Building Relationships with Communities of Color June 2014 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. Katherine McQuay 00:07 This is Katherine McQuay with the COPS Office. With us today is Chief Chris Magnus, chief of the department in Richmond, California. Chief Magnus, thank you for joining us today. Chief Chris Magnus 00:16 My pleasure. Katherine 00:10 We wanted to ask you, first of all, can you tell us about some of the challenges your department has faced in terms of relationships with communities of color? Chris 00:28 Well, Richmond is a majority community of color. The nonwhite population is about 75 percent. It’s a community across the bay from San Francisco but very distinctly different from San Francisco. It is a city of about 110,000 with also a very large undocumented population as well. It’s a city where there is now a shift in demographics from a very significant African-American influence to now a majority Latino population, so there’s a lot happening. You’re right, relationships have not always been strong between police and community. The department back in the 80s and 90s was embroiled in a very difficult period where it became known, in fact, as a city where there was a lot of discrimination and even harassment that was alleged towards the police. There was a broadcast of a 60 Minutes documentary related to what were known as The Cowboys at that point in time, a group of officers that were considered rouge and very biased towards the African-American community. So that and a whole history of, sort of, a disconnect between police and residents created a dynamic that, let’s just say, was not of one of trust, not a very strong relationship, so something that we really wanted to change. Katherine 02:03 What did you do when you came on board? What were some of the steps? Chris 02:07 Well, I think in order to change that perception of mistrust and also to be more effective in terms of crime fighting, it was really necessary to engage officers more closely with neighborhoods and build relationships. One of the things that we’ve done is a very geographic-based community policing model where officers are assigned to specific geographic areas and where they’re given responsibilities that go well beyond just call-response and a traditional crime-fighting model. The idea is that beat officers now are expected to really get to know the neighborhoods they serve. They’re all as accessible as possible through both e-mail and voicemail. They are seen at all the neighborhood meetings. They’re expected to be a regular presence in local schools, churches, businesses [and] really be identified as the go-to person within that neighborhood. What we see is a dynamic where there are certainly people who would still tell you they don’t trust the police, but they’ll say at the same time, “I really do like my beat officer or our school resource officer.” They know at least one or two officers that they really do trust and have built a relationship with. From my standpoint, I think that’s a really good starting point, then to opening that door to larger conversations and the possibility that maybe there are other officers as well [who] are part of this team of problem solvers and who are really partners with you, not just adversaries. One of the other things we did, and I think it was important from a crime-fighting standpoint, was we got away from having street teams. It’s sort of a popular thing with cops but just not very effective in terms of either crime fighting or relationship building. The street team model was you go into high- crime areas, and you stop anything that moves, and you’re very engaged in taking enforcement on even small things. It’s not very selective in terms of who you’re taking that enforcement around. So when we moved away from that, we went to a more strategic, focused approach of who was really committing the serious crime. Who are the shooters? Who are the really violent individuals in higher crime areas? We wanted to put our focus on them. That was something the neighborhoods could embrace whereas when it’s just their sons or daughters or folks who are going to school, coming or going from work, or having a tough time but not necessarily committing any crimes, you feel like you’re always getting harassed or hassled by the police. [This] is not a good way to build relationships even if you’re saying, “Hey, we’re doing this in the interest of larger kinds of crime reduction goals.” People just can’t support that. On the other hand, when they see that you really are focused on the right people who are creating fear and care in neighborhoods, then it’s something different. And then people start to see this is actually a partnership, and it is working, and the police aren’t that occupying force. Katherine 05:42 Are there particular stakeholder groups you’ve found it productive to partner with, be it the faith community, the business community? Chris 05:50 Yes, absolutely. All of those. The faith community in Richmond is very strong. There was a migration from east Texas up to Richmond, California, back at the time of the Kaiser shipyards. And so there is a large African-American community that has very strong ties in the faith community. It’s really important that we be seen as doing outreach and building partnerships with that community—not just from a standpoint of optics but really to do meaningful crime reduction efforts. When we’re doing Operation Ceasefire, that involves night walks in neighborhoods with clergy folks who are making that commitment to get out of just being in the churches to doing the work and not just on Sundays and to really see the police as a partner and a supporter of that kind of community outreach. We have regular meetings with folks from a lot of different churches in Richmond. We answer questions. It’s an opportunity to address rumors and problems when they’re small so we can get things worked out. That’s been very important because those folks have a tremendous influence that goes out into their respective communities. When they’re with you, that influence can be incredibly helpful. When they feel you’re the enemy or you’re disengaged, it works the other way as well, and that’s not good. Katherine 07:27 Tell us about the makeup of your own department and how you’ve attempted to have it reflect the community it polices? Chris 07:34 Well, that’s so critical. You have to have a community that represents and is similarly constituted to your larger part of the city. We have an extraordinarily diverse city at this point, not just racially or ethnically but across the board. We’ve worked very hard to make the department a place where officers of all different backgrounds, life experiences, and races feel comfortable working together and see a place for themselves at the table in terms of doing this new community policing model. Katherine 08:11 What do you think your biggest challenge has been? Chris 08:14 Well, I think the challenge, of course, is being there for all of these different diverse groups and being seen as neutral and unbiased yet present and responsive. I think people, especially communities that have not been well served by the police in the past, that are suspicious of government, that have lacked resources across the board, they are very suspicious when they start to see that changing of how are the spoils going to be divided out. Is someone going to get more attention? Is this going to mean one group has access at the expense of another? So we’ve had to work really hard to show that we are committed across the board to fair treatment of everyone, that providing services and access to one group does not mean taking them away from somebody else. It means being culturally sensitive to what’s going on. It means being very present out in the community at every kind of event and activity. It means making sure that officers really get that their job has to go beyond just call taking and making arrests, but it also has to be about talking to people and building relationships. Katherine 09:35 Well, from all accounts, you’ve enjoyed great success. Thank you for the work you’re doing and for giving is us your time today. Chris 09:40 My pleasure. Voiceover: Beat Exit 09:46 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 10:02 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.