Exit: 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 transcript] Adayana: Rod Davis 1 4/28/10