Justice Department Announces the First Six Pilot Sites for the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice

New York, NY, March 12, 2015 – As part of the Department of Justice’s ongoing commitment to strengthening the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve and protect, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Birmingham, AL; Ft. Worth, TX; Gary, IN; Minneapolis, MN; Pittsburgh, PA; and Stockton, CA to be the first six cities to host pilot sites for the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice. As part of a larger effort, each pilot site will assess the police-community relationship and develop a detailed site-specific plan that will enhance procedural justice, reduce bias and support reconciliation in communities where trust has been harmed.

"We are very excited to get to work with the Chiefs, their departments and the community. Additionally, we will be sharing with law enforcement and community nationally, lessons learned from each of the six sites that can be accessed through the National Initiative Clearinghouse at TrustandJustice.org,” said Tracie L. Keesee, Project Director the National Initiative. The project is led by the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and with Yale Law School, UCLA, and the Urban Institute as principal partners.

The Attorney General also announced that the Department of Justice is providing additional training and technical assistance to police departments and communities that are not pilot sites. Through the Office of Justice Program’s Diagnostic Center (www.OJPDiagnosticCenter.org), police departments and community groups can request training, peer mentoring, expert consultation and other types of assistance on implicit bias, procedural justice and racial reconciliation. Additionally, the National Initiative launched a new online clearinghouse that includes up-to-date information about what works to build trust between citizens and law enforcement. The clearinghouse can be found at www.trustandjustice.org.

Read the Department of Justice announcement here. 

The Justice Department established the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice as part President Obama’s groundbreaking launch of the My Brother’s Keeper initiative, which seeks to create opportunities for all young people in this country—regardless of their background—to improve their lives and reach their full potential.

The three year grant has been awarded to a consortium of national law enforcement experts led by Professor David Kennedy of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, with Tracey Meares and Dr. Tom Tyler of Yale Law School, Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff of the Center for Policing Equity at UCLA, and Dr. Nancy La Vigne and Dr. Jocelyn Fontaine of the Urban Institute making up the rest of the consortium. The initiative will also receive guidance from a board of advisors that includes national leaders from law enforcement, academia and faith-based groups, as well as community stakeholders and civil rights advocates. In a holistic approach, the initiative will simultaneously address the tenets of procedural justice, reducing implicit bias and facilitating racial reconciliation. The initiative will compliment and be advised by other Justice Department components such as the Office of Justice Programs, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, Office on Violence Against Women, the Civil Rights Division and the Community Relations Service.

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About John Jay College of Criminal Justice: An international leader in educating for justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York offers a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to upwards of 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations. In teaching, scholarship and research, the College approaches justice as an applied art and science in service to society and as an ongoing conversation about fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law. For more information, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu.