In 1955, the Los Angeles Police Department adopted the motto “To Protect and Serve,” and over the last seven decades, many other American law enforcement departments followed suit. But in the Black Lives Matter era, those words may not resonate with some members of the communities police are tasked with protecting and serving. Community members may feel law enforcement officials exercise more authority than necessary. How can both sides work to create a more positive coexistence?
Social workers at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work are stepping in to help with a new program that places interns in police departments where they can help officers address social issues that affect local communities. The partnership aims to build internship and workforce development opportunities for the school’s graduates.
“Basically, what we’re doing is providing this unique opportunity to have social work and law enforcement work side by side to discover the many commonalities between us,” said Rosemary Alamo, Clinical Associate Professor, Field Education, Department of Children, Youth and Families at USC.
This positive interaction between social work interns and police officers can help cultivate a foundation of trust and understanding with the community because each side is taking the time to listen and learn from one another.
Alamo, along with Ricardo Ornelas, Adjunct Lecturer, Field Education, Department of Children, Youth and Families at USC, leads USC’s collaborative effort between social workers and the LAPD. One of its core missions is to provide a more comprehensive, holistic approach to the needs of at-risk youth and their families.
Working with police, the social work interns use evidence-based interventions such as motivational interviewing and problem-solving therapy, incorporating a trauma-informed lens in their work. The goal is to help raise graduation rates in the community and to prevent youth from being incarcerated or becoming involved in gangs.
Since different communities have different needs, the USC program tailors its services for each community and the officers who serve there. In LAPD’s Southwest Division, for example, the supervisors wanted interns to work more closely with domestic violence victims. In each case, the USC interns help build infrastructure and provide direct intervention to populations in need, Alamo said.
The problem of trust
Law enforcement and the communities they serve must trust each other in order to ensure public safety and effective policing. Law enforcement officers rely on community members to provide information about crime in their neighborhoods and work with them to address those problems. Similarly, community members’ willingness to trust the police depends on respect — citizens must feel like they are being treated fairly.
Communities of color in particular hold low levels of trust in law enforcement. While a 2017 Gallup survey showed overall confidence in the police rose slightly in a two-year period, with 57 percent of Americans saying they had "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in law enforcement, trust remained low among blacks, dropping to 30 percent in 2015-2017 from 35 percent in 2012-2014. Trust among Hispanics also dropped to 45 percent in the 2015-2017 report from 59 percent in 2012-2014.
Decline has overlapped with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, spurred by the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of teen Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in his Florida community, claimed he shot Martin in self-defense. While Zimmerman was not a member of law enforcement, other high-profile cases involving police and the deaths of young black Americans soon began making headlines.
“Two years ago, when we started this program, the whole controversy about police and police-involved shootings was huge,” said Yasmeen Surio, a 2018 Master of Social Work graduate who has parlayed her internship under Alamo’s program at LAPD’s Hollenbeck Police Activity League into a permanent position. “It was in the media all the time and I decided, ‘This is how I can make a change. This is how I can make a difference.’”
Surio works in neighborhoods in LA that see heavy gang activity. Her role is to help officers look at individuals beyond the gang lens and through a social work lens. She said figuring out how to work better together by taking a holistic approach is one of the program’s most important goals.
“What are the other things that are at play that make this individual act the way he does or she does?” Surio asked. “Let’s not look at him or her for whatever crime they’re doing but what’s going on in their family and their environment. Let’s try to understand the individual as a whole.”
Assumptions may contribute to misunderstandings that exist on both sides. A 2017 poll by Pew Research Center showed 83 percent of Americans believed they understood the risks and challenges of police work, including 38 percent who believed they understood the risks very well.
But 86 percent of the police surveyed said the public did not fully comprehend what officers face — including 40 percent who said Americans don’t understand the risks and challenges of police work well at all.
To build trust between law enforcement and communities, the Department of Justice made the following recommendations:
- Acknowledge and discuss challenges with your communities.
- Be transparent and accountable.
- Take steps to reduce bias and improve cultural competency.
- Maintain focus on the importance of collaboration, and improve visibility in the community.
- Promote internal diversity and ensure professional growth opportunities.
Citation for this content: The DSW@USC, the online Doctor of Social Work program at the University of Southern California.
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