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1. Question One:

Norfolk Police Department is committed to a partnership with the Center for Policing Equity and is using data driven intervention strategies and redesigning public safety systems to foster improved relations between the Department and the various constituencies within Norfolk. If you have worked with the Center in your career or have experience in implementing these strategies, provide a brief summary of the program, your role in the effort, and your evaluation of the outcome. If you have your own ideas for practical improvements in developing such efforts, set them out in your response.

Candidate C Answer: 

If selected as the Police Chief, I look forward to working with CPE to review data and processes to guide initiatives, so they are effective but do not impair community relationships. The use of data to deploy resources and implement violence reduction initiatives is paramount. Using data allows NPD to focus on those individuals and locations responsible for inordinate amount of disorder and violence. Data driven strategies should be focused on quality arrests, not quantity. By focusing on quality, we will not alienate the community by making arrests or taking enforcement actions that do not reduce specific crime conditions, such as, Zero Tolerance initiatives that focuses on sheer arrests which only impairs police/community relationships. One of my first priorities as the newly selected Police Chief will be to assess NPD's data collection and analysis capabilities.

In my experiences as a commanding officer of several commands across the Police Department and now as an Executive team member, we have partnered with Dr. Lorie Fridell with Fair and Impartial Policing, LLC which focuses on implicit bias awareness training. This training is taught in the recruit academy as well as [Redacted] to the command staff. The value of this approach was the inclusion of community stakeholders such as faith-based organization, private business, and community leaders. The training can be tiered to focus on different community groups and officer ranks.

I was responsible for leading an initiative in partnership with the Department of Justice Community Relations Services (CRS) called Strengthening Police and Community Partnerships (SPCP). This program facilitated by CRS, is designed to bring diverse communities and Police Departments together to assist state and local governments, private and public organizations, educational institutions, and community groups to resolve community-based conflicts stemming from issues related to race, color, and national origin. The program starts with selected diverse community and police planning team members, led by representatives from CRS. The results of this initiative to date have been the recognized community priorities in a specific geographical location within the city, and the [-] SPCP council. The council is committed to follow-up meetings and implementation of several solutions developed by community leaders.

In my experience as a senior leader and if selected as the Police Chief, I will establish policy that clearly demonstrates the Departments commitment to equitable, compassionate, fair, and professional policing strategies. The data collection process will include an early intervention system that alerts supervisory staff on officer behaviors related to use of force, sick time, missed court, and internal and citizen complaints. Additionally, we will create internal processes that tracks officer enforcement activities and interactions with community members. This approach layered with calls for service data, citizen contacts, traffic stops, crash locations, and Part 1 crime data will provide an accurate account of our policing strategies to City Leadership and the community we serve.

2. Question Two:

The Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) seeks to prevent and reduce violent crime in communities by supporting comprehensive, evidence-based violence intervention and prevention programs based on partnerships among community residents, local government agencies, victim service providers, community-based organizations, law enforcement, hospitals, researchers, and other community stakeholders. City l aders are interested in your experience in working with this initiative or initiatives with similar expectations or outcomes, specifically including your experience in urban communities if applicable. Please include your evaluation of the success of those programs and your ideas regarding improving them.

Candidate C Answer: 

If selected as the Police Chief, I welcome the opportunity to partner with Bureau of Justice Assistance, Department of Justice in the Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative. One of my first priorities as Chief will be to develop a data driven, intelligence led, violent crime reduction strategy. It will include focusing on all three sides of the crime triangle: victim, offender, and location. I [Redacted] lead this initiative in my role as Deputy Police Chief. While there is no one program or approach that will prevent and/or reduce violent crime, a focused and layered approach provides the most opportunities for success. Evidence-based strategies supports Dr. David Kennedy's Group Violence Intervention (GVI) strategy where the above community partners work together to provide services that offer an alternative to criminal activity. If I'm selected as Chief, these will be the individuals I will immediately reach out to and begin implementing GVI/CVIPI so that we can begin making a dent in our GVI groups prior to Summer. I believe in the strategy and with support of City Administration, this will be a top priority.

The initiative will also include teams of law enforcement, prosecutors, probation/parole, victim advocates, community advocates, and technology all supported by data. Since implementing this initiative in [-], we've seen a significant decrease in shooting victims and overall violent crime in a [-]-year period.

The purpose of the initiative is to identify, surveil, apprehend, and prosecute violent criminals in our city in fulfillment of our primary mission to provide a safe community for all. This plan accounts for the work of patrol officers, detectives, crime analysts, forensic specialists, and our law enforcement partners at the federal, state, and local level. Inter-agency and inter-group cooperation are essential elements to the successful implementation of the initiative.

The Mission of the Violent Crime Initiative is to reduce violent crime, identify those engaged in criminal activity, and increase case clearance rates through a collaborative effort between internal and external partners.

Objectives:

Operationalize the holistic violent crime initiative vision and workflow across the department.

Institutionalize Crime Gun Intelligence processes by greatly expanding access toe-Trace and entering all casings into NIBIN.

Establish and reinforce continual and collaborative communication protocols between SI/Detective Bureau/CSS to ensure deconfliction of operational objectives and investigations.

Community outreach and transparent reporting on crime statistics, arrests, and victim advocacy.

Use of technology as a force multiplier in social networking analysis supported by an analytical based weekly review and a Real Time Crime Center.

My experience in implementing violent crime reduction strategies in urban settings spans my career as a commanding officer in differing geographical locations within [-]. The following examples reflect the diverse community outreach strategies I led in various command positions.

College [-]: Department representative that led the planning and execution of the [-], and [-] operations. Included community outreach to numerous colleges/universities in [-], other [-] communities, and [-]. Hosted community meetings, partnered with the Department of Justice, NAACP, and local faith-based leaders/organizations to enhance operational effectiveness. Used [-] to foster positive relationships between police, the community, and students by recruiting potential police candidates and recruiting volunteer student ambassadors.

Homeless Initiative: Directed the implementation of a [-] program in partnership with Department of Housing, Department of Human Services, including external partners of Volunteers of America, [-], and [-]. The program hired [-] previously homeless individuals and along with police representatives, conducted outreach to the homeless population [-]. The program had an immediate positive impact and numerous homeless individuals, and families were housed and provided services. [-] fully funded the program.

[-] Initiative: Led monthly collaboration meetings with local business, hoteliers, restaurants, and ABC establishments under the umbrella of public safety. Enhanced the [-] environment through citizen engagement opportunities, aesthetic improvements, the City Ambassador Program and in concert with [-] theme of "family - friendly."

[-] Initiative: Led the Police Department efforts to work collaboratively with public and private partners specifically, [-], [-], [-], City of [-] Public Schools, City Council liaison, City of [-] Parks- Recreation and [-], to develop a long-term self-sustaining plan to effect positive change in the [-] community. Resulted in the overall reduction in crime as well as an increased perception of community, police relations.

[-] Initiative: Over the past several years the Police Department has focused on specific geographical areas within the city which includes, [-] neighborhoods, to revitalize the area by addressing both criminal activity and neighborhood degradation in the community. The identified areas known as [-] are some of the busiest zones in the city, and they are [-] of the most patrolled areas in the city. This area borders [-] and was identified by the SPCP [-] as the focus of the initiative. Our current community engagement objectives include re-establishing a civic league, providing access to [-] all youth activities, and planning community events throughout the coming year. Our policing strategy includes a data driven focus on violent crime and priority offenders, repeat locations, and victim advocacy. These efforts are supported by a gun detection technology called Shot Spotter, which alerts officers to the location of gun fire within minutes. The value of this technology allows us to respond to gun shots without a call for service being generated. Unfortunately, the data demonstrates approximately 80% of the time citizens are not calling the police when shots are fired. Needless to say, this creates a two-fold problem for the police: first, we are unaware of shots being fired and unable to investigate further, and secondly, the community perspective is that the police do not care because we do not respond.

3. Question Three:

The Norfolk Police Department is building its future upon the following 5 Guiding Principles: Officer Wellness, being Operationally Sound, creating a Learning Organization, understanding the Strength in Diversity, and building Principle Centered Leadership. As a professional and public servant, how do you identify with these principles and how as the Chief would you continue to emphasize them in the Department?

Candidate C Answer: 

The immediate challenge during any administrative transition is how the culture of the organization will accept the new leader and how I should promote my expectations. Incumbent staff, especially those in a leadership position, may find change to be challenging. Many will question; "What changes are coming?" and "How will this affect me?". My job will be to implement the necessary changes through a smooth transition process. The best means of understanding the environment and the organization is to begin to evaluate its policies, procedures, and training protocols. Equally important is to meet with and discuss the perceptions and needs of those who work in the organization.

The five guiding principles listed above provide a solid foundation to work from in re-establishing trust throughout the organization. I fully support this approach and as a new Police Chief will prioritize them in our future processes.

Officer Wellness is listed as.one of six pillars in 21st Century Policing Strategies and essential to the health and wellness of the department. Providing support and resources for our personnel is leaderships responsibility and will be a priority for NPD under my leadership. In the past [Redacted] years the Executive team of [-] have taken several steps to enhance officer wellness to include the following: hired a full time [-] Wellness Officer reporting directly to the Chiefs office, formed a partnership with [-] and [-] to share peer support resources during critical incidents, sponsored outside training conducted by O2X related to resilience, wellness, and improving sleep, provided [-] additional wellness training opportunities, purchased [-] comfort dogs, created a [-] as a one stop shop for resources and services, and have increased our peer support membership by over 50%. We will offer numerous wellness topics of instruction to police recruits and lateral transfers and conduct Trauma Behind the Badge training [-]. Under my leadership this template will be duplicated in NPD. 

Having an operationally sound Police Department is paramount to providing quality police services to the citizens of Norfolk. The NPD must be well trained and equipped to respond to and recover from critical incidents. Given the current shortage of staff with over 200 vacancies, adding key technologies such as gun detection, integrated camera systems, LPR, all supported by a Real Time Crime Center will enhance our operational capabilities. As stated earlier, I plan to assess the analytical process as a top priority. Additionally, restructuring key positions and civilianizing positions will allow sworn staff to be placed in an operational capacity.

Under my leadership, creating a learning organization will start at the recruit level upon joining the NPD and continuing through their career. As an example, [-]  the [-] announced a [-] education partnership with [-], in which, officers who have completed a [-] would be awarded [-] credits towards a bachelor's degree at [-] with the possibility of an additional [-] credits for prior credits obtained from another college or university.

In addition to the individual degree option, the partnership has established the opportunity for officers to pursue their bachelor's degree through [-]. The [-] will consist of [-], taking classes online, in-person, or a hybrid of both, to complete their degree requirements [-] is offering the [-] option to pursue a major [-] and will include an internship component based on officer's on-the-job experience.

If selected, I would seek similar partnerships with Norfolk State University, Old Dominion University, and Virginia Wesleyan University. Additionally, I will create a Professional Development Program for officers who wish to develop their skills through law enforcement training and advanced certificates for assignment to specialized positions.

As mentioned earlier the value of understanding the strength in diversity cannot be overstated. Diversity fosters innovation and problem-solving by challenging everyone to see things from other perspectives. Having a diverse Police Department also ensures that we are attracting and retaining top talent.

Fostering public trust begins with a Police Department that is reflective of the community we serve. Norfolk is one of the most diverse communities in Hampton Roads and having representation from all cultures and races will demonstrate police legitimacy within all communities. My plan to recruit, retain, and promote a diverse workforce will be a multi-pronged approach by leveraging city resources for creating targeted outreach focused on diverse communities, using targeted digital marketing, breaking down language barriers, and unintended language biases. I will establish a mentoring program, job shadowing, and leadership training to ensure equitable access to promotions and preferred assignments.

As I have prepared for this process and opportunity, the one theme that has emerged from the rank and file up and down the chain of command, has been the need to develop those seeking leadership positions by building principled centered leadership opportunities. Author Stephen Covey discusses in his book the Four Levels of Principled-Centered Leadership which are Organizational, Managerial, Interpersonal, and Personal. Police work is not getting easier, but rather more complex, and the demands from our citizens for services are increasing. Critical thinking skills are essential at all supervisory levels and the organization is responsible for educating and preparing current and future leaders. In order for the leadership team to be successful and trusted, competent supervisors must be placed in the right positions within the organization. As the Chief, I will ensure our supervisory staff, command staff, and Executive team is provided with and exposed to professional development opportunities through advanced law enforcement training opportunities such as Virginia Association of Police Chiefs - Police Executive Leadership School, FBI National Academy, Senior Management Institute for Police, IACP training courses, and internal development training.

4. Question Four:

 Recruitment, selection, and retention of competent and successful law enforcement officers is critical for a community to thrive and for citizens to feel safe in their City. Further, an inclusive and diverse police department that reflects the community leads to increased trust, cooperation, and transparency. As a candidate for Norfolk Police Chief, what experience would you bring in successful recruitment, selection, and retention of police officers and what ideas would you have to build on that experience to create a successful program in Norfolk since City leaders are very interested in creative initiatives to attract qualified candidates and ensure their longevity in the Department.

Candidate C Answer: 

Another top priority as the newly selected Police Chief, will be to stabilize the workforce by retaining our police officers. Unfortunately, staffing challenges persist throughout the nation however, some departments are having successes in retaining their staff and recruiting new police candidates. These departments have a few things in common and [RETRACTED] has also experienced some wins in our recruiting efforts. Over the pas [RETRACTED] years, city leadership has supported the implementation of a defined step pay plan, signing bonuses for new recruits and sworn later transfers, preferred assignment opportunities, and funding for the Professional Development Program. In addition to the above, I will request support from City Leadership for the following strategies to address retention and recruitment for NPD.

Streamlined application process for out-of-town candidates

Focused on Veteran recruiting with Skill Bridge through the Virginia Department of Veteran Services Referral bouses for our NPD officers

Social Media & Marketing campaigns

Advancing women in policing through the 30X30 Initiative Option 5 DCJS Academy for out of state certified officers

Incentives such as stipends for college degrees and bilingual officers

Data driven patrol shift strategy- four, 10-hour days, no rotating shift/days off for 6 mos.

Partnership with local higher education institutions for college credits upon completion of the police academy and continuing education opportunities

The value of a diverse Police Department cannot be overstated. Traditionally, police departments have struggled with recruiting minority candidates to join our profession. More recently the national environment and sentiment about law enforcement has created hesitancy on behalf of all potential candidates, but more specifically our potential minority candidates. NPD cannot let this discourage us from thinking outside of the traditional recruiting model and find ways to attract and retain officers who reflect the community we serve. The City of Norfolk's demographics are slightly different than [RETRACTED] with African Americans making up approximately 40% of the population, while the police department is comprised of approximately 19% African American police officers. It is my belief that our best recruiters are our own police officers, and we need to capitalize on their ability to influence others to join the department. In order for this to occur, officers and especially minority officers, need to know they are valued and supported by their leadership. As the Chief, I will ensure equitable opportunities for preferred assignments and promotions along with fairness in our internal processes. Additionally, I will seek support from our communities of color, business partners, faith-based organizations, and educational institutions to enhance our recruiting opportunities.