Lakewood CA, 2024
SHARE YOUR RESULTS
Making your assessment public will show that your department is transparent, inclusive, trustworthy, and committed.
MAKING RESULTS PUBLIC
To make this assessment available to more people in your department privately, or to share it with the general public, contact your Implementation Specialist.
Why you should make your assessment public
Members of the community are more likely to report crime, act as witnesses, and comply with laws when they trust police and view police practices as legitimate.
1
A public assessment helps the people who are most affected by the findings understand them firsthand, rather than relying on secondhand information.
Department command staff, officers, community members, state and local policymakers, and others will share the same set of facts as you, which will lead to more active community partnership. This transparency will help enhance fairness, reduce mistrust, and support healing in communities that have experienced pain for far too long.
2
A department that is open about its findings shows its willingness to be held accountable for positive change.
It demonstrates leadership and initiative by seeking to understand the causes and drivers of disparities, enacting reforms, and prioritizing the community as a key part of those reforms.
3
Publicly sharing these findings invites new alliances and collaborations by making departmental policies and reform efforts more widely known.
It also provides an opportunity to serve as an example for other departments in advancing the field of policing at a critical moment
Preparing to make your assessment public
We offer comprehensive guidance on sharing assessment findings on the Justice Navigator homepage. First, you'll need to educate partners about key takeaways and strategies.
1
Departmental command staff and line officers
Whether reforms are successful or not depends, to a great extent, on whether they are accepted and faithfully executed by the officers who make up the department. Department leaders should develop a detailed plan to inform officers of the assessment findings and manage questions and feedback about the recommendations.
2
Community members
3
State and local policymakers
How to plan a rollout and make your assessment public
When you are ready to make your assessment public, contact your Implementation Specialist. You should also prepare a public rollout plan to maximize impact and build support.
1
Issue a press release
The release should describe the department’s partnership with CPE, summarize key findings from the assessment, and outline actions the department plans to take to respond to the findings and CPE’s recommended next steps. It should be distributed widely to state and local media as part of a broader media engagement strategy.
2
Host multiple public release events with diverse community organizations.
These events are an opportunity to share key findings and to collect input from the community. In the spirit of meaningful engagement, these events should aim to be an exchange, seeking insights and perspectives about the findings and recommendations from the community.
3
Create and distribute summaries of findings
Customize the summaries with relevant content for key audiences, such as line command staff/line officers, the community, and policymakers. The Summary portion of this assessment is a starting place for identifying high-level findings that can be supplemented with more detail, context, or other data, as appropriate for the audience. Examples of summaries might include anything from brief videos to written one-pagers, depending on how the department tends to communicate with their constituents, and should always be distributed through email and/or social media with a link to the assessment. Be prepared to directly address questions and comments about findings, current departmental practices, and reform agendas
