How much does the Community Immersion Program increase understanding and trust between the police and residents?

Project started: July 1, 2022

Department or Agency: San Antonio Police Department

Share this project

Topics

Law EnforcementPolice Training

Project Overview

Summary

In a new pilot starting in mid 2022, police cadets will complete, as part of their Academy Training, an internship with a volunteering community stakeholder (e.g. a local business owner, non-profit organization, or civic leader). Cadets will spend about 2.5 hours per week immersed with the stakeholder to learn about and become familiar with the local community. The internship will last about 14 weeks.

The cadet, upon graduating Training Academy and successfully completing field training, will be assigned as an officer in the same community where the internship was completed. The program is referred to as the Community Immersion Program.

Anticipated deliverables

An operational manual, describing how the Community Immersion Program is designed.
An implementation study of the pilot cohort, to learn how to most effectively deliver the designed program.
Qualitative interviews with cadets and mentors in pilot cohort, for preliminary learnings on self-reported experiences with the program.
A draft pre-analysis plan, preparing for a randomized controlled trial (RCT) once program implementation is stabilized and size of cohort expanded.

Planned use of results

Learning the impact of the Community Immersion Program would be of immediate value to SAPD’s planning (e.g. of whether to continue and expand the program) as well as inform the national and international debate on policing reform. Indeed, the results of the multi-city RCT of the CIP pilot would likely garner substantial attention, placing SATX at the forefront of policing best practices.