The National Network for Safe Communities held its second national conference at John Jay College on June 22 and 23, 2015.

This landmark conference brought together our core national partners to discuss the innovations that are making communities safer by preventing violence and incarceration among the people most likely to be touched by both; helping police do their jobs in a way that does not harm, and in fact strengthens, the communities they serve; and supporting communities to reclaim their voice about the way they want to live. The conference was a tremendous opportunity to link the people doing and thinking about this work; create opportunities for peer learning and exchange of information; and advance the groundbreaking practices cities are driving in areas such as domestic violence, prison violence, strategic prosecution, and support and outreach. The full agenda and videos of all sessions are available below.

 

 

AGENDA

Day One: June 22, 2015

8:00 AM: Registration and Breakfast

9:00 AM: Welcoming Remarks
Location: Gerald W. Lynch Theater (1st Floor)

• Jeremy Travis, President of John Jay College of Criminal Justice

9:40 AM: Introduction of Keynote

• Jeremy Travis, President of John Jay College of Criminal Justice

9:45 AM: Keynote

• Karol V. Mason, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs

10:30 AM: Plenary 1: Reintroducing the National Network for Safe Communities

• David Kennedy, Director of the National Network for Safe Communities

11:30 AM: Plenary 2: Police and Communities in Motion

This plenary session addresses in broad terms the cultural shifts taking place in law enforcement agencies and communities around the country. Participants discuss how gradually changing law enforcement practices have affected the relationships between police and the communities they serve, and how momentum has built behind practices that acknowledge history, repair legitimacy, and rebuild public trust.

• Rev. K. Edward Copeland, Pastor of the New Zion Baptist Church of Rockford, IL
• Phillip Atiba Goff, Professor of Psychology and founder of the Center for Policing Equity at the University of California-Los Angeles
• Ben McBride, Founder of the Empower Initiative
• A.C. Roper, Chief of the Birmingham Police Department

2:00 PM: Panels

Panel Option 1: The National Network’s Interventions: Core Operating Principles
Location: L.61

• David Kennedy, Director of the National Network for Safe Communities

In this presentation, David Kennedy discusses the National Network's core operating principles and their application to both the established violence prevention strategies like the Group Violence Intervention and emerging innovations. This session provides an introduction to and overview of the work, mission and approach of the National Network for Safe Communities for cities and practitioners who are new to the work. 

Panel Option 2: Criminal Justice and Community Harm: An Emerging Consensus
Location: 9.64
Moderator: Glenn Martin, founder of JustLeadership

​This panel explores the ways in which the traditional criminal justice system has affected high crime communities, the people who live in them, and the broader social fabric. Panelists discuss how missteps like over-incarceration and aggressive and disrespectful policing can damage individuals, families, and communities and undermine law enforcement's legitimacy and the relationships between neighborhoods and law enforcement. The panel also explores the economic and social costs of traditional criminal justice with a specific focus on earning power, civic engagement, educational attainment and political control. 

• Tim Dunn, CEO of CrownQuest
• Glenn Loury, Professor of Economics at Brown University
• Heather Thompson, Professor of History and African American Studies at University of Michigan
• Jeremy Travis, President of John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Panel Option 3:  New Approaches to Strategic Law Enforcement
Location: Moot Court Room
Moderator: Chauncey Parker, Executive Assistant District Attorney and Special Policy Advisor at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office

This panel showcases the innovative ways that the National Network's partner cities have focused law enforcement attention on groups and group members who have committed prohibited acts of violence in their communities. Panelists discuss the ways law enforcement partners have worked collaboratively to respond quickly to individual acts of violence and build state and federal cases against historically violent groups. 

• Alex Calenda, Assistant District Attorney in the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office
• Tate Chambers, Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of Illinois
• Susan Herman, Deputy Commissioner for Collaborative Policing at the New York City Police Department
• Maurice Landrieu, Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana
• Lauren Baraldi, Chief, Gun Violence Task Force in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office

3:30 PM: Panels

Panel Option 1: Institutionalizing the Work of Building Safe Communities
Location: Moot Court Room
Moderator: Paul Smith, Public Safety Coordinator for the City of Chattanooga

This panel discusses the ways law enforcement entities around the country have begun to integrate the principles of community trust, procedural justice, and legitimacy into recruit and in-service training and practice to the end of improving relationships between police and the communities they serve. Panelists address how to introduce these concepts into law enforcement organizations, build buy-in, and sustain the practices. 

• Mike Green, Commissioner of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Service
• Reygan Harmon, Project Manager for Oakland Ceasefire
• Jim Summey, Executive Director of the High Point Community Against Violence
• Bob Tracy, Chief of Crime Control Strategies at the Chicago Police Department
• Bob Wasserman, Chairman of Strategic Policy Partners

Panel Option 2: The Social Science Record: Findings related to NNSC Interventions
Location: L.61
Moderator: Maurice Classen, Program Officer at MacArthur Foundation

The purpose of this panel is to showcase the research underpinning the National Network's core principles and strategies around crime prevention. Panelists discuss the emerging insights into convergence of violence and offending in tight social networks, the impacts of focused deterrence and "pulling levers" approaches, and the efficacy of swift and predictable sanctions over especially severe sanctions to reduce crime and incarceration.    

• Thomas Abt, Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School 
• Mark Kleiman, Professor of Public Policy at New York University
• Andrew Papachristos, Associate Professor of Sociology at Yale University 

Panel Option 3:  Integrated Street Work
Location: 9.64
Moderator: Vaughn Crandall, Senior Strategist at the California Partnership for Safe Communities 

This panel highlights the role of street outreach workers in the National Network's violence prevention strategies, including the Group Violence Intervention. Panelists discuss the evolving best practices around street outreach work as well as the persistent challenges that remain when engaging street outreach workers to prevent violence. 

• Guillermo Cespedes, Senior Advisor for Citizen Security at Creative Associates International
• Todd Chamberlain, Captain of the Mission Area at Los Angeles Police Department
• Teny Gross, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence
• Susan Lee, Executive Director at the Connie Rice Institute for Urban Peace
• William "Blinky" Rodriguez, Executive Director of Communities in Schools of Los Angeles

5:30 PM: Welcome Reception

 

Day Two: June 23, 2015

9:00 AM: Registration and Breakfast

10:00 AM: Plenary 1: Truth-telling, Reconciliation, and the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice
Location: Gerald W. Lynch Theater

This plenary session provides an overview of the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice and situates it within the context of the post-Ferguson climate around trust, legitimacy, reform, and reconciliation. Participants discuss the genesis of the National Initiative, its aims and early steps, and its relevance to the national interest in re-examining traditional criminal justice and promoting truth-telling and reconciliation between law enforcement and the communities it serves. 

• Priscilla Hayner, independent writer and consultant
• Tracie Keesee, Project Director of the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice
• David Kennedy, Director of the National Network for Safe Communities
• ​Katherine Darke Schmitt, Policy Advisor in the Office of Justice Programs at the US Department of Justice 
• Tom Tyler, Macklin Fleming Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology at Yale University

11:30 AM: Panels

Panel Option 1: Using Social Network Analysis and Social Media Tools for Crime Prevention
Location: L.61
Moderator: Louisa Aviles, Strategic Operations and Policy Specialist at the National Network for Safe Communities

This panel covers the relevance of social network analysis and social media to understand serious violence and its potential as a tool in addressing and disrupting violence dynamics in cities implementing the National Network's violence reduction strategies. 

• Kevin O'Connor, Assistant Commissioner at the New York City Police Department
• Andrew Papachristos, Associate Professor of Sociology at Yale University​

Panel Option 2: New Areas of Promise: Prosecution, Prisons, and Community Supervision
Location: L.63
Moderator: Amy Crawford, Deputy Director at the National Network for Safe Communities

This panel showcases the ways the National Network's core principles are being applied beyond their traditional interventions in violent street crime. Panelists discuss how these principles have been adopted in correctional facilities to prevent violence, how prosecutors' offices are transforming into more independent and effective strategic actor in reducing crime, and the efforts to incorporate these principles into community supervision policies and practices.

• Sherene Crawford, Senior Policy Advisor at the National Network for Safe Communities
• Beau Kilmer, Senior Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation
• Carly Kujath, Strategic Operations Manager at the Washington State Department of Corrections
• Chauncey Parker, Executive Assistant District Attorney and Special Policy Advisor at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office

Panel Option 3: Applying the Domestic Violence Intervention
Location: 9.64
Moderator: David Kennedy, Director of the National Network for Safe Communities

The purpose of this panel is to discuss the concept and practice of the Domestic Violence Intervention (DVI). DVI is an offender-focused domestic violence intervention modeled on the National Network's core operating principles, piloted in High Point, and supported nationally by the Department of Justice.

• Susan Herman, Deputy Commissioner for Collaborative Policing at the New York City Police Department
• Nadine Neufville, Deputy Director for Grant Development and Management of the Office on Violence Against Women at the US Department of Justice
• Stacy Sechrist, Senior Research Scientist at University of North Carolina-Greensboro
• Marty Sumner, Chief of the High Point Police Department

2:00 PM: Panels

Panel Options 1: New Approaches to Support and Outreach
Location: 9.64
Moderator: Meaghan McDonald, Strategic Operations and Policy Specialist at the National Network for Safe Communities

The purpose of this panel is to showcase the ways the National Network has shifted its thinking about the "sincere offer of help" that has long been a core component of the Group Violence Intervention. This panel discusses how that offer has evolved from access to traditional forms of social services to a support and outreach structure that better meets the needs of the target population with a focus on helping them stay alive and out of prison, providing affirmative outreach, offering protection from risk, addressing trauma, and provding what we have come to call "the big small stuff." 

• Vaughn Crandall, Senior Strategist at the California Partnership for Safe Communities
• Deanna Hoskins, Director of the Office of Re-Entry for Hamilton Country, OH
• Risco Mention-Lewis, Deputy Police Commissioner of the Suffolk County Police Department
• Paul Smith, Public Safety Coordinator for the City of Chattanooga, TN

Panel Option 2: Applying Procedural Justice and Police Legitimacy
Location: L.63
Moderator: Megan Quattlebaum, Program Director for the Yale Justice Collaboratory

​This panel discusses the ways law enforcement entities around the country have begun to integrate the principles of community trust, procedural justice, and legitimacy into recruit and in-service training and practice with the aim of improving relationships between law enforcement and the communities it serves. Panelists address how to introduce these concepts into law enforcement organizations, build buy-in, and sustain the practices. 

• Greg Berman, Executive Director of the Center for Court Innovation
• Daniela Gilbert, Deputy Director of the California Partnership for Safe Communities
• Bruce Lipman, Lieutenant (ret.) at the Chicago Police Department
• Ronal Serpas, Superintendent (ret.) of the New Orleans Police Department​

Panel Option 3: Custom Notifications
Location: L.61
Moderator: Christopher Mallette, Executive Director of the Chicago Group Violence Reduction Strategy 

This panel focuses on custom notifications as a tool for strategic communication with group members, chronic offenders, and individuals at particular risk for involvement in violence. Panelists highlight the multiple uses of custom notifications to reinforce the call-in message with impact players and groups not represented at the call-in, and also as a means of preventing retaliatory shootings, calming hotspots, and quashing beefs. 

• Fred Fletcher, Chief of the Chattanooga Police Department
• Bob Tracy, Chief of Crime Strategies at the Chicago Police Department
• Marty Sumner, Chief of the High Point Police Department

5:00 PM: Closing Conversation