good afternoon everyone and welcome to
our Congressional Briefing Black Lives
Matter Social Work and the future of policing I am Charles II Lewis jr. and I
will be your host and moderator for
today's panel this briefing is being
sponsored in conjunction with the
Congressional Social Work Caucus is
chaired by Congresswoman Barbara Lee
along with the offices of Congresswoman
Karen Bass and Senator Chris Van Hollen
we have a hashtag for today social work
underscore policing so if you're on
Twitter or Instagram you can use that
hashtag we also will have a email
address for those who want to make
comments following this program social
work dot policing at gmail.com before we
get started we have opening greetings
from Senator Van Hollen of the great
state of Maryland followed by a message
from congresswoman Barbara Lee well
thank you very much and I want to first
of all thank you I want to thank Chris
for co-hosting the gathering thanks also
to the Center for Social Development at
the Brown School of Social Work at
Washington University and to the
National Association of Social Workers
I'm honored to join you today and the
panelists and participants I wish I
could be on video but my my technology I
didn't connect me but I'm pleased to
have a chance to say a few words at this
moment of reckoning for our country and
I think we are all united in the wake of
the murders of George Floyd and Brianna
Taylor and so many other black lives
taken before that we've got to take
action for real change on police
accountability also to root out systemic
racism in all our institutions in all
its ugly forms on policing we do need to
pass the Justice in policing Act but I
believe we need to
go beyond that and that's why I
appreciate the opportunity to say a few
words I think we need to make structural
changes in the way we respond to
emergency calls because in way too many
instances we are deploying police to
respond the incidents where it would be
much more appropriate and better for all
to be dispatching social workers and I
want to thank all of the social workers
on the line for all that they do to work
with people too I try to solve real-life problems in a way that benefits the
individuals the families and the whole
community that's why I am teaming up
with the congresswoman Karen bass we
will be introducing legislation all the
community-based emergency emergency
response acts and the idea is to create
an alternative response in cases where
we're dealing with disturbances caused
by homelessness or mental health issues
or all of the thousands of other
situations where there's not in crime
involved where it's not a violent
situation and where it doesn't require a
police response because too often when
we have police respond to these kinds of
situations we've witnessed an
unnecessary escalation and that
escalation has led to abuse and as we've
said tragically death and so our
proposal which we plan to introduce very
soon would essentially set up a federal
grant program for local jurisdictions
that establish this alternative response
so that when somebody calls 911 the
operator is trained to very quickly
determine whether it's a violent
situation where a police response would
be necessary a police response I should
say governed by the justice and policing
act accountability provisions that's why
that is so important but we want
create an alternative system that can be
used for the other hundreds of incidents
that don't endanger anybody's risk
except for do have the risk of
escalation that police respond and so we
would establish a robust federal grant
program that would go to communities on
a competitive basis that's put forward
the kind of proposals that we're talking
about for an alternative emergency
response deploy social workers and
others who are trained to deal with so
many of these other situations so we
don't have unnecessary escalation
mistreatment and even death as we've
seen so I want to thank you for the
opportunity to say a few words we look
forward to working with all of you as we
also as we put accountability in place
for police response that we also change
the system and we also of course need to
work and many other realms putting
health care and education and housing we
think this is an important step in the
area of systemic change to how how we
deploy our resources in communities hi
I'm congressman verbally and I represent
California's beautiful 13th
congressional district yes
the most enlightened district in the
nation I want to welcome you all to
today's virtual briefing entitled black
lives matter Social Work and the future
of policing today's briefing is
sponsored by the Center for Social
Development at the brown school at
Washington University in st. Louis the
National Association of Social Workers
and the Congressional Research Institute
for Social Work and policy our country
is in the midst of grappling with
systemic police violence and the murder
of countless black and brown men and
women by police and also how we move
forward as a country
a part of the answer should be using the
tools already at our disposal and that
includes thinking about how social
workers who are trained in social
problem solving can be more effective in
nonviolent situations most Americans now
understand that the United States should
stop under your announced on Ewings v
police it is time for major change is
Social Work values and skills are far
more appropriate and effective in these
situations than the use of force social
workers are guided by community decision
making to encourage culturally
appropriate community-based solutions on
issues ranging from homelessness and
mental health issues to non violent
disturbances nonviolent crimes and
management of crowds the police in
crisis facing our country has caused
untold trauma among generations of young
black and brown children although legal
separation may have ended years ago
systemic racism permeates every facet of
our society it's in everything
police murders health disparities
unequal education poor housing income
inequality lack of clean water and black
communities the wage gap the wealth gap
why forty percent of black businesses
have permanently gone on a business
compared to approximately 19 percent of
white businesses during this terrible
pandemic from slavery through the Black
Codes
lynching segregation mass incarceration
and many more despicable historical
moments in this country's history
enough is enough
systemic racism is prevalent in every
aspect of this country and as members of
Congress we must add a racial lens to
all of our decisions we make public
policy decisions that could deepen
systemic racism or begin to break the
chains that still exists in every black
person's
so I thank you all for being here today
to take part in these important
discussions to find ways to hopefully
finally in the generations of trauma
which our black communities are facing
thank you all again and stay healthy
Thank You senator Holland Van Hollen and
thank you congresswoman barbara Lee so
today you're gonna hear from four very
skilled and knowledgeable social workers
who are working or researching and area
of community community policing but
before I introduce them I would like to
highlight one critical issue as we begin
a discussion we're here because a mod
our Barry Brianna Taylor George Floyd
Rashad Brooks and many others have died
at the hands of police officers and so
we want to look at how we can find an
alternative to engaging police officers
in certain situations according to the
treatment Advocacy Center about a third
of the eight point three million
Americans with severe mental illness
have their first contact with mental
health treatment through an encounter
with law enforcement one in four
individuals killed by police have a
severe mental illness bipolar
schizophrenia major depression the risk
of being killed during a police incident
is 16 times greater for people with
severe mental illness than for other
civilians social workers are by far the
largest provider of mental health
services in the United States these
facts alone make the case for greatly
expanding roles for social workers and
addressing non-violent community
disturbances so we're going to begin by
hearing from Dr. George Patterson an
associate associate professor at the
Silverman School of Social Work at
Hunter College in New York
Dr. Patterson is a police social worker
and has written extensively about social
work and policing following dr. panel
Patterson will be Dr. Carrie Pettis
Davis associate professor and founding
director of the Institute for justice
and development at Florida State
University's School of Social Work
Dr. Pettis Davis is also a cold lead for
the smart D concentration network of the
twelve Grand Challenges for Social Work
he will be followed by Derek Derek
Jackson a social worker and director of
the Office of Community Engagement for
the Washtenaw County Michigan Sheriff's
Department last but certainly not least
will be dr. Desmond Patton an associate
professor and associate dean for
academic affairs at Columbia
University's School of Social Work dr.
Patton is a founder founding director of
safe lab and focuses on social media
so we'll begin dr. Patterson
thank you very much dr. Lewis for that
kind introduction good afternoon
everyone I want to thank Senator Van
Hollen congresswoman bass congresswoman
Lee as well as CSD NSW and Chris for the
opportunity to provide remarks on black
lives matter social work in the future
of policing as a police social worker I
always welcome the opportunity to raise
the profile of professional police
Social Work practice this afternoon I
will limit my remarks to describe police
social work first I will briefly
describe the origins of police social
work and social work employment and
police departments next I will discuss
my own Police Social Work practice
experience and current research and
finally conclude with several
recommendations for future directions
recent commentary has suggested that the
police are increasingly being called
upon to respond to social problems from
the time that American police
departments were first established the
majority of police work has always
comprised responding to social problems
in fact some estimates suggest that as
much as 80% of police work involves
social problems and only 20% involves
crime in an effort to address this fact
more than 100 years ago in 1919 August
Vollmer a well-known policing reformer
delivered a speech to the International
Association of Chiefs of Police the
title of the speech was the policeman as
a social worker in the speech Vollmer
urged police officers to collaborate
with social service and community-based
agencies to perform social service
scholars who have studied the speech
suggest that it is as controversial
today as it was 100 years ago
to put the speech in perspective World
War one had just ended one year earlier
in 1918 World War two did not begin
until 1939 20 years after Vollmer speech
there are a few very interesting points
that were made in the speech first
Vollmer recognized that police officers
had little interest or time to perform
social service second vulner introduced
the concepts of social police work and
police social work when referring to
officers performing social service my
assessment of the speech is that Vollmer
was urging officers to utilize social
work knowledge and skills to perform
social service he was not advocating the
police department's higher social
workers little did he know that within
thirty three years after his speech we
would see the first published
description of a civilian social worker
employed in a police department also
little did he know that his concept of
police social work would evolve into a
specialized field of professional social
work practice used to refer to social
workers who are employed in police
departments and I am certainly sure that
he had no idea that the FBI would hire
more than 100 clinical social workers
some of the well-known social problems
in which police social workers respond
to include mental health crises domestic
or interpersonal violence and child
abuse and neglect in my own Police
Social Work practice experience
additional social problems included
homelessness alcohol and substance use
and abuse homicide suicide sexual
assault teen runaways missing persons
bank and store robberies landlord tenant
disputes victims of crime welfare checks
and health care needs as well as elder
abuse only to mention a few
this is not an exhaustive list
few further remarks about my own
experience is that as a police social
worker and certified mediator and
arbitrator I would arrive at the scene
of a dispute for neighbors within
moments of a 911 call in an unmarked
police vehicle some neighbors would
resolve their dispute during the single
intervention others required follow-up
intervention and still others required a
referral to a dispute settlement Center
for intervention is this brief example
shows there is no single outcome for
intervention a few remarks about my
current research it took me quite a
while to locate an actual copy of Omir
speech that was made 100 years ago last
year to commemorate the 100 years since
the speech was given I obtained a copy
of the speech and served as guest editor
for a policing journal to publish
research papers for a special issue on
the topic of police social work and
social service collaboration together
with my colleague our research paper
contribution consisted of a systematic
review titled police social work and
social service collaboration 100 years
after ... we found documented police
social work collaborations in 18
countries referral collaboration and
counseling were the most commonly
performed tests the most frequently
addressed social problems were domestic
violence or interpersonal violence
mental health crises and crime crisis
intervention team programs or CIT that
are developed to address mental health
crises were the most commonly name-brand
collaborations that we found based on
our research several recommendations
specific to police social work practice
are offered first more funding is needed
for police social workers and behavioral
health care providers that respond to
911 emergencies I was so excited to hear
senator Van Hollen mention that he and
his colleagues are working
on legislation to address this very need
second anita exists to develop models
for intervention that address the wide
range of social problems that come to
the attention of 911 and finally
research and evaluation are needed to
assess whether these models are affected
several schools of social work have
already begun innovative policing
initiatives such as the University of
Pittsburgh School of Social Work the
School of Health and Human Services at
Saint Cloud University in Minnesota the
Center for Social Development at
Washington University in st. Louis
Missouri and USC only to mention a few
in conclusion Senator and
Representatives thank you again for this
opportunity to provide remarks this
afternoon it has been a real pleasure to
inform you about the practice of
professional police social work social
work knowledge of skills are once again
at the forefront of reimagining and
rethinking American policing more than
100 years after the words police social
work were first spoken one difference is
that this time now we have social
workers with applied knowledge and
skills acquired from employment and
paramilitary police departments and
police academies dr. Lewis thank you
before we hear from Dr. Pettis neighbors
out there I was in my haste to get to
this wonderful panel I'm in they have an
elected to do a few things so you can
type your questions in in the chat box
we will be taking questions from the
audience at the end of their
presentations also this briefing is
being recorded and will be available on
the sponsors websites following this
following the briefing there are no
continuing education credits available
for today's briefing and finally the
views of our panelists are solely their
own and do not reflect necessarily the
views of the sponsoring organizations
or congressional offices so please type
your questions in and we will get to
them as many of them as we can
following these presentations dr.
Prentiss Davis thank you dr. Lewis I'm
thrilled to be here today and a part of
this very prestigious panel so thank you
for the invitation and to everybody who
made this possible and so I went to
today focus on four concrete policy
recommendations that I think should be
given consideration because based on my
research experience in the field I
believe if we adopted these policy
approaches that would help to ameliorate
violence and to improve racial equity in
our communities so a lot of my work in
our work at the Institute for justice
research and development has focused on
trauma treatment and for citizens or
individuals involved in the justice
system but for my first policy
recommendation I want to suggest that
social workers help to treat trauma
among law enforcement officers one of
the things you know is that law
enforcement officers are exposed to and
experience a significant amount of
trauma while they are doing their job
the problem with this and in addition to
just being exposed to lots of violence
is the untreated trauma symptoms lead to
impulsivity action and miss appraisals
of threats of violence so if you combine
those factors with structural racism
that occurs throughout our communities
you can quickly see situations turning
from an opportunity to DFDS polarization
and to violence instead so I think that
whenever important next steps is to make
sure that our officers are getting
trauma treatment and mental health
treatment they're needed
the second policy approach that I would
suggest is that federal funding that is
passed down to local jurisdictions for
law enforcement should require uniform
training and accreditation standards and
licensing licensing standards for law
enforcement and these trainings that I
want to suggest and also are areas that
Social Work has expertise in and I
believe could help so because law
enforcement officers are typically the
first responders to a range of
situations they need to have knowledge
that many of us social workers also have
they need training in human behavior
understanding humans and how they
interact in certain contexts and
environments in mental health and
substance abuse part of a tradition that
has been strong collaborations with
Social Work and police in the past any
trauma understanding how trauma impacts
individuals how institution
institutionalized racism impacts the
likelihood to come into contact with a
law enforcement office officer and in
what may happen after that contact
occurs they need training and racial and
economic disparities helping skills when
they do interact with individuals in the
community that need help learning how to
engage in empathic listening and really
complicated situations and also in
compassion fatigue and burnout and how
their own experience of seeing the same
very complicated situations day in and
day out can reduce their ability to feel
compassion for individuals and influence
their decision making these are just a
few of the core areas that I believe
federal policy passed through funding
should be tied to and in terms of
standardized training and with law
enforcement officers finally similar to
what senator Van Hollen and raised is or
not finally sorry this is my third of my
fourth recommendation is that we need to
invest in alternative and first
responders like social workers we need a
straw
robust public health system that can
respond to social problems that can
respond to crises and that can respond
to issues that do not directly impact
public safety in that moment and now
finally my fourth policy recommendation
is that we must invest in a research
base in police interventions and police
social work collaboration and
interventions we because this is a
life-and-death situation as we
unfortunately continue to experience we
cannot continue to make policy decisions
based on anecdotal anecdotal evidence or
best guesses and the only way we're
going to have robust research is if
there's substantially more an investment
into that research and that research
should explore things like the impact of
training officers on implicit bias or
racism or trauma and how it how their
changes in decision-making and behavior
may occur it should research stick
around receipt of trauma treatment and
mental health treatment but for
themselves and for citizens it should
research the ability of implicit bias
trainings on reducing disparities in our
interactions law enforcement
interactions with citizens and it should
research ways in which law enforcement
and Social Work collaborations could
actually improved community well-being
particularly racial equity thank you
you
oh there you go so thank you mr. Lewis
thank you everyone for giving me the
opportunity I just got to say that I'm
gonna try and use every second of my
eight minutes if I can not because I
feel like I know everything about this
issue but honestly I feel like over the
last 12 years I've been fortunate enough
to sit at this intersection of Social
Work and criminal justice it's almost
like in this time I feel like I have
this amazing secret but I can't yell
loud enough for anyone to really hear me
fully so this is a great opportunity but
also in this time you hear nothing else
that I say I'd really want to encourage
folks to know that this connection of
Social Work and law enforcement it can
work I've literally watched it work over
the last 12 years it's not perfect it's
not easy it's not a magic solution but
it can work and quite honestly it has to
work so for me I'm a social worker who
became a police officer then now helps
to run a police agency as mr. Lewis said
and I'm the director of community
engagement at the Washington County
Sheriff's Office here in Michigan I know
a lot of times people look and say you
know how is that possible to go from
social workers and law enforcement but
thanks to Mr. Patterson I'm not by
myself and folks like him I'll just say
this that the professions although we
think of them on opposite ends of the
spectrum I really get to spend a lot of
my time working where they overlap and
those intersections and I often share
stories around how as a social worker I
really focused on working with the most
vulnerable populations in our community
and what I learned once I started
working at the sheriff's office is that
those are the same individuals that our
law enforcement officers are dealing
with every single day so when I was a
young social worker working at a
homeless shelter for teens what I
quickly realized is it wasn't uncommon
for an officer to find a runaway or pick
up a homeless youth and bring them to
our front door of our shelter or if you
even think about how often or how many
times a week our deputies are responding
to a domestic violence call it is not
uncommon for an officer to be the first
connection of someone who's been abused
and battered but that's
by were to be connected to services or
even here in Michigan and a winner when
you know the homeless man is on the side
of the street without a place to go it
isn't uncommon for an officer or deputy
to be that first connection to the
warming shelter and so I guess I would
just say that even if you look at our
jails all across this country others on
the panel have already said this but our
jails are full of those suffering from
mental health issues substance use
disorder are homeless or simply our poor
can't afford to get out of jail so
regardless of what we think of policing
or of the criminal justice system as
social workers I'll just say there are
social work values and our core code of
ethics it really implores us to engage
with the criminal justice system and a
significant way
so I know that during these times of
debate and protests around police
brutality when it seems that there is a
daily reminder of police violence it can
sometimes seem hopeless or helpless and
I know there is pressure to take
immediate action and my role trust me
run enough helping to run the police
agency I feel that pressure every single
day in this interesting position in the
middle of community and policing so I
hear it on both sides but I want to
encourage us to do is to be thoughtful
we didn't get here yesterday and we're
not going to get out of this tomorrow
so these shallow promises or rash
decisions for a quick change without
real understanding of structures and
systems and how we get here but honestly
I think will only prove to fail but at
best won't really allow us to get to the
real change I think that we all desire
so one of the analogies that I use as
you know if you think about any large
structure or skyscraper for any building
that you want to tear down you need just
as many architects to demolish it as you
did to build it in the first place right
you can't just run in throw a bunch of
dynamite all over the place and then hit
detonate you really got to understand
the structure and the architecture the
strengths the weaknesses the
vulnerabilities you need to create those
alternative structures to move things
into before you ever set that first to
go dynamite so to me it doesn't really
matter if people are coming to this
discussion around the funding or
deconstruction or abolishing or subtle
reforms what matters for any of those
past
to be successful is first understanding
the current system and if you understand
that system what you will know is that
simply embedding social workers isn't
just about a program or having a social
workers respond to a mental health call
a place of an officer that's a part of
it it's a big part of it but it's much
more complex than that social work is a
philosophy is the way we think about the
world and the work that you do is the
way we think about the people that you
serve and I know and I've heard this
people have asked me this question
around the worry of social workers being
co-opted by law enforcement about
working too close and that's a
legitimate concern but one that I think
can be navigating with your appropriate
structures if you put them in place so
if social workers have just as much to
learn about functioning in engaging with
and changing the criminal justice system
in the inside how as officers do and
learn about social work values so we
don't want our new social workers to
carry Tasers in fact my sheriff took my
taser away as soon as I became a police
officer we don't want police officers to
be social workers but I think we do want
to take a small bit of social work
philosophy in the way we operate and
infuse it into the criminal justice
system and to policing so we want to ask
the right questions think about solving
problems not just about making arrests
understand the communities that they
work in and if nothing else Social Work
education teaches us to understand
ourselves and our own personal bias so
it's important to have advocates
marching in the streets but if as social
workers we only push from the outside
those who want the system to remain as
it is well simply build stronger walls
so however if some of us get on the
inside start to make change from within
we can open that door and invite our
friends in to help us make that change
and so that's really what I want to
implore folks to do and to think about
is how social workers can be willing to
get involved so in my role as an
administrator it's more than just
running a few feel-good programs right
it's about designing systems creating
structures providing tools and changing
the very nature of law enforcement so he
guests at our agency we have revamped
our training as others have listed out
we now spend just as much time
training on things by implicit bias and
procedural justice and managing mental
health crisis and on and on and on as we
do around the force continuous so we're
giving our officers the tools to do the
work that we really want them to do
change the type of competencies we're
looking for when we go to hire an
officer yes we have internal systems of
quality control and quality assurance so
that we catch them before they ever
become these big red flags and yes we've
changed numerous policies I spend too
much time looking at her policies but we
are also changing the basic assumptions
that drive our officer so it's these
assumptions that fuel our values and
those values that influence our beliefs
and if those beliefs that drive the
individual behavior of the officers on
the street and I think this is where
social work can thrive and the level of
34:32
depth and understanding that we need to
34:34
have when we're talking about that
34:35
intersection of Social Work and criminal
justice or social work in particular in
law enforcement so again I want to
stress that yes we do a lot of programs
I would talk about our programs all day
long but I think it's also I'm even
deeper than just the programs it's the
fundamental shift of the meaning of what
law enforcement is an extension to
community so yeah we've created a lot of
those programs right we have a 24/7
crisis line so community can call but
also officers can call so when an
officer now and they've been trained in
mental health it's kind of triage but
when they respond to a scene if it turns
out there's a mental health call we have
community mental health workers that are
on-call 24/7 365 our officers tell
dispatch to dispatch a social worker and
a social worker takes over and for
someone might think well you know our
law enforcement really interested that
I'll just tell you if you're responding
to a mental health call over and over
and over and you're not trained in it
and you can hand that off to an expert
as an officer you will definitely take
advantage of that our community not too
long ago that's the public safety and
mental health millage here in Washington
County about two years ago so it's the
only one in Michigan like it and I say
that because our community values that
intersection with criminal justice and
social work and basically put their
money where their mouth is right and so
not just talking about it but allowing
us to have the resources to actually
braid these systems together and create
these structures to change the very
nature of our local criminal justice
system and I think that's what social
work lands and value can really bring to
this overall conversation around
policing
one of the question I really wanted to
hit on is kind of what did I need when I
first embarked on this journey I never
wanted to be a police officer growing up
I grew up in a community where we didn't
get along with officers the neighborhood
that I live in now there was a man back
in 2006 that was killed at the hands of
the same agency that I worked for and I
was one of the individuals marching in
the streets but my father said to me
when this opportunity arose that you
often talk about changing law
enforcement your margin of Street about
changing law enforcement how about you
get in there and you actually do
something about it
so I really want to implore folks to
think about that and one of the things
that I really wish did I had I just
didn't have the opportunity years ago
when I was in school was really to learn
more about the criminal justice system
mr. Patterson spoke about those
universities that are doing some of that
great work I think that is just so
important and so before we ever think
about embedding a social worker or
partner in a social work with a law
enforcement agency I think it's really
important to make sure our social work
peers have the competency to do that
work a lot of my interns if they come
through I can watch some are really good
with working within systems and some are
not and sometimes within our schools
we're actually teaching folks to break
down the systems tear down the system
but we're teaching them in a way to do
it outside versus inside and those are a
difference so it's not meant for
everybody but for some there is a role
to play and then the last piece I'll
just mention of what I think I learned
in social work was early on in school I
learned that criminal justice and social
work or sometimes saying as the opposite
ends of the spectrum so many of us kind
of come into the field thinking that and
when I was back at this homeless shelter
for teenagers I remember so many times
we made an effort to keep the officers
away from the young people in the
shelter and understand why right we
gotta have these clear boundaries to
separate of the two but now that I think
back on it I wish I could redo it
because even though I was thinking I was
protecting the young people at that
shelter from officers now when I think
back when I went home to go to sleep at
night guess who was out on the streets
those young people and
officers and I feel like I wasn't really
preparing those young people not only to
know how to navigate but the officers
but just as importantly helping our
officers in our local community
understand the community and the young
people that they were working with
so I know for many of us the social work
we think about our helping is building
these walls sometimes to keep police
away from communities that we care for
but instead as social workers what I
would argue is how about we actually
become that bridge that helps bring the
community in law enforcement together
things definitely need to change and I
would just say if not us and social work
to bring folks together and really help
the systems to change from the inside
out and I don't know who else could do
it thank you dr. Patterson I'm sorry dr.
Patton doctor thank you so much dr.
Lewis and for everyone who is
responsible for bringing us all together
proactive policing strategies and
multiple forms of police misconduct and
violence have disproportionately
affected people of color one relatively
new strategy is social media monitoring
police are increasingly monitoring
social media to build evidence through
criminal indictments justification of
this behavior is rooted in historical
narratives and a belief structure often
perpetuated in the criminal justice
system that reads black people as
symbolic assailants many researchers
warn that these covert and routine
strategies have widespread cumulative
effects on both individuals and the
collective consciousness of black
communities given what we know it is
important to note that the use of social
media to predict criminal activity is
dangerous
whoo-hah Benjamin calls modern police
surveillance the new gym code because
there are biases within the algorithms
of these technologies one must ask our
police culturally equipped to understand
the nuance linguistic styles
communicated on social media
sociology suggests that many youth and
young adults who live in neighborhoods
with high rates of violence may project
the tough image or follow a code of the
street in their community to stay safe
and protected could the same be true
online the
individual who talks about drugs and
violence on social media actually
engaged in these activities and then we
must ask should social media be used at
all within the criminal justice system
police agencies use social media for a
variety of reasons data from the
International Association of Chiefs of
Police suggests that 96 percent of
police agencies use social media in some
capacity the most common use of social
media is for criminal investigations
police officers find evidence or
additional information about a missing
or wanted person getting participation
or web based crimes such as cyber
stalking or cyberbullying the police may
perform a manual search on a social
media platform or request specific
information from social media platforms
in some instances the police may also
install software on targeted individual
computers and perform analysis on social
media data that have been captured
social media is also used for community
outreach and information sharing online
policing practices are formed for a
multiplicity of technologies available
to various agencies these technologies
provide a wide spectrum of access to
social media content with differing
relation between the police social media
users and those who manage the platforms
ones visibility on social media and
communication of everyday experiences
practices and activities provides the
perfect platform for covert criminal
surveillance by the police to that end
social media monitoring reduces
transparency and increases the power and
balance in police work
Daniel Trottier refers to these
strategies as social media policing and
that these new tactics represent a new
paradigm for profiling and preemptive
policing the idea is that social media
is viewed as a utility for crime
reduction investigatory purposes and
production of evidence all users that
are well outside the intended purview of
why social media was created importantly
while room for these uses are regularly
included in terms of service agreements
investigations where law enforcement
officials on social media violates users
reported privacy expectations
social media police requires that social
media users monitor their own output and
that of their network as close network
connections a relationships may become
liabilities if output is deemed
problematic by law enforcement the
reality is the arrangement benefits the
police the very platforms that amplify
user visibility allow police to act
invisibly eradicating any notions of
mutual transparency the issue lies in
the ways in which we encode social media
communication the encoding of social
media communication happens when a post
is written and the interpretations of
said post are to be understood by the
members of the intended audience so
let's talk briefly about a few examples
of when social media is used incorrectly
the case of Dylan roof underscores how
the power of prejudice affects who has
surveilled a lot in June 2015 roof a
young white man walked into the Emanuel
AME Church in Charleston South Carolina
a historically black church and shot
nine people to death until this act Ruth
had not been on law enforcement's radar
in spite of a public social media
presence including a manifesto of racial
hatred and murderous intent Ruth is an
example of a domestic terrorist whose
public performance of self on social
media was conveniently neutralized by
his race in addition social media has
become a prime source for government
surveillance recently the FBI leveraged
data from an Etsy review a LinkedIn
44:32
profile Instagram videos and a few
44:35
Google searches to identify a masked
44:37
woman accused of setting two police cars
on fire during recent protests in
Philadelphia the most recent incident
underscores the misuse of social media
and other publicly available online
records to identify protesters during
44:50
the black lives matter movement and just
44:53
last week
44:54
faulty facial recognition systems
leveraged by the lead the Detroit police
led to the wrongful arrest of Robert
Julianne bourchek Williams for a crime
he did not commit
I think there's hope if we can develop
45:09
ethical and humane ways of leveraging
45:11
social media for social good this is
45:14
where I think social workers are most
45:15
needed in the unbundling of social media
from police work first social workers
should consider and be aware of social
media as a digital environment a digital
representation of human behavior in the
social environment understanding the
world as understand in the virtual world
as the world may identify new
understandings of the contextual
effectors that may inform how we
understand crime second social work
training must incorporate how to
leverage social media for social good
and our code of ethics should guide us
when not to use social media this
includes how to talk to clients and
communities about social media use and
identifying best practices for
leveraging social media as data for
intervention new social work thinking
can encourage culturally nuanced
inappropriate ways of using social media
that can focus on identifying community
strengths or signals that indicate harm
our trauma that can be leveraged to
prevent crime third social records can
help to determine when social media is
appropriate to use when acting as
translators and blind spotters social
workers can support identifying and
bringing the appropriate domain
expertise to the use of social media in
the criminal justice system there's new
social workers help to create
opportunities paid opportunities where
community members give voice to how
social media policing impacts our
community identifying opportunities and
challenges and lastly a core principle
is for social workers to help people in
need and address social problems in the
case of my labs research on gun violence
in mass incarceration these two social
problems share roots and inequality
racism and poverty however we had to
pause and rethink how we use social
media towards preventing gun violence by
listening to youth we learned that an
approach that leverages social media
must anticipate how these social
problems intersect and the impact the
use of social media may have on
preventing or extending these problems
47:09
another core value of social workers
47:12
understand the importance of human
47:14
relationships before I asked if social
media is the right tool for policing
unless
engage in extensive and critical
conversations with communities and gun
violence we're good by us is an issue
and work with them to better understand
how the problem is defined by the
community this is the social work
difference thank you
thank you so all all of our presenters
have had a very interesting experience
in this field and I'm gonna start with
47:45
your duck doctor Patton because you know
47:48
one of the reasons I wanted you to be on
47:50
this panel is because social media is
not usually thought about in terms of
their how we engage communities and
policing what what are what are the
implications like we have we have social
workers watching but we also have
legislative staffers and you know what
are some of the implications your work
or this information may have in terms of
federal legislation those policing is
generally a local issue but are there
any things that are the federal
government might do that would mitigate
some of the returns you have yes we need
to work on developing technology
policies that are ethical and that her
humane and that allow for some
guardrails with the use of social media
in the criminal justice system listen
what I'm most concerned about is the
extent to which misinterpretation of
social media communication can lead to a
new form of mass incarceration if we do
not consider that our context that we
may not have the correct lens the
correct frame for interpreting social
media communication the response could
be detrimental in particular for the
black and brown community as we see most
of the surveillance that's happening is
centered along black lives matter
movements and communities that are
composed of black and brown individuals
before we move on I'd like to give our
other panelists an opportunity to
respond to that to what
dr. Patterson has presented anybody so
you know I really appreciate bringing
that up because I'll just tell you from
an everyday law enforcement perspective
social media is one of the go-to tools
now right and so if you're talking about
really changing the trajectory of
policing you look at some of the tools
that are some of the emerging tools that
are being used and so I won't say much
more than that we can get some of the
other questions but I do think it is a
very relevant piece that oftentimes we
just aren't very much aware of just
because of the nature of modern-day
policing and how policing is being done
these days I think also and dr. Lewis if
you don't mind if I chime in to what dr.
patent without is what we see in the
policing of other types of behavior
where people of color differently police
then then white individuals so
statistically you know depending on the
different crime categories and there's
no differences in criminal behavior and
but there are differences in arrests
that are you know biased towards people
of color and I think what dr. Patton's
researchers showing as he's finding that
exact same pattern playing out in social
media and I think that's really
important parallel with draw twos like
this isn't a new pattern it's a new
platform for the same pattern to be
Yes it's definitely
something that we need to think about
when we're considering this whole notion
of improve
51:19
how our communities are dealt with in
terms of response to their to the needs
dr. Patterson Oh is there special
training that police social workers need
in order to do this work thank you dr.
51:38
Lewis for that question yeah that's a
very good question
unfortunately in schools of Social Work
there's no specific police social
training that is offered and also
unfortunately as mr. Jackson was
mentioning not a lot of police
departments actually hire police social
workers so one of the things that we
need to think about going forward is
this rich 100-year history that we
already have is to think about not only
models of intervention for 9-1-1 calls
but also models of training okay there
are a number of ways social workers can
work in tandem with the with the police
in order to have safe and protected
communities are there any that you have
a particular and I of course not sheriff
Jackson you have that you have that life
experience but any other models that you
may have seen that that that that you
think are effective any one of the
panelists so I'll just jump in and say
again the way that I look at it is
social work is an all of the above right
philosophy is the thought is the
administrative level is the cultural
shift we often forget about we're
talking about policing the impact that
it has on jails as well local community
so it's about reentry recidivism
so from settle small questions in our
Jail we never asked questions around if
you see someone who comes into your Jail
11 times what's the real reason behind
why they came if they're in the local
Joe eleven times if they were violent
they being go on with the prison already
right there in the book with jail for
seized small crimes and I think a couple
of other folks have pointed this out
maybe because of mental health issues or
something's use disorder or homelessness
and so yes the social worker being at
the table to ask that question change
how we think about the way and make sure
in the services that we provide in our
jail so the same thing around policing
just be in there to ask the question of
ok this crime keeps happening people era
over area over and over and over what's
the problem behind it not just the crime
I'll give you an example we had a lot of
business owners in one of our downtown
areas we're really upset around of this
prostitution corridor and so folks would
set up stains and they just arrest folks
over and over and over but I'm out what
we started asking was wait a minute why
are merely women why are these women
prostituting in this area and every
single one of them mr. Lewis that we
asked over a two-year period was because
of addiction so as a social worker we're
not worried about just making it rest we
wanted to find out what's the root cause
of the problem so now we started to
develop systems in place to help the
women deal with addiction not just lock
them up and clip eugen and so it may
seem like a small question but it's a
fundamental shift of law enforcement to
asked a different question around the
problem versus address and then they
start thinking differently about the
people that they're working with it's
not just about crime
it's about humanizing and understanding
individuals so I'd go on and on about it
but I think just having a social workers
voice at the table to be able to ask
those questions and I really do have to
stress this law enforcement is a
hierarchical kind of an organization and
I think for my sheriff sheriff clean to
put me high up in the organization as a
director I don't want a short sale that
because what he said to me was if I put
you at the same level say as a deputy
they could just ignore you right or you
would do a few things or you become the
special project on the side but really
to put some power and authority behind
the work we're talking about those core
values not just as a small unit on the
side can I comment on
dr. Seuss I think what dr. Jackson's
talking about too is really highlighting
this notion that even if we come up with
alternative first responders to law
enforcement and there's always going to
be some difficulty and disentangling
public health and public safety issues
where though intersect on the same theme
and so law enforcement ultimately does
need an awareness of helping principals
and Social Work principals and vice
versa and dr. Patterson I believe that
you've written about they were proposals
around social work and police across
education far back is 1920 right and
where they were talking about the
importance for please understand
institutional racism human behavior
mental health all the things that we've
got earlier as social workers they're
seen in the role of law enforcement and
the administration of law and or justice
and so I think there is you know I've
seen universities propose dual degrees
and social work and policing and which
might be a really nice level to look
into as well so there's this one model
that has been adopted by Albuquerque New
Mexico and I believe Newark is also
doing they're setting it they're gonna
take 10% of the police budget and create
a entity in the community that will
respond to non enforcement issues so set
up in a sense that entity becomes the
first we become first responders what is
what can social workers do as first
responders that the police should be
doing and what I make a comment on to
two parts of it um I think part of it is
that's a underestimate also changing the
community's behavior I think I
referenced that because people naturally
call 9-1-1 for a lot of things that they
don't have to right now so creating
those our system but also helping as a
community
about what wait why am i calling a good
one for someone with a mental health
crisis when I do have a 24/7 crisis line
I didn't get a social worker to come out
it already exists so KJ some of that
behavior I think is important I just
wanted to touch on peace now it's the of
course in as well is that so in our
community again defunding or changing
the funding structure is not something
we were scary for us referenced the
millage so we weren't trying to have
this race to the bottom where it's a
singular decision we got to take from
police and give to Human Services we
actually were trying to build both
systems at the same time right so to be
able to really educate him provide
resources yes on the law enforcement
side to work it at the most sections
overlap but also to really build out our
community mental health structures and
so having the reason that I think are
definitely needed so when you're again
are trying to deconstruct something you
have to have structures if we just say
law enforcement is no longer respond to
A B C and D we best have a really good
alternative right we really need a
really good alternative
so yes policing may not be the best
answer but if we don't have an
alternative and a really good answer I
think we do wind up having other kind of
issues that really pop up so I agree
with you mr. Louison your question is
you know there are some models out there
funding but I think what they're really
trying to get to it is it is the tool I
say that is bad it is how the tool has
been used which is bad right so if we
really start to separate out where we
need to separate out get people to the
right places where they need to go to
but in those overlapping pieces make
sure officers have the right tools and
resources to me I think that's the
proper step today we to do it both hand
versus
one of the other I was just gonna use
the example of crisis stabilization
units which is one of the areas that we
research in which is where law
enforcement and has the option to take a
person who's in psychiatric crisis to an
acute mental health treatment facility
often times it's only 72 hours so so
okay answer Part A of your question
and so alternative responders social
workers specifically Kimber can provide
treatment for mental health and
substance use disorders that may be
increasing the likelihood of coming into
contact with law enforcement and that
also to to Derek's point is people also
need to those alternatives need to be
high-quality and actually effective so
72 hours isn't necessarily going to
stabilize anybody for longer than 72
hours so we have to invest the resources
and those being effective high quality
alternative and in my early research of
law enforcement is some of the things
that they're saying is we have this
crisis stabilization unit but nobody
gets any better than when we take in
there so why would I invest the
resources in time to take these
individuals there and when they don't
from their perceptions don't do any
better than I do
if they take them to jail
so I would ask that the party I was
about to come to you dr. Patton to say
if that if we do have that entity in the
community that's gonna I say we place
the police but at least you know
supplement we say a role for technology
social media in that well first I just
want to take a step back and go back to
the question that's been being discussed
and I think we need to consider the
framings
and the paradigms that go into this
decision-making in the first place what
I'm concerned about in with what we're
Not really talking about is kind of the
unlearning of white supremacy that also
needs to happen in each hand them with
the tools that are developed the
alternative strategies that need to be
in place as well and so I think as we
are considering all these great ideas
pets at the forefront and at the core of
these conversations need to be
unlearning white supremacy because
that's going to inform how you treat the
community how you determine which
behavior gets which treatment but if
there are role for technology I think
that that's a quest
that should that should that should be
decided in an interdisciplinary space
right I don't think there's one entity
that should decide when and how social
media is used nothing the problem has
62:26
been there have been a lot of decision
makers that are using social media in
inappropriate ways and even in my own
lab we have struggled with how do we
tell the most robust stories the most
ethical stories using social media and
we have had to do our own unlearning and
white supremacist framing in that
process and so I think that you know
what I would like to see is a
culmination and a coalition of police
officers and community members and
social workers who were thinking
together and censoring and privilege in
the voices of those community members to
make those decisions because I'm not
sure that I should be using social media
but I would love to hear from community
members about the integration of these
tools in their community can we're about
to wind down our briefing but someone
give each of you an opportunity to have
a last word so to speak and I want you
to what since we are this is a
congressional briefing you know what
what issues do legislators need to focus
ero in and on as they think about
expanding social workers involvement in
this space
yeah thanks dr. Lewis so I'll get it
started I think as I said before the
Social Work profession has a rich
100-year history of involvement in law
enforcement so I think that we have a
lot of knowledge and skills as Vollmer
first mentioned 100 years ago to bring
through to reforming police departments
and rethinking and reimagining policing
there are also social workers such as
myself that train police officers and
actually go into the Academy and train
recruits we also train
veteran police officers so there also
needs to be like a train-the-trainer
training social workers to train police
officers and recruits sometimes it's not
an easy task but it is very rewarding
and it's very much needed and just to
finish up and conclude it's like I said
before what's different this time
a hundred years later is that now we
have social workers with this
paramilitary police experience in both
64:55
the police academy and police
departments and then also to give a
shout-out to the FBI
there's also social workers in the FBI
what I hear is a common thread is the
need for the federal government to
redefine who gets to be an expert in
this space and what you know this very
prestigious panel has illuminated is
that social workers have a long history
a lot of knowledge that can be a healthy
contribution to hopefully disrupting how
we think about policing in the 21st
century and so I am hopeful that we will
now integrate these ideas not only from
social workers and from Social Work
researchers but from the communities
that we are all embedded in and uplift
those voices to be a part of the
solution so the themes that I've heard
throughout today is that there needs to
be incremental thoughtful change it is
evidence driven and evaluative there may
be areas where we don't have any
evidence yet
we need to continue it to evaluate our
interventions and I would add to that
the key component of that evaluation
needs to be that any reform approaches
or any collaboration approaches
effectively promote racial equality and
reduce racial disparities and throughout
our duty and the second thing that I
heard is that it's another key component
to improving community well-being and in
reducing racial and economic disparities
is that we have to look for
ways to effectively create and promote
public health because when we
effectively create and promote public
health then we reduce the need for
public safety interventions and police
can actually they focus on law
enforcement and the true sense of the
way instead of being forced to police
actual public health issues and and then
the final thing that I've heard is that
well I keep saying final but I really
have two more so the second two the
final thing that I heard is that we
really need cross-disciplinary trained
and that both professions have a lot to
learn both professions need to be self
evaluated and there and interactions
with and we need to understand each
other's language and the final thing
with that there's really no silver
bullet right there's a there's a need
for a comprehensive overhaul just use
one intervention approach I do just want
to mention a couple things I'm glad you
asked the question about specific to
legislators I think if there's some way
to incentivize both internally and
externally this work I think that's a
huge way so I don't have a clear-cut way
of how to incentivize but financial
incentives are our important way to do
that both on the community side to think
about social workers and community
getting involved in the criminal justice
system but also to incentivize within
law enforcement so I often say that you
know this is what I do for a living like
I literally get to sit with in the
sheriff's office and think about these
kinds of issues every day all day I get
to push our agency sometimes but my head
and fall down on but sometimes get back
up and really push us in a positive
direction so I do feel like or agencies
that have that voice or that conscience
internally because the stuff that we
were talking about dr. Patton brought up
a lot of these programs and issues book
will help right folks from mental health
and things like that but in this case if
that would not have helped mr. Floyd
right and so we really need to be
changing some of the things that dr.
Patton ORS of illuminating for us yes we
need all these other programs but
there's all these other things
think intrinsically within law
enforcement that we know exists and how
do we actually change those so I'll just
give a very specific example around
maybe one way so in our agency we took a
drug forfeiture is always the
controversial thing so our sheriff said
you know what a certain percentage of
drug forfeiture dollars that come into
our agency every year is going back into
community educate community engagement
so using the same money that we would
take not to buy new guns or cars but
using that money to help redirect funds
into a substance use disorder treatment
or helping to do some community
engagement stuff so one of the things I
would say to some of the legislators on
the call is both at the federal and the
state level that drug forfeiture
legislation and policy can be really
restrictive that even agency like us
they might want to use those dollars to
do other things can't be done and so it
really limits how we could use that so
that would be one very specific one and
then the other thing that I think is
important is social work but also peer
69:49
it's like how do you get these civilians
69:51
or people with lived experience there
are a lot of really they're social
workers that have lived experience with
the system but they cannot work or
they're restricted from work and are
limited in doing this work but they are
probably some of the best experts around
and so legislation to really change that
to allow for folks to be able to work in
the police agency they don't have to
have access to like law enforcement
terminals and all those things but
making it easier to hire folks I think
at the local policy level but also at
70:17
the legislative level okay so as we
close i we we've given some advice to
the legislators just tell me what one
important thing social workers need to
be thinking when they move into this I'm
a social worker and I'm thinking I'm
gonna go into community work I mean with
you in st. they've ADA would mean both
micro and macro skills if they're gonna
go into a space and non social workers
might not understand that I mean more
direct services versus community
organizing skills but what what are what
are one important thing that we really
must consider as we move into that space
I'm gonna steal yours dr. Lewis I think
it's not to come in with us like like
we're a fixer or a savior kind of an
orientation you know to understand the
nuance in the complication I'm just not
coming like we're gonna save everything
and fix the police yeah I would say I
think it's a great one but I would also
say to check your biases at the door I
came into this work thinking a certain
way about policing and I would say it's
just like the analogy I use it's like
you're a social worker and you're
working with a mom who abused or
neglected her kid you might remove that
kid for a time period but you might have
disdain for what that mother did to that
child but you're always working to
reunify that family and help that mom we
have done some horrible things to be
better and so around law enforcement I
think the same way we know there's been
some atrocities there we may separate
and protect this we can but ultimately
have the social worker how do you check
that your own personal bias against law
enforcement to really start to playing
folks together number one I think there
should be more social workers involved
in tech development and I think that
that engagement will have a ripple
effect with how social media is used
within our society and particularly in
the criminal justice system so please
teach students about technology learn
more about technology integrate tech
into your research and daily practice in
some capacity but what I really
appreciate about being a social worker
is that my values matter and that I can
bring those values everywhere I go and
they are up for discussion and they can
be integrated and so continue to uplift
those values in the spaces that you
enter and I would say that social
workers are very familiar with working
in post settings like schools hospitals
working in a law enforcement setting is
kind of similar to military social work
one of the things we have to think about
as we move into this space is working in
a paramilitary organization where there
is a very strict chain of command and we
also have to be
comfortable where we are working with
others that are armed and have access to
guns and other weaponry that can make a
lot of social workers uncomfortable
thank you I want to thank our panelists
for a very lively and informative
discussion and as we draw to a close
we're going to have a few words from Dr.
Angelo McLain who is the chief executive
officer of the National Association of
Social Workers. Dr. McClain thank you. Thank
you Dr. Boyce I'm just sitting here so
excited to hear the panel.  I thank all
of you for sharing your your your
expertise and your your knowledge and
just interesting the planners did a good
job of putting together social work
education Social Work practice social
research in social work technology and
then we have you dr. Lewis bringing up
the political social work end of things
and I think what I can contribute to
this is you know it's sort of the
advocacy piece that any SW can bring to
this space and then also the
professional development part but just
the dr. Patterson you talked about our
rich 100-year history I want to tell
your commander Jackson that offer
director Jackson you know you know the
day to day nuts and bolts you know in
and out not only at a micro level you
know in the field but in a meso level of
designing the programs and the solutions
and then you know at a macro level and
showing showing the way and dr. Pettis
Davis here you do the research that you
mentioned in and just a reminder that we
want all these things we implement want
to have it through a lens of achieving
social justice and show social equity
and a doctor patterning when you talk
about on you know social
Media and how that could be another way
of form of mass incarceration and that
we really need to be down with the
technology to bring that in that can
bring those things I think the one thing
I heard loud and clear from all of you
is that there is an alternative response
where there's a 9-1-1 call 2-1-1 call
whatever it is but not only is there an
alternative response but we know how to
do this we have been doing this we can
learn how to do more of it how to do it
better there's a need for an insider
approach and an outsider approach I
think back to Whitney Young
you know backed into sixties he was
sometimes criticized because he had an
insider approach he said you know I want
to be in the boardroom I want to be in
the White House you know Whitney knew
you know personally knew of three
presidents and they called on him so and
we do need within our profession that
insider approach and the outsider
approach and and we know when we say
there's a role for social workers within
law enforcement we're not we're not at
any way saying that there isn't a need
for a reform and in some places radical
reform we know that needs there I'm so
glad you guys talked about the unpacking
you know white supremacy and how that
that framing permeates and we need to
make sure that we're addressing that I
had worked in child welfare you know for
two decades and you know and I produced
a doctor passion about me working a lot
of host settings because you know
whether it's in hospitals schools you
know working in child welfare and you
know oftentimes I when I get a call from
an officer saying could you leave me at
such-and-such address or might call them
and say can you meet me at such-and-such
address and we always had each other's
back you know we could sort of move in
and out and oh maybe I was taking the
lead one time and then they were taking
the lead the next time but we know how
to do this work and I'm so glad you guys
are saying the examples and providing
the leadership I know and as a
profession
we're positioned in this moment you know
many of us have long have really longed
for years to be on the nightly news have
the president say 50 workers in an
executive order here this moment is and
you guys have been on this path for
years you know preparing the life and
paving the way for Social Work so I see
this at the moment dr. Lewis when our
profession is we're more than ready
we're ready when we can able to address
this thing from so many angles and not
to give up on our on our often ago to
have a more humane and just society so
I'm honored to share the stage with you
guys that Dr. Lewis I'll I'll hand it
back to you thank you much and we want
78:27
to thank everyone who joined us for this
discussion and we want to hear from you
so we've created an email account just
to hear from our audience um social work
dot policing at gmail.com social work
dot policing at gmail.com we want to
hear your comments your thoughts you
know where where where we could do
better where we may be some issues we
didn't get to cover uh but we we do want
to hear from you and the sponsors would
like to thank congresswoman barbara Lee
and the Congressional Social Work caucus
congresswoman Karen Bass and Senator
Chris Van Hollen for supporting this
effort and I need to say that
Congresswoman Lee and Congresswoman Bass
are social workers so we're wonderfully
have we're always happy to work with
them
and I would like to thank our planning
and production team dr. Michael Sheridan
and Lissa Johnson at the Center for
Social Development
Sarah Butts and Raffaele Vitelli
in esw yes-men comples mendes and for
hana Shafi at crisp so again uh we thank
you for coming we we had I think this
was a very fruitful discussion it will
be it is being videotaped and will be
may be available on there the Center for
Social Development website NASW's website
and CRISP's website so until we meet again
want to encourage everyone to stay safe
and wear your masks
good afternoon everyone and welcome to
our congressional briefing black lives
matter Social Work and the future of
policing I am Charles II Lewis jr. and I
will be your host and moderator for
00:15
today's panel this briefing is being
00:19
sponsored in conjunction with the
00:21
Congressional Social Work Kroc is
00:24
chaired by congresswoman barbara Lee
00:26
along with the offices of congresswoman
00:29
Karen bass and Senator Chris Van Hollen
00:32
we have a hashtag for today social work
00:36
underscore policing so if you're on
00:40
Twitter or Instagram you can use that
00:43
hashtag we also will have a email
00:47
address for those who want to make
comments following this program social
work dot policing at gmail.com before we
get started we have opening greetings
from Senator Van Hollen of the great
01:02
state of Maryland followed by a message
01:04
from congresswoman barbara Lee well
01:07
thank you very much and I want to first
01:10
of all thank you I want to thank Chris
01:12
for co-hosting the gathering thanks also
01:16
to the Center for Social Development at
01:19
the Braun School of Social Work at
01:20
Washington University and to the
01:22
National Association of Social Workers
01:24
I'm honored to join you today and the
01:29
panelists and participants I wish I
01:32
could be on video but my my technology I
01:35
didn't connect me but I'm pleased to
01:37
have a chance to say a few words at this
01:40
moment of reckoning for our country and
01:42
I think we are all united in the wake of
01:46
the murders of George Floyd and Brianna
01:49
Taylor and so many other black lives
01:52
taken before that we've got to take
01:56
action for real change on police
01:59
accountability also to root out systemic
02:03
racism in all our institutions in all
02:06
its ugly forms on policing we do need to
02:10
pass the Justice in policing Act but I
02:14
believe we need to
02:15
go beyond that and that's why I
02:17
appreciate the opportunity to say a few
02:19
words I think we need to make structural
02:21
changes in the way we respond to
02:25
emergency calls because in way too many
02:29
instances we are deploying police to
02:33
respond the incidents where it would be
02:37
much more appropriate and better for all
02:39
to be dispatching social workers and I
02:42
want to thank all of the social workers
02:43
on the line for all that they do to work
02:47
with people too I try to solve real-life
02:51
problems in a way that benefits the
02:54
individuals the families and the whole
02:56
community that's why I am teaming up
02:59
with the congresswoman Karen bass we
03:02
will be introducing legislation all the
03:05
community-based emergency emergency
03:07
response acts and the idea is to create
03:12
an alternative response in cases where
03:16
we're dealing with disturbances caused
03:19
by homelessness or mental health issues
03:21
or all of the thousands of other
03:24
situations where there's not in crime
03:27
involved where it's not a violent
03:30
situation and where it doesn't require a
03:32
police response because too often when
03:36
we have police respond to these kinds of
03:38
situations we've witnessed an
03:41
unnecessary escalation and that
03:44
escalation has led to abuse and as we've
03:47
said tragically death and so our
03:51
proposal which we plan to introduce very
03:55
soon would essentially set up a federal
03:58
grant program for local jurisdictions
04:02
that establish this alternative response
04:05
so that when somebody calls 911 the
04:10
operator is trained to very quickly
04:12
determine whether it's a violent
04:15
situation where a police response would
04:18
be necessary a police response I should
04:20
say governed by the justice and policing
04:23
act accountability provisions that's why
04:26
that is so important but we want
04:29
create an alternative system that can be
04:32
used for the other hundreds of incidents
04:35
that don't endanger anybody's risk
04:39
except for do have the risk of
04:41
escalation that police respond and so we
04:44
would establish a robust federal grant
04:47
program that would go to communities on
04:51
a competitive basis that's put forward
04:54
the kind of proposals that we're talking
04:57
about for an alternative emergency
04:59
response deploy social workers and
05:02
others who are trained to deal with so
05:05
many of these other situations so we
05:06
don't have unnecessary escalation
05:09
mistreatment and even death as we've
05:13
seen so I want to thank you for the
05:16
opportunity to say a few words we look
05:17
forward to working with all of you as we
05:20
also as we put accountability in place
05:24
for police response that we also change
05:26
the system and we also of course need to
05:29
work and many other realms putting
05:32
health care and education and housing we
05:35
think this is an important step in the
05:37
area of systemic change to how how we
05:41
deploy our resources in communities hi
05:44
I'm congressman verbally and I represent
05:48
California's beautiful 13th
05:50
congressional district yes
05:52
the most enlightened district in the
05:54
nation I want to welcome you all to
05:57
today's virtual briefing entitled black
06:00
lives matter Social Work and the future
06:03
of policing today's briefing is
06:07
sponsored by the Center for Social
06:09
Development at the brown school at
06:10
Washington University in st. Louis the
06:14
National Association of Social Workers
06:16
and the Congressional Research Institute
06:20
for Social Work and policy our country
06:23
is in the midst of grappling with
06:25
systemic police violence and the murder
06:27
of countless black and brown men and
06:30
women by police and also how we move
06:35
forward as a country
06:37
a part of the answer should be using the
06:40
tools already at our disposal and that
06:43
includes thinking about how social
06:45
workers who are trained in social
06:48
problem solving can be more effective in
06:51
nonviolent situations most Americans now
06:55
understand that the United States should
06:57
stop under your announced on Ewings v
07:00
police it is time for major change is
07:06
Social Work values and skills are far
07:09
more appropriate and effective in these
07:11
situations than the use of force social
07:16
workers are guided by community decision
07:18
making to encourage culturally
07:20
appropriate community-based solutions on
07:23
issues ranging from homelessness and
07:25
mental health issues to non violent
07:28
disturbances nonviolent crimes and
07:30
management of crowds the police in
07:33
crisis facing our country has caused
07:36
untold trauma among generations of young
07:39
black and brown children although legal
07:43
separation may have ended years ago
07:46
systemic racism permeates every facet of
07:51
our society it's in everything
07:54
police murders health disparities
07:58
unequal education poor housing income
08:01
inequality lack of clean water and black
08:04
communities the wage gap the wealth gap
08:06
why forty percent of black businesses
08:09
have permanently gone on a business
08:10
compared to approximately 19 percent of
08:12
white businesses during this terrible
08:15
pandemic from slavery through the Black
08:18
Codes
08:19
lynching segregation mass incarceration
08:22
and many more despicable historical
08:26
moments in this country's history
08:29
enough is enough
08:31
systemic racism is prevalent in every
08:34
aspect of this country and as members of
08:36
Congress we must add a racial lens to
08:39
all of our decisions we make public
08:41
policy decisions that could deepen
08:43
systemic racism or begin to break the
08:46
chains that still exists in every black
08:49
person's
08:50
so I thank you all for being here today
08:53
to take part in these important
08:55
discussions to find ways to hopefully
08:58
finally in the generations of trauma
09:01
which our black communities are facing
09:03
thank you all again and stay healthy
09:08
Thank You senator Holland Van Hollen and
09:11
thank you congresswoman barbara Lee so
09:15
today you're gonna hear from four very
09:17
skilled and knowledgeable social workers
09:20
who are working or researching and area
09:26
of community community policing but
09:31
before I introduce them I would like to
09:34
highlight one critical issue as we begin
09:38
a discussion we're here because a mod
09:43
our Barry Brianna Taylor George Floyd
09:48
Rashad Brooks and many others have died
09:51
at the hands of police officers and so
09:55
we want to look at how we can find an
09:58
alternative to engaging police officers
10:02
in certain situations according to the
10:06
treatment Advocacy Center about a third
10:09
of the eight point three million
10:12
Americans with severe mental illness
10:15
have their first contact with mental
10:18
health treatment through an encounter
10:20
with law enforcement one in four
10:24
individuals killed by police have a
10:26
severe mental illness bipolar
10:30
schizophrenia major depression the risk
10:34
of being killed during a police incident
10:36
is 16 times greater for people with
10:40
severe mental illness than for other
10:42
civilians social workers are by far the
10:45
largest provider of mental health
10:48
services in the United States these
10:51
facts alone make the case for greatly
10:53
expanding roles for social workers and
10:56
addressing non-violent community
10:59
disturbances so we're going to begin by
11:01
hearing from dr. George Patterson an
11:04
associate associate professor at the
11:06
Silverman School of Social Work at
11:08
Hunter College in New York
11:10
dr. Patterson is a police social worker
11:13
and has written extensively about social
11:16
work and policing following dr. panel
11:19
Patterson will be dr. Carrie Pettis
11:21
Davis associate professor and founding
11:24
director of the Institute for justice
11:26
and development at Florida State
11:29
University's School of Social Work
11:32
dr. Pettis Davis is also a cold lead for
11:35
the smart D concentration network of the
11:38
twelve Grand Challenges for Social Work
11:40
he will be followed by Derek Derek
11:44
Jackson a social worker and director of
11:47
the Office of Community Engagement for
11:50
the Washtenaw County Michigan Sheriff's
11:53
Department last but certainly not least
11:56
will be dr. Desmond Patton an associate
12:00
professor and associate dean for
12:02
academic affairs at Columbia
12:04
University's School of Social Work dr.
12:07
Patton is a founder founding director of
12:10
safe lab and focuses on social media
12:15
so we'll begin dr. Patterson
12:20
thank you very much dr. Lewis for that
12:22
kind introduction good afternoon
12:24
everyone I want to thank Senator Van
12:27
Hollen congresswoman bass congresswoman
12:30
Lee as well as CSD NSW and Chris for the
12:34
opportunity to provide remarks on black
12:37
lives matter social work in the future
12:39
of policing as a police social worker I
12:42
always welcome the opportunity to raise
12:44
the profile of professional police
12:46
Social Work practice this afternoon I
12:50
will limit my remarks to describe police
12:53
social work first I will briefly
12:55
describe the origins of police social
12:58
work and social work employment and
13:00
police departments next I will discuss
13:02
my own Police Social Work practice
13:04
experience and current research and
13:07
finally conclude with several
13:09
recommendations for future directions
13:12
recent commentary has suggested that the
13:15
police are increasingly being called
13:17
upon to respond to social problems from
13:21
the time that American police
13:22
departments were first established the
13:25
majority of police work has always
13:27
comprised responding to social problems
13:30
in fact some estimates suggest that as
13:33
much as 80% of police work involves
13:36
social problems and only 20% involves
13:40
crime in an effort to address this fact
13:43
more than 100 years ago in 1919 August
13:47
Vollmer a well-known policing reformer
13:49
delivered a speech to the International
13:52
Association of Chiefs of Police the
13:54
title of the speech was the policeman as
13:57
a social worker in the speech Vollmer
14:01
urged police officers to collaborate
14:03
with social service and community-based
14:06
agencies to perform social service
14:10
scholars who have studied the speech
14:12
suggest that it is as controversial
14:14
today as it was 100 years ago
14:18
to put the speech in perspective World
14:21
War one had just ended one year earlier
14:24
in 1918 World War two did not begin
14:27
until 1939 20 years after Vollmer speech
14:33
there are a few very interesting points
14:36
that were made in the speech first
14:38
Vollmer recognized that police officers
14:41
had little interest or time to perform
14:44
social service second vulner introduced
14:48
the concepts of social police work and
14:50
police social work when referring to
14:53
officers performing social service my
14:58
assessment of the speech is that Vollmer
15:00
was urging officers to utilize social
15:03
work knowledge and skills to perform
15:05
social service he was not advocating the
15:09
police department's higher social
15:11
workers little did he know that within
15:14
thirty three years after his speech we
15:17
would see the first published
15:19
description of a civilian social worker
15:21
employed in a police department also
15:26
little did he know that his concept of
15:28
police social work would evolve into a
15:31
specialized field of professional social
15:34
work practice used to refer to social
15:37
workers who are employed in police
15:39
departments and I am certainly sure that
15:42
he had no idea that the FBI would hire
15:45
more than 100 clinical social workers
15:49
some of the well-known social problems
15:52
in which police social workers respond
15:55
to include mental health crises domestic
15:58
or interpersonal violence and child
16:01
abuse and neglect in my own Police
16:04
Social Work practice experience
16:06
additional social problems included
16:09
homelessness alcohol and substance use
16:12
and abuse homicide suicide sexual
16:15
assault teen runaways missing persons
16:17
bank and store robberies landlord tenant
16:20
disputes victims of crime welfare checks
16:24
and health care needs as well as elder
16:26
abuse only to mention a few
16:28
this is not an exhaustive list
16:31
few further remarks about my own
16:34
experience is that as a police social
16:37
worker and certified mediator and
16:39
arbitrator I would arrive at the scene
16:41
of a dispute for neighbors within
16:43
moments of a 911 call in an unmarked
16:46
police vehicle some neighbors would
16:50
resolve their dispute during the single
16:52
intervention others required follow-up
16:55
intervention and still others required a
16:58
referral to a dispute settlement Center
17:00
for intervention is this brief example
17:03
shows there is no single outcome for
17:06
intervention a few remarks about my
17:10
current research it took me quite a
17:13
while to locate an actual copy of Omir
17:16
speech that was made 100 years ago last
17:19
year to commemorate the 100 years since
17:22
the speech was given I obtained a copy
17:24
of the speech and served as guest editor
17:27
for a policing journal to publish
17:29
research papers for a special issue on
17:32
the topic of police social work and
17:34
social service collaboration together
17:37
with my colleague our research paper
17:40
contribution consisted of a systematic
17:43
review titled police social work and
17:45
social service collaboration 100 years
17:48
after vulner we found documented police
17:52
social work collaborations in 18
17:54
countries referral collaboration and
17:57
counseling were the most commonly
17:59
performed tests the most frequently
18:02
addressed social problems were domestic
18:05
violence or interpersonal violence
18:07
mental health crises and crime crisis
18:12
intervention team programs or CIT that
18:15
are developed to address mental health
18:16
crises were the most commonly name-brand
18:20
collaborations that we found based on
18:24
our research several recommendations
18:26
specific to police social work practice
18:28
are offered first more funding is needed
18:32
for police social workers and behavioral
18:34
health care providers that respond to
18:37
911 emergencies I was so excited to hear
18:40
senator Van Hollen mention that he and
18:43
his colleagues are working
18:45
on legislation to address this very need
18:48
second anita exists to develop models
18:51
for intervention that address the wide
18:53
range of social problems that come to
18:56
the attention of 911 and finally
18:59
research and evaluation are needed to
19:02
assess whether these models are affected
19:05
several schools of social work have
19:07
already begun innovative policing
19:10
initiatives such as the University of
19:13
Pittsburgh School of Social Work the
19:15
School of Health and Human Services at
19:17
Saint Cloud University in Minnesota the
19:20
Center for Social Development at
19:21
Washington University in st. Louis
19:24
Missouri and USC only to mention a few
19:27
in conclusion Senator and
19:31
Representatives thank you again for this
19:34
opportunity to provide remarks this
19:36
afternoon it has been a real pleasure to
19:39
inform you about the practice of
19:41
professional police social work social
19:43
work knowledge of skills are once again
19:45
at the forefront of reimagining and
19:47
rethinking American policing more than
19:50
100 years after the words police social
19:54
work were first spoken one difference is
19:57
that this time now we have social
19:59
workers with applied knowledge and
20:01
skills acquired from employment and
20:04
paramilitary police departments and
20:06
police academies dr. Lewis thank you
20:11
before we hear from dr. Pettis neighbors
20:14
out there I was in my haste to get to
20:16
this wonderful panel I'm in they have an
20:19
elected to do a few things so you can
20:23
type your questions in in the chat box
20:26
we will be taking questions from the
20:27
audience at the end of their
20:29
presentations also this briefing is
20:33
being recorded and will be available on
20:36
the sponsors websites following this
20:39
following the briefing there are no
20:43
continuing education credits available
20:45
for today's briefing and finally the
20:49
views of our panelists are solely their
20:51
own and do not reflect necessarily the
20:55
views of the sponsoring organizations
20:58
or congressional offices so please type
21:03
your questions in and we will get to
21:05
them as many of them as we can
21:07
following these presentations dr.
21:10
Prentiss Davis thank you dr. Lewis I'm
21:15
thrilled to be here today and a part of
21:17
this very prestigious panel so thank you
21:21
for the invitation and to everybody who
21:23
made this possible and so I went to
21:26
today focus on four concrete policy
21:31
recommendations that I think should be
21:35
given consideration because based on my
21:39
research experience in the field I
21:41
believe if we adopted these policy
21:44
approaches that would help to ameliorate
21:46
violence and to improve racial equity in
21:50
our communities so a lot of my work in
21:54
our work at the Institute for justice
21:55
research and development has focused on
21:58
trauma treatment and for citizens or
22:01
individuals involved in the justice
22:03
system but for my first policy
22:06
recommendation I want to suggest that
22:09
social workers help to treat trauma
22:12
among law enforcement officers one of
22:15
the things you know is that law
22:18
enforcement officers are exposed to and
22:21
experience a significant amount of
22:23
trauma while they are doing their job
22:26
the problem with this and in addition to
22:30
just being exposed to lots of violence
22:31
is the untreated trauma symptoms lead to
22:36
impulsivity action and miss appraisals
22:41
of threats of violence so if you combine
22:44
those factors with structural racism
22:48
that occurs throughout our communities
22:51
you can quickly see situations turning
22:54
from an opportunity to DFDS polarization
22:57
and to violence instead so I think that
23:03
whenever important next steps is to make
23:06
sure that our officers are getting
23:07
trauma treatment and mental health
23:09
treatment they're needed
23:12
the second policy approach that I would
23:15
suggest is that federal funding that is
23:18
passed down to local jurisdictions for
23:21
law enforcement should require uniform
23:25
training and accreditation standards and
23:28
licensing licensing standards for law
23:31
enforcement and these trainings that I
23:33
want to suggest and also are areas that
23:37
Social Work has expertise in and I
23:39
believe could help so because law
23:42
enforcement officers are typically the
23:45
first responders to a range of
23:48
situations they need to have knowledge
23:51
that many of us social workers also have
23:54
they need training in human behavior
23:57
understanding humans and how they
24:00
interact in certain contexts and
24:02
environments in mental health and
24:05
substance abuse part of a tradition that
24:08
has been strong collaborations with
24:10
Social Work and police in the past any
24:12
trauma understanding how trauma impacts
24:15
individuals how institution
24:17
institutionalized racism impacts the
24:20
likelihood to come into contact with a
24:22
law enforcement office officer and in
24:24
what may happen after that contact
24:26
occurs they need training and racial and
24:29
economic disparities helping skills when
24:32
they do interact with individuals in the
24:34
community that need help learning how to
24:37
engage in empathic listening and really
24:40
complicated situations and also in
24:43
compassion fatigue and burnout and how
24:46
their own experience of seeing the same
24:49
very complicated situations day in and
24:51
day out can reduce their ability to feel
24:53
compassion for individuals and influence
24:56
their decision making these are just a
24:58
few of the core areas that I believe
25:00
federal policy passed through funding
25:03
should be tied to and in terms of
25:05
standardized training and with law
25:07
enforcement officers finally similar to
25:11
what senator Van Hollen and raised is or
25:15
not finally sorry this is my third of my
25:17
fourth recommendation is that we need to
25:19
invest in alternative and first
25:22
responders like social workers we need a
25:25
straw
25:26
robust public health system that can
25:29
respond to social problems that can
25:31
respond to crises and that can respond
25:34
to issues that do not directly impact
25:37
public safety in that moment and now
25:41
finally my fourth policy recommendation
25:43
is that we must invest in a research
25:46
base in police interventions and police
25:50
social work collaboration and
25:52
interventions we because this is a
25:54
life-and-death situation as we
25:57
unfortunately continue to experience we
26:00
cannot continue to make policy decisions
26:02
based on anecdotal anecdotal evidence or
26:06
best guesses and the only way we're
26:09
going to have robust research is if
26:10
there's substantially more an investment
26:13
into that research and that research
26:16
should explore things like the impact of
26:19
training officers on implicit bias or
26:21
racism or trauma and how it how their
26:25
changes in decision-making and behavior
26:27
may occur it should research stick
26:30
around receipt of trauma treatment and
26:32
mental health treatment but for
26:34
themselves and for citizens it should
26:36
research the ability of implicit bias
26:41
trainings on reducing disparities in our
26:43
interactions law enforcement
26:45
interactions with citizens and it should
26:48
research ways in which law enforcement
26:50
and Social Work collaborations could
26:51
actually improved community well-being
26:54
particularly racial equity thank you
26:58
you
27:02
oh there you go so thank you mr. Lewis
27:05
thank you everyone for giving me the
27:07
opportunity I just got to say that I'm
27:09
gonna try and use every second of my
27:11
eight minutes if I can not because I
27:14
feel like I know everything about this
27:16
issue but honestly I feel like over the
27:19
last 12 years I've been fortunate enough
27:21
to sit at this intersection of Social
27:23
Work and criminal justice it's almost
27:26
like in this time I feel like I have
27:27
this amazing secret but I can't yell
27:30
loud enough for anyone to really hear me
27:32
fully so this is a great opportunity but
27:34
also in this time you hear nothing else
27:37
that I say I'd really want to encourage
27:40
folks to know that this connection of
27:43
Social Work and law enforcement it can
27:45
work I've literally watched it work over
27:48
the last 12 years it's not perfect it's
27:51
not easy it's not a magic solution but
27:55
it can work and quite honestly it has to
27:57
work so for me I'm a social worker who
28:01
became a police officer then now helps
28:03
to run a police agency as mr. Lewis said
28:05
and I'm the director of community
28:06
engagement at the Washington County
28:08
Sheriff's Office here in Michigan I know
28:12
a lot of times people look and say you
28:14
know how is that possible to go from
28:15
social workers and law enforcement but
28:16
thanks to mr. Patterson I'm not by
28:18
myself and folks like him I'll just say
28:21
this that the professions although we
28:24
think of them on opposite ends of the
28:25
spectrum I really get to spend a lot of
28:27
my time working where they overlap and
28:30
those intersections and I often share
28:32
stories around how as a social worker I
28:36
really focused on working with the most
28:38
vulnerable populations in our community
28:40
and what I learned once I started
28:42
working at the sheriff's office is that
28:44
those are the same individuals that our
28:45
law enforcement officers are dealing
28:47
with every single day so when I was a
28:49
young social worker working at a
28:51
homeless shelter for teens what I
28:53
quickly realized is it wasn't uncommon
28:55
for an officer to find a runaway or pick
28:58
up a homeless youth and bring them to
29:00
our front door of our shelter or if you
29:03
even think about how often or how many
29:04
times a week our deputies are responding
29:07
to a domestic violence call it is not
29:09
uncommon for an officer to be the first
29:12
connection of someone who's been abused
29:14
and battered but that's
29:15
by were to be connected to services or
29:17
even here in Michigan and a winner when
29:19
you know the homeless man is on the side
29:21
of the street without a place to go it
29:23
isn't uncommon for an officer or deputy
29:25
to be that first connection to the
29:27
warming shelter and so I guess I would
29:30
just say that even if you look at our
29:31
jails all across this country others on
29:34
the panel have already said this but our
29:36
jails are full of those suffering from
29:38
mental health issues substance use
29:40
disorder are homeless or simply our poor
29:44
can't afford to get out of jail so
29:45
regardless of what we think of policing
29:48
or of the criminal justice system as
29:50
social workers I'll just say there are
29:52
social work values and our core code of
29:54
ethics it really implores us to engage
29:56
with the criminal justice system and a
29:58
significant way
29:59
so I know that during these times of
30:01
debate and protests around police
30:03
brutality when it seems that there is a
30:05
daily reminder of police violence it can
30:08
sometimes seem hopeless or helpless and
30:11
I know there is pressure to take
30:12
immediate action and my role trust me
30:14
run enough helping to run the police
30:16
agency I feel that pressure every single
30:18
day in this interesting position in the
30:21
middle of community and policing so I
30:23
hear it on both sides but I want to
30:26
encourage us to do is to be thoughtful
30:28
we didn't get here yesterday and we're
30:31
not going to get out of this tomorrow
30:32
so these shallow promises or rash
30:35
decisions for a quick change without
30:38
real understanding of structures and
30:39
systems and how we get here but honestly
30:42
I think will only prove to fail but at
30:45
best won't really allow us to get to the
30:47
real change I think that we all desire
30:49
so one of the analogies that I use as
30:51
you know if you think about any large
30:52
structure or skyscraper for any building
30:56
that you want to tear down you need just
30:58
as many architects to demolish it as you
31:00
did to build it in the first place right
31:02
you can't just run in throw a bunch of
31:04
dynamite all over the place and then hit
31:05
detonate you really got to understand
31:07
the structure and the architecture the
31:09
strengths the weaknesses the
31:10
vulnerabilities you need to create those
31:13
alternative structures to move things
31:14
into before you ever set that first to
31:17
go dynamite so to me it doesn't really
31:19
matter if people are coming to this
31:21
discussion around the funding or
31:24
deconstruction or abolishing or subtle
31:26
reforms what matters for any of those
31:28
past
31:29
to be successful is first understanding
31:32
the current system and if you understand
31:34
that system what you will know is that
31:37
simply embedding social workers isn't
31:40
just about a program or having a social
31:42
workers respond to a mental health call
31:44
a place of an officer that's a part of
31:46
it it's a big part of it but it's much
31:48
more complex than that social work is a
31:50
philosophy is the way we think about the
31:53
world and the work that you do is the
31:54
way we think about the people that you
31:55
serve and I know and I've heard this
31:58
people have asked me this question
31:59
around the worry of social workers being
32:02
co-opted by law enforcement about
32:04
working too close and that's a
32:06
legitimate concern but one that I think
32:08
can be navigating with your appropriate
32:10
structures if you put them in place so
32:12
if social workers have just as much to
32:14
learn about functioning in engaging with
32:16
and changing the criminal justice system
32:18
in the inside how as officers do and
32:20
learn about social work values so we
32:23
don't want our new social workers to
32:24
carry Tasers in fact my sheriff took my
32:26
taser away as soon as I became a police
32:28
officer we don't want police officers to
32:30
be social workers but I think we do want
32:33
to take a small bit of social work
32:36
philosophy in the way we operate and
32:38
infuse it into the criminal justice
32:39
system and to policing so we want to ask
32:42
the right questions think about solving
32:44
problems not just about making arrests
32:46
understand the communities that they
32:48
work in and if nothing else Social Work
32:50
education teaches us to understand
32:52
ourselves and our own personal bias so
32:55
it's important to have advocates
32:56
marching in the streets but if as social
32:59
workers we only push from the outside
33:00
those who want the system to remain as
33:03
it is well simply build stronger walls
33:05
so however if some of us get on the
33:10
inside start to make change from within
33:12
we can open that door and invite our
33:15
friends in to help us make that change
33:17
and so that's really what I want to
33:18
implore folks to do and to think about
33:20
is how social workers can be willing to
33:24
get involved so in my role as an
33:26
administrator it's more than just
33:27
running a few feel-good programs right
33:30
it's about designing systems creating
33:31
structures providing tools and changing
33:34
the very nature of law enforcement so he
33:36
guests at our agency we have revamped
33:38
our training as others have listed out
33:40
we now spend just as much time
33:42
training on things by implicit bias and
33:44
procedural justice and managing mental
33:47
health crisis and on and on and on as we
33:49
do around the force continuous so we're
33:51
giving our officers the tools to do the
33:54
work that we really want them to do
33:59
change the type of competencies we're
34:00
looking for when we go to hire an
34:01
officer yes we have internal systems of
34:03
quality control and quality assurance so
34:05
that we catch them before they ever
34:07
become these big red flags and yes we've
34:09
changed numerous policies I spend too
34:11
much time looking at her policies but we
34:14
are also changing the basic assumptions
34:16
that drive our officer so it's these
34:18
assumptions that fuel our values and
34:21
those values that influence our beliefs
34:23
and if those beliefs that drive the
34:26
individual behavior of the officers on
34:28
the street and I think this is where
34:29
social work can thrive and the level of
34:32
depth and understanding that we need to
34:34
have when we're talking about that
34:35
intersection of Social Work and criminal
34:37
justice or social work in particular in
34:39
law enforcement so again I want to
34:41
stress that yes we do a lot of programs
34:43
I would talk about our programs all day
34:45
long but I think it's also I'm even
34:47
deeper than just the programs it's the
34:49
fundamental shift of the meaning of what
34:51
law enforcement is an extension to
34:53
community so yeah we've created a lot of
34:55
those programs right we have a 24/7
34:57
crisis line so community can call but
35:00
also officers can call so when an
35:01
officer now and they've been trained in
35:04
mental health it's kind of triage but
35:06
when they respond to a scene if it turns
35:08
out there's a mental health call we have
35:10
community mental health workers that are
35:12
on-call 24/7 365 our officers tell
35:15
dispatch to dispatch a social worker and
35:18
a social worker takes over and for
35:20
someone might think well you know our
35:21
law enforcement really interested that
35:22
I'll just tell you if you're responding
35:24
to a mental health call over and over
35:26
and over and you're not trained in it
35:27
and you can hand that off to an expert
35:29
as an officer you will definitely take
35:31
advantage of that our community not too
35:34
long ago that's the public safety and
35:36
mental health millage here in Washington
35:38
County about two years ago so it's the
35:40
only one in Michigan like it and I say
35:41
that because our community values that
35:45
intersection with criminal justice and
35:46
social work and basically put their
35:48
money where their mouth is right and so
35:50
not just talking about it but allowing
35:52
us to have the resources to actually
35:54
braid these systems together and create
35:57
these structures to change the very
35:58
nature of our local criminal justice
36:00
system and I think that's what social
36:03
work lands and value can really bring to
36:05
this overall conversation around
36:07
policing
36:08
one of the question I really wanted to
36:10
hit on is kind of what did I need when I
36:12
first embarked on this journey I never
36:14
wanted to be a police officer growing up
36:16
I grew up in a community where we didn't
36:19
get along with officers the neighborhood
36:20
that I live in now there was a man back
36:23
in 2006 that was killed at the hands of
36:25
the same agency that I worked for and I
36:27
was one of the individuals marching in
36:29
the streets but my father said to me
36:31
when this opportunity arose that you
36:33
often talk about changing law
36:35
enforcement your margin of Street about
36:37
changing law enforcement how about you
36:39
get in there and you actually do
36:40
something about it
36:41
so I really want to implore folks to
36:43
think about that and one of the things
36:45
that I really wish did I had I just
36:47
didn't have the opportunity years ago
36:48
when I was in school was really to learn
36:50
more about the criminal justice system
36:52
mr. Patterson spoke about those
36:54
universities that are doing some of that
36:56
great work I think that is just so
36:57
important and so before we ever think
36:59
about embedding a social worker or
37:01
partner in a social work with a law
37:03
enforcement agency I think it's really
37:04
important to make sure our social work
37:06
peers have the competency to do that
37:08
work a lot of my interns if they come
37:11
through I can watch some are really good
37:14
with working within systems and some are
37:16
not and sometimes within our schools
37:18
we're actually teaching folks to break
37:21
down the systems tear down the system
37:23
but we're teaching them in a way to do
37:24
it outside versus inside and those are a
37:26
difference so it's not meant for
37:27
everybody but for some there is a role
37:30
to play and then the last piece I'll
37:31
just mention of what I think I learned
37:34
in social work was early on in school I
37:36
learned that criminal justice and social
37:38
work or sometimes saying as the opposite
37:40
ends of the spectrum so many of us kind
37:45
of come into the field thinking that and
37:47
when I was back at this homeless shelter
37:49
for teenagers I remember so many times
37:50
we made an effort to keep the officers
37:53
away from the young people in the
37:55
shelter and understand why right we
37:57
gotta have these clear boundaries to
37:59
separate of the two but now that I think
38:01
back on it I wish I could redo it
38:03
because even though I was thinking I was
38:07
protecting the young people at that
38:08
shelter from officers now when I think
38:12
back when I went home to go to sleep at
38:14
night guess who was out on the streets
38:16
those young people and
38:19
officers and I feel like I wasn't really
38:22
preparing those young people not only to
38:24
know how to navigate but the officers
38:26
but just as importantly helping our
38:29
officers in our local community
38:30
understand the community and the young
38:32
people that they were working with
38:34
so I know for many of us the social work
38:36
we think about our helping is building
38:39
these walls sometimes to keep police
38:40
away from communities that we care for
38:42
but instead as social workers what I
38:45
would argue is how about we actually
38:47
become that bridge that helps bring the
38:49
community in law enforcement together
38:51
things definitely need to change and I
38:54
would just say if not us and social work
38:57
to bring folks together and really help
38:59
the systems to change from the inside
39:00
out and I don't know who else could do
39:03
it thank you dr. Patterson I'm sorry dr.
39:10
Patton doctor thank you so much dr.
39:15
Lewis and for everyone who is
39:17
responsible for bringing us all together
39:19
proactive policing strategies and
39:22
multiple forms of police misconduct and
39:24
violence have disproportionately
39:27
affected people of color one relatively
39:30
new strategy is social media monitoring
39:32
police are increasingly monitoring
39:35
social media to build evidence through
39:37
criminal indictments justification of
39:40
this behavior is rooted in historical
39:42
narratives and a belief structure often
39:45
perpetuated in the criminal justice
39:46
system that reads black people as
39:48
symbolic assailants many researchers
39:52
warn that these covert and routine
39:53
strategies have widespread cumulative
39:56
effects on both individuals and the
39:59
collective consciousness of black
40:00
communities given what we know it is
40:04
important to note that the use of social
40:06
media to predict criminal activity is
40:09
dangerous
40:10
whoo-hah Benjamin calls modern police
40:14
surveillance the new gym code because
40:16
there are biases within the algorithms
40:18
of these technologies one must ask our
40:21
police culturally equipped to understand
40:24
the nuance linguistic styles
40:26
communicated on social media
40:27
sociology suggests that many youth and
40:30
young adults who live in neighborhoods
40:31
with high rates of violence may project
40:34
the tough image or follow a code of the
40:36
street in their community to stay safe
40:38
and protected could the same be true
40:40
online the
40:42
individual who talks about drugs and
40:44
violence on social media actually
40:46
engaged in these activities and then we
40:49
must ask should social media be used at
40:52
all within the criminal justice system
40:55
police agencies use social media for a
40:58
variety of reasons data from the
41:00
International Association of Chiefs of
41:02
Police suggests that 96 percent of
41:04
police agencies use social media in some
41:06
capacity the most common use of social
41:09
media is for criminal investigations
41:11
police officers find evidence or
41:13
additional information about a missing
41:15
or wanted person getting participation
41:18
or web based crimes such as cyber
41:19
stalking or cyberbullying the police may
41:22
perform a manual search on a social
41:24
media platform or request specific
41:27
information from social media platforms
41:29
in some instances the police may also
41:32
install software on targeted individual
41:34
computers and perform analysis on social
41:36
media data that have been captured
41:38
social media is also used for community
41:41
outreach and information sharing online
41:44
policing practices are formed for a
41:46
multiplicity of technologies available
41:49
to various agencies these technologies
41:51
provide a wide spectrum of access to
41:53
social media content with differing
41:55
relation between the police social media
41:58
users and those who manage the platforms
42:00
ones visibility on social media and
42:03
communication of everyday experiences
42:05
practices and activities provides the
42:07
perfect platform for covert criminal
42:10
surveillance by the police to that end
42:12
social media monitoring reduces
42:15
transparency and increases the power and
42:17
balance in police work
42:19
Daniel Trottier refers to these
42:21
strategies as social media policing and
42:23
that these new tactics represent a new
42:25
paradigm for profiling and preemptive
42:27
policing the idea is that social media
42:30
is viewed as a utility for crime
42:32
reduction investigatory purposes and
42:35
production of evidence all users that
42:37
are well outside the intended purview of
42:40
why social media was created importantly
42:43
while room for these uses are regularly
42:46
included in terms of service agreements
42:48
investigations where law enforcement
42:49
officials on social media violates users
42:52
reported privacy expectations
42:56
social media police requires that social
42:58
media users monitor their own output and
43:00
that of their network as close network
43:03
connections a relationships may become
43:05
liabilities if output is deemed
43:08
problematic by law enforcement the
43:10
reality is the arrangement benefits the
43:13
police the very platforms that amplify
43:16
user visibility allow police to act
43:18
invisibly eradicating any notions of
43:21
mutual transparency the issue lies in
43:25
the ways in which we encode social media
43:28
communication the encoding of social
43:30
media communication happens when a post
43:32
is written and the interpretations of
43:34
said post are to be understood by the
43:35
members of the intended audience so
43:39
let's talk briefly about a few examples
43:41
of when social media is used incorrectly
43:44
the case of Dylan roof underscores how
43:47
the power of prejudice affects who has
43:49
surveilled a lot in June 2015 roof a
43:53
young white man walked into the Emanuel
43:55
AME Church in Charleston South Carolina
43:57
a historically black church and shot
44:00
nine people to death until this act Ruth
44:04
had not been on law enforcement's radar
44:06
in spite of a public social media
44:08
presence including a manifesto of racial
44:11
hatred and murderous intent Ruth is an
44:14
example of a domestic terrorist whose
44:16
public performance of self on social
44:18
media was conveniently neutralized by
44:21
his race in addition social media has
44:24
become a prime source for government
44:26
surveillance recently the FBI leveraged
44:29
data from an Etsy review a LinkedIn
44:32
profile Instagram videos and a few
44:35
Google searches to identify a masked
44:37
woman accused of setting two police cars
44:39
on fire during recent protests in
44:42
Philadelphia the most recent incident
44:44
underscores the misuse of social media
44:46
and other publicly available online
44:48
records to identify protesters during
44:50
the black lives matter movement and just
44:53
last week
44:54
faulty facial recognition systems
44:56
leveraged by the lead the Detroit police
44:59
led to the wrongful arrest of Robert
45:01
Julianne bourchek Williams for a crime
45:03
he did not commit
45:05
I think there's hope if we can develop
45:09
ethical and humane ways of leveraging
45:11
social media for social good this is
45:14
where I think social workers are most
45:15
needed in the unbundling of social media
45:18
from police work first social workers
45:22
should consider and be aware of social
45:24
media as a digital environment a digital
45:26
representation of human behavior in the
45:28
social environment understanding the
45:30
world as understand in the virtual world
45:32
as the world may identify new
45:35
understandings of the contextual
45:37
effectors that may inform how we
45:38
understand crime second social work
45:41
training must incorporate how to
45:43
leverage social media for social good
45:45
and our code of ethics should guide us
45:47
when not to use social media this
45:50
includes how to talk to clients and
45:52
communities about social media use and
45:53
identifying best practices for
45:56
leveraging social media as data for
45:57
intervention new social work thinking
45:59
can encourage culturally nuanced
46:02
inappropriate ways of using social media
46:03
that can focus on identifying community
46:06
strengths or signals that indicate harm
46:08
our trauma that can be leveraged to
46:09
prevent crime third social records can
46:12
help to determine when social media is
46:14
appropriate to use when acting as
46:16
translators and blind spotters social
46:19
workers can support identifying and
46:21
bringing the appropriate domain
46:22
expertise to the use of social media in
46:25
the criminal justice system there's new
46:26
social workers help to create
46:28
opportunities paid opportunities where
46:31
community members give voice to how
46:32
social media policing impacts our
46:34
community identifying opportunities and
46:37
challenges and lastly a core principle
46:39
is for social workers to help people in
46:42
need and address social problems in the
46:44
case of my labs research on gun violence
46:46
in mass incarceration these two social
46:48
problems share roots and inequality
46:50
racism and poverty however we had to
46:53
pause and rethink how we use social
46:56
media towards preventing gun violence by
46:58
listening to youth we learned that an
47:00
approach that leverages social media
47:02
must anticipate how these social
47:04
problems intersect and the impact the
47:06
use of social media may have on
47:07
preventing or extending these problems
47:09
another core value of social workers
47:12
understand the importance of human
47:14
relationships before I asked if social
47:17
media is the right tool for policing
47:18
unless
47:19
engage in extensive and critical
47:21
conversations with communities and gun
47:22
violence we're good by us is an issue
47:24
and work with them to better understand
47:27
how the problem is defined by the
47:30
community this is the social work
47:32
difference thank you
47:34
thank you so all all of our presenters
47:39
have had a very interesting experience
47:42
in this field and I'm gonna start with
47:45
your duck doctor Patton because you know
47:48
one of the reasons I wanted you to be on
47:50
this panel is because social media is
47:52
not usually thought about in terms of
47:55
their how we engage communities and
48:01
policing what what are what are the
48:03
implications like we have we have social
48:07
workers watching but we also have
48:09
legislative staffers and you know what
48:12
are some of the implications your work
48:14
or this information may have in terms of
48:18
federal legislation those policing is
48:21
generally a local issue but are there
48:24
any things that are the federal
48:27
government might do that would mitigate
48:30
some of the returns you have yes we need
48:35
to work on developing technology
48:39
policies that are ethical and that her
48:42
humane and that allow for some
48:46
guardrails with the use of social media
48:48
in the criminal justice system listen
48:50
what I'm most concerned about is the
48:53
extent to which misinterpretation of
48:55
social media communication can lead to a
48:57
new form of mass incarceration if we do
49:00
not consider that our context that we
49:03
may not have the correct lens the
49:05
correct frame for interpreting social
49:07
media communication the response could
49:12
be detrimental in particular for the
49:15
black and brown community as we see most
49:17
of the surveillance that's happening is
49:19
centered along black lives matter
49:22
movements and communities that are
49:24
composed of black and brown individuals
49:27
before we move on I'd like to give our
49:29
other panelists an opportunity to
49:32
respond to that to what
49:35
dr. Patterson has presented anybody so
49:46
you know I really appreciate bringing
49:49
that up because I'll just tell you from
49:51
an everyday law enforcement perspective
49:53
social media is one of the go-to tools
49:56
now right and so if you're talking about
49:58
really changing the trajectory of
50:01
policing you look at some of the tools
50:04
that are some of the emerging tools that
50:06
are being used and so I won't say much
50:08
more than that we can get some of the
50:09
other questions but I do think it is a
50:11
very relevant piece that oftentimes we
50:13
just aren't very much aware of just
50:16
because of the nature of modern-day
50:17
policing and how policing is being done
50:19
these days I think also and dr. Lewis if
50:23
you don't mind if I chime in to what dr.
50:25
patent without is what we see in the
50:28
policing of other types of behavior
50:30
where people of color differently police
50:35
then then white individuals so
50:39
statistically you know depending on the
50:42
different crime categories and there's
50:44
no differences in criminal behavior and
50:47
but there are differences in arrests
50:49
that are you know biased towards people
50:52
of color and I think what dr. Patton's
50:54
researchers showing as he's finding that
50:56
exact same pattern playing out in social
50:59
media and I think that's really
51:00
important parallel with draw twos like
51:02
this isn't a new pattern it's a new
51:05
platform for the same pattern to be
51:07
repeated that's a so that's definitely
51:10
something that we need to think about
51:12
when we're considering this whole notion
51:16
of improve
51:19
how our communities are dealt with in
51:22
terms of response to their to the needs
51:26
dr. Patterson Oh is there special
51:30
training that police social workers need
51:34
in order to do this work thank you dr.
51:38
Lewis for that question yeah that's a
51:40
very good question
51:41
unfortunately in schools of Social Work
51:43
there's no specific police social
51:45
training that is offered and also
51:48
unfortunately as mr. Jackson was
51:51
mentioning not a lot of police
51:53
departments actually hire police social
51:55
workers so one of the things that we
51:58
need to think about going forward is
52:00
this rich 100-year history that we
52:02
already have is to think about not only
52:04
models of intervention for 9-1-1 calls
52:08
but also models of training okay there
52:13
are a number of ways social workers can
52:17
work in tandem with the with the police
52:22
in order to have safe and protected
52:27
communities are there any that you have
52:32
a particular and I of course not sheriff
52:35
Jackson you have that you have that life
52:38
experience but any other models that you
52:41
may have seen that that that that you
52:43
think are effective any one of the
52:46
panelists so I'll just jump in and say
52:50
again the way that I look at it is
52:53
social work is an all of the above right
52:57
philosophy is the thought is the
52:58
administrative level is the cultural
53:00
shift we often forget about we're
53:03
talking about policing the impact that
53:04
it has on jails as well local community
53:07
so it's about reentry recidivism
53:09
so from settle small questions in our
53:13
Jail we never asked questions around if
53:16
you see someone who comes into your Jail
53:18
11 times what's the real reason behind
53:21
why they came if they're in the local
53:24
Joe eleven times if they were violent
53:26
they being go on with the prison already
53:27
right there in the book with jail for
53:29
seized small crimes and I think a couple
53:31
of other folks have pointed this out
53:33
maybe because of mental health issues or
53:35
something's use disorder or homelessness
53:36
and so yes the social worker being at
53:39
the table to ask that question change
53:42
how we think about the way and make sure
53:44
in the services that we provide in our
53:45
jail so the same thing around policing
53:47
just be in there to ask the question of
53:50
ok this crime keeps happening people era
53:53
over area over and over and over what's
53:55
the problem behind it not just the crime
53:57
I'll give you an example we had a lot of
53:59
business owners in one of our downtown
54:01
areas we're really upset around of this
54:03
prostitution corridor and so folks would
54:06
set up stains and they just arrest folks
54:07
over and over and over but I'm out what
54:10
we started asking was wait a minute why
54:13
are merely women why are these women
54:17
prostituting in this area and every
54:19
single one of them mr. Lewis that we
54:21
asked over a two-year period was because
54:23
of addiction so as a social worker we're
54:25
not worried about just making it rest we
54:27
wanted to find out what's the root cause
54:28
of the problem so now we started to
54:30
develop systems in place to help the
54:32
women deal with addiction not just lock
54:35
them up and clip eugen and so it may
54:37
seem like a small question but it's a
54:39
fundamental shift of law enforcement to
54:41
asked a different question around the
54:43
problem versus address and then they
54:45
start thinking differently about the
54:46
people that they're working with it's
54:48
not just about crime
54:49
it's about humanizing and understanding
54:51
individuals so I'd go on and on about it
54:53
but I think just having a social workers
54:55
voice at the table to be able to ask
54:57
those questions and I really do have to
54:59
stress this law enforcement is a
55:02
hierarchical kind of an organization and
55:04
I think for my sheriff sheriff clean to
55:06
put me high up in the organization as a
55:08
director I don't want a short sale that
55:10
because what he said to me was if I put
55:13
you at the same level say as a deputy
55:15
they could just ignore you right or you
55:17
would do a few things or you become the
55:18
special project on the side but really
55:21
to put some power and authority behind
55:23
the work we're talking about those core
55:26
values not just as a small unit on the
55:28
side can I comment on
55:32
dr. Seuss I think what dr. Jackson's
55:36
talking about too is really highlighting
55:39
this notion that even if we come up with
55:41
alternative first responders to law
55:45
enforcement and there's always going to
55:47
be some difficulty and disentangling
55:52
public health and public safety issues
55:54
where though intersect on the same theme
55:57
and so law enforcement ultimately does
56:00
need an awareness of helping principals
56:03
and Social Work principals and vice
56:05
versa and dr. Patterson I believe that
56:08
you've written about they were proposals
56:11
around social work and police across
56:13
education far back is 1920 right and
56:16
where they were talking about the
56:18
importance for please understand
56:20
institutional racism human behavior
56:23
mental health all the things that we've
56:24
got earlier as social workers they're
56:27
seen in the role of law enforcement and
56:29
the administration of law and or justice
56:31
and so I think there is you know I've
56:34
seen universities propose dual degrees
56:38
and social work and policing and which
56:41
might be a really nice level to look
56:42
into as well so there's this one model
56:48
that has been adopted by Albuquerque New
56:51
Mexico and I believe Newark is also
56:55
doing they're setting it they're gonna
56:57
take 10% of the police budget and create
57:01
a entity in the community that will
57:04
respond to non enforcement issues so set
57:13
up in a sense that entity becomes the
57:16
first we become first responders what is
57:20
what can social workers do as first
57:23
responders that the police should be
57:26
doing and what I make a comment on to
57:29
two parts of it um I think part of it is
57:31
that's a underestimate also changing the
57:34
community's behavior I think I
57:35
referenced that because people naturally
57:37
call 9-1-1 for a lot of things that they
57:39
don't have to right now so creating
57:42
those our system but also helping as a
57:45
community
57:45
about what wait why am i calling a good
57:48
one for someone with a mental health
57:50
crisis when I do have a 24/7 crisis line
57:53
I didn't get a social worker to come out
57:54
it already exists so KJ some of that
57:56
behavior I think is important I just
57:58
wanted to touch on peace now it's the of
58:01
course in as well is that so in our
58:03
community again defunding or changing
58:06
the funding structure is not something
58:07
we were scary for us referenced the
58:10
millage so we weren't trying to have
58:13
this race to the bottom where it's a
58:15
singular decision we got to take from
58:17
police and give to Human Services we
58:19
actually were trying to build both
58:20
systems at the same time right so to be
58:22
able to really educate him provide
58:23
resources yes on the law enforcement
58:24
side to work it at the most sections
58:29
overlap but also to really build out our
58:31
community mental health structures and
58:34
so having the reason that I think are
58:36
definitely needed so when you're again
58:38
are trying to deconstruct something you
58:40
have to have structures if we just say
58:43
law enforcement is no longer respond to
58:46
a B C and D we best have a really good
58:49
alternative right we really need a
58:51
really good alternative
58:52
so yes policing may not be the best
58:54
answer but if we don't have an
58:56
alternative and a really good answer I
58:57
think we do wind up having other kind of
59:00
issues that really pop up so I agree
59:02
with you mr. Louison your question is
59:03
you know there are some models out there
59:05
funding but I think what they're really
59:08
trying to get to it is it is the tool I
59:11
say that is bad it is how the tool has
59:16
been used which is bad right so if we
59:18
really start to separate out where we
59:20
need to separate out get people to the
59:22
right places where they need to go to
59:23
but in those overlapping pieces make
59:25
sure officers have the right tools and
59:27
resources to me I think that's the
59:29
proper step today we to do it both hand
59:32
versus
59:34
one of the other I was just gonna use
59:37
the example of crisis stabilization
59:38
units which is one of the areas that we
59:41
research in which is where law
59:43
enforcement and has the option to take a
59:46
person who's in psychiatric crisis to an
59:50
acute mental health treatment facility
59:53
often times it's only 72 hours so so
59:56
okay answer Part A of your question
59:59
and so alternative responders social
60:02
workers specifically Kimber can provide
60:04
treatment for mental health and
60:06
substance use disorders that may be
60:08
increasing the likelihood of coming into
60:11
contact with law enforcement and that
60:13
also to to Derek's point is people also
60:18
need to those alternatives need to be
60:20
high-quality and actually effective so
60:23
72 hours isn't necessarily going to
60:25
stabilize anybody for longer than 72
60:27
hours so we have to invest the resources
60:30
and those being effective high quality
60:33
alternative and in my early research of
60:37
law enforcement is some of the things
60:38
that they're saying is we have this
60:40
crisis stabilization unit but nobody
60:42
gets any better than when we take in
60:44
there so why would I invest the
60:45
resources in time to take these
60:47
individuals there and when they don't
60:49
from their perceptions don't do any
60:51
better than I do
60:52
if they take them to jail
60:55
so I would ask that the party I was
60:58
about to come to you dr. Patton to say
61:00
if that if we do have that entity in the
61:02
community that's gonna I say we place
61:06
the police but at least you know
61:08
supplement we say a role for technology
61:12
social media in that well first I just
61:15
want to take a step back and go back to
61:18
the question that's been being discussed
61:21
and I think we need to consider the
61:25
framings
61:26
and the paradigms that go into this
61:28
decision-making in the first place what
61:30
I'm concerned about in with what we're
61:32
not really talking about is kind of the
61:34
unlearning of white supremacy that also
61:36
needs to happen in each hand them with
61:39
the tools that are developed the
61:41
alternative strategies that need to be
61:43
in place as well and so I think as we
61:46
are considering all these great ideas
61:49
pets at the forefront and at the core of
61:53
these conversations need to be
61:56
unlearning white supremacy because
61:58
that's going to inform how you treat the
62:01
community how you determine which
62:04
behavior gets which treatment but if
62:07
there are role for technology I think
62:11
that that's a quest
62:12
that should that should that should be
62:15
decided in an interdisciplinary space
62:18
right I don't think there's one entity
62:20
that should decide when and how social
62:23
media is used nothing the problem has
62:26
been there have been a lot of decision
62:28
makers that are using social media in
62:35
inappropriate ways and even in my own
62:38
lab we have struggled with how do we
62:41
tell the most robust stories the most
62:44
ethical stories using social media and
62:48
we have had to do our own unlearning and
62:51
white supremacist framing in that
62:54
process and so I think that you know
62:56
what I would like to see is a
62:59
culmination and a coalition of police
63:04
officers and community members and
63:06
social workers who were thinking
63:08
together and censoring and privilege in
63:11
the voices of those community members to
63:13
make those decisions because I'm not
63:15
sure that I should be using social media
63:17
but I would love to hear from community
63:19
members about the integration of these
63:21
tools in their community can we're about
63:25
to wind down our briefing but someone
63:29
give each of you an opportunity to have
63:32
a last word so to speak and I want you
63:34
to what since we are this is a
63:38
congressional briefing you know what
63:40
what issues do legislators need to focus
63:45
ero in and on as they think about
63:48
expanding social workers involvement in
63:52
this space
63:53
yeah thanks dr. Lewis so I'll get it
63:56
started I think as I said before the
63:58
Social Work profession has a rich
64:00
100-year history of involvement in law
64:04
enforcement so I think that we have a
64:06
lot of knowledge and skills as Vollmer
64:09
first mentioned 100 years ago to bring
64:11
through to reforming police departments
64:14
and rethinking and reimagining policing
64:17
there are also social workers such as
64:19
myself that train police officers and
64:22
actually go into the Academy and train
64:24
recruits we also train
64:26
veteran police officers so there also
64:29
needs to be like a train-the-trainer
64:31
training social workers to train police
64:34
officers and recruits sometimes it's not
64:38
an easy task but it is very rewarding
64:41
and it's very much needed and just to
64:44
finish up and conclude it's like I said
64:46
before what's different this time
64:48
a hundred years later is that now we
64:51
have social workers with this
64:53
paramilitary police experience in both
64:55
the police academy and police
64:58
departments and then also to give a
65:00
shout-out to the FBI
65:01
there's also social workers in the FBI
65:04
what I hear is a common thread is the
65:08
need for the federal government to
65:10
redefine who gets to be an expert in
65:12
this space and what you know this very
65:16
prestigious panel has illuminated is
65:18
that social workers have a long history
65:21
a lot of knowledge that can be a healthy
65:25
contribution to hopefully disrupting how
65:29
we think about policing in the 21st
65:31
century and so I am hopeful that we will
65:34
now integrate these ideas not only from
65:37
social workers and from Social Work
65:39
researchers but from the communities
65:41
that we are all embedded in and uplift
65:44
those voices to be a part of the
65:45
solution so the themes that I've heard
65:49
throughout today is that there needs to
65:52
be incremental thoughtful change it is
65:56
evidence driven and evaluative there may
65:59
be areas where we don't have any
66:01
evidence yet
66:02
we need to continue it to evaluate our
66:06
interventions and I would add to that
66:08
the key component of that evaluation
66:12
needs to be that any reform approaches
66:14
or any collaboration approaches
66:16
effectively promote racial equality and
66:20
reduce racial disparities and throughout
66:24
our duty and the second thing that I
66:28
heard is that it's another key component
66:31
to improving community well-being and in
66:34
reducing racial and economic disparities
66:36
is that we have to look for
66:39
ways to effectively create and promote
66:41
public health because when we
66:45
effectively create and promote public
66:47
health then we reduce the need for
66:49
public safety interventions and police
66:52
can actually they focus on law
66:55
enforcement and the true sense of the
66:57
way instead of being forced to police
67:01
actual public health issues and and then
67:04
the final thing that I've heard is that
67:08
well I keep saying final but I really
67:11
have two more so the second two the
67:13
final thing that I heard is that we
67:14
really need cross-disciplinary trained
67:16
and that both professions have a lot to
67:20
learn both professions need to be self
67:22
evaluated and there and interactions
67:24
with and we need to understand each
67:27
other's language and the final thing
67:31
with that there's really no silver
67:33
bullet right there's a there's a need
67:34
for a comprehensive overhaul just use
67:39
one intervention approach I do just want
67:44
to mention a couple things I'm glad you
67:45
asked the question about specific to
67:46
legislators I think if there's some way
67:48
to incentivize both internally and
67:50
externally this work I think that's a
67:53
huge way so I don't have a clear-cut way
67:55
of how to incentivize but financial
67:57
incentives are our important way to do
67:59
that both on the community side to think
68:01
about social workers and community
68:03
getting involved in the criminal justice
68:04
system but also to incentivize within
68:06
law enforcement so I often say that you
68:10
know this is what I do for a living like
68:12
I literally get to sit with in the
68:13
sheriff's office and think about these
68:14
kinds of issues every day all day I get
68:16
to push our agency sometimes but my head
68:19
and fall down on but sometimes get back
68:20
up and really push us in a positive
68:22
direction so I do feel like or agencies
68:27
that have that voice or that conscience
68:29
internally because the stuff that we
68:31
were talking about dr. Patton brought up
68:33
a lot of these programs and issues book
68:36
will help right folks from mental health
68:38
and things like that but in this case if
68:41
that would not have helped mr. Floyd
68:43
right and so we really need to be
68:45
changing some of the things that dr.
68:47
Patton ORS of illuminating for us yes we
68:49
need all these other programs but
68:51
there's all these other things
68:52
think intrinsically within law
68:54
enforcement that we know exists and how
68:55
do we actually change those so I'll just
68:57
give a very specific example around
68:59
maybe one way so in our agency we took a
69:02
drug forfeiture is always the
69:04
controversial thing so our sheriff said
69:05
you know what a certain percentage of
69:08
drug forfeiture dollars that come into
69:09
our agency every year is going back into
69:11
community educate community engagement
69:13
so using the same money that we would
69:15
take not to buy new guns or cars but
69:17
using that money to help redirect funds
69:19
into a substance use disorder treatment
69:21
or helping to do some community
69:23
engagement stuff so one of the things I
69:26
would say to some of the legislators on
69:27
the call is both at the federal and the
69:29
state level that drug forfeiture
69:32
legislation and policy can be really
69:35
restrictive that even agency like us
69:36
they might want to use those dollars to
69:38
do other things can't be done and so it
69:42
really limits how we could use that so
69:44
that would be one very specific one and
69:45
then the other thing that I think is
69:47
important is social work but also peer
69:49
it's like how do you get these civilians
69:51
or people with lived experience there
69:52
are a lot of really they're social
69:54
workers that have lived experience with
69:55
the system but they cannot work or
69:58
they're restricted from work and are
69:59
limited in doing this work but they are
70:01
probably some of the best experts around
70:03
and so legislation to really change that
70:05
to allow for folks to be able to work in
70:08
the police agency they don't have to
70:09
have access to like law enforcement
70:11
terminals and all those things but
70:13
making it easier to hire folks I think
70:15
at the local policy level but also at
70:17
the legislative level okay so as we
70:22
close i we we've given some advice to
70:26
the legislators just tell me what one
70:28
important thing social workers need to
70:30
be thinking when they move into this I'm
70:33
a social worker and I'm thinking I'm
70:35
gonna go into community work I mean with
70:41
you in st. they've ADA would mean both
70:42
micro and macro skills if they're gonna
70:44
go into a space and non social workers
70:47
might not understand that I mean more
70:49
direct services versus community
70:51
organizing skills but what what are what
70:54
are one important thing that we really
70:57
must consider as we move into that space
71:02
I'm gonna steal yours dr. Lewis I think
71:07
it's not to come in with us like like
71:10
we're a fixer or a savior kind of an
71:13
orientation you know to understand the
71:17
nuance in the complication I'm just not
71:20
coming like we're gonna save everything
71:22
and fix the police yeah I would say I
71:26
think it's a great one but I would also
71:27
say to check your biases at the door I
71:30
came into this work thinking a certain
71:33
way about policing and I would say it's
71:35
just like the analogy I use it's like
71:38
you're a social worker and you're
71:39
working with a mom who abused or
71:40
neglected her kid you might remove that
71:43
kid for a time period but you might have
71:45
disdain for what that mother did to that
71:47
child but you're always working to
71:49
reunify that family and help that mom we
71:52
have done some horrible things to be
71:54
better and so around law enforcement I
71:56
think the same way we know there's been
71:58
some atrocities there we may separate
72:00
and protect this we can but ultimately
72:02
have the social worker how do you check
72:04
that your own personal bias against law
72:06
enforcement to really start to playing
72:07
folks together number one I think there
72:10
should be more social workers involved
72:12
in tech development and I think that
72:14
that engagement will have a ripple
72:16
effect with how social media is used
72:19
within our society and particularly in
72:22
the criminal justice system so please
72:25
teach students about technology learn
72:28
more about technology integrate tech
72:31
into your research and daily practice in
72:35
some capacity but what I really
72:37
appreciate about being a social worker
72:38
is that my values matter and that I can
72:42
bring those values everywhere I go and
72:44
they are up for discussion and they can
72:45
be integrated and so continue to uplift
72:50
those values in the spaces that you
72:51
enter and I would say that social
72:54
workers are very familiar with working
72:56
in post settings like schools hospitals
73:00
working in a law enforcement setting is
73:03
kind of similar to military social work
73:05
one of the things we have to think about
73:07
as we move into this space is working in
73:10
a paramilitary organization where there
73:12
is a very strict chain of command and we
73:15
also have to be
73:16
comfortable where we are working with
73:18
others that are armed and have access to
73:22
guns and other weaponry that can make a
73:26
lot of social workers uncomfortable
73:29
thank you I want to thank our panelists
73:31
for a very lively and informative
73:34
discussion and as we draw to a close
73:38
we're going to have a few words from dr.
73:41
Angelo McLain was the chief executive
73:45
officer of the National Association of
73:48
Social Workers dr. clay thank you thank
73:53
you dr. Boyce I'm just sitting here so
73:56
excited to hear the Pantanal I thank all
74:00
of you for sharing your your your
74:02
expertise and your your knowledge and
74:05
just interesting the planners did a good
74:07
job of putting together social work
74:10
education Social Work practice social
74:13
research in social work technology and
74:16
then we have you dr. Lewis bringing up
74:18
the political social work end of things
74:21
and I think what I can contribute to
74:23
this is you know it's sort of the
74:25
advocacy piece that any SW can bring to
74:27
this space and then also the
74:29
professional development part but just
74:32
the dr. Patterson you talked about our
74:34
rich 100-year history I want to tell
74:37
your commander Jackson that offer
74:40
director Jackson you know you know the
74:43
day to day nuts and bolts you know in
74:45
and out not only at a micro level you
74:48
know in the field but in a meso level of
74:51
designing the programs and the solutions
74:53
and then you know at a macro level and
74:57
showing showing the way and dr. Pettis
75:01
Davis here you do the research that you
75:03
mentioned in and just a reminder that we
75:05
want all these things we implement want
75:08
to have it through a lens of achieving
75:12
social justice and show social equity
75:14
and a doctor patterning when you talk
75:18
about on you know social
75:23
Media and how that could be another way
75:26
of form of mass incarceration and that
75:29
we really need to be down with the
75:30
technology to bring that in that can
75:33
bring those things I think the one thing
75:36
I heard loud and clear from all of you
75:38
is that there is an alternative response
75:44
where there's a 9-1-1 call 2-1-1 call
75:47
whatever it is but not only is there an
75:49
alternative response but we know how to
75:52
do this we have been doing this we can
75:55
learn how to do more of it how to do it
75:57
better there's a need for an insider
76:00
approach and an outsider approach I
76:03
think back to Whitney Young
76:05
you know backed into sixties he was
76:07
sometimes criticized because he had an
76:09
insider approach he said you know I want
76:12
to be in the boardroom I want to be in
76:14
the White House you know Whitney knew
76:16
you know personally knew of three
76:18
presidents and they called on him so and
76:20
we do need within our profession that
76:22
insider approach and the outsider
76:24
approach and and we know when we say
76:27
there's a role for social workers within
76:31
law enforcement we're not we're not at
76:35
any way saying that there isn't a need
76:37
for a reform and in some places radical
76:40
reform we know that needs there I'm so
76:43
glad you guys talked about the unpacking
76:45
you know white supremacy and how that
76:48
that framing permeates and we need to
76:52
make sure that we're addressing that I
76:53
had worked in child welfare you know for
76:57
two decades and you know and I produced
77:01
a doctor passion about me working a lot
77:02
of host settings because you know
77:04
whether it's in hospitals schools you
77:07
know working in child welfare and you
77:09
know oftentimes I when I get a call from
77:11
an officer saying could you leave me at
77:13
such-and-such address or might call them
77:15
and say can you meet me at such-and-such
77:16
address and we always had each other's
77:19
back you know we could sort of move in
77:21
and out and oh maybe I was taking the
77:23
lead one time and then they were taking
77:25
the lead the next time but we know how
77:28
to do this work and I'm so glad you guys
77:31
are saying the examples and providing
77:33
the leadership I know and as a
77:36
profession
77:37
we're positioned in this moment you know
77:39
many of us have long have really longed
77:42
for years to be on the nightly news have
77:46
the president say 50 workers in an
77:48
executive order here this moment is and
77:52
you guys have been on this path for
77:55
years you know preparing the life and
77:58
paving the way for Social Work so I see
78:01
this at the moment dr. Lewis when our
78:03
profession is we're more than ready
78:05
we're ready when we can able to address
78:09
this thing from so many angles and not
78:12
to give up on our on our often ago to
78:15
have a more humane and just society so
78:18
I'm honored to share the stage with you
78:21
guys that dr. Lewis I'll I'll hand it
78:24
back to you thank you much and we want
78:27
to thank everyone who joined us for this
78:29
discussion and we want to hear from you
78:32
so we've created an email account just
78:36
to hear from our audience um social work
78:41
dot policing at gmail.com social work
78:48
dot policing at gmail.com we want to
78:53
hear your comments your thoughts you
78:57
know where where where we could do
78:59
better where we may be some issues we
79:02
didn't get to cover uh but we we do want
79:06
to hear from you and the sponsors would
79:10
like to thank congresswoman barbara Lee
79:12
and the Congressional Social Work caucus
79:16
congresswoman Karen bass and Senator van
79:20
Chris Van Hollen for supporting this
79:25
effort and I need to say that
79:28
congresswoman Lee and congresswoman bass
79:30
are social workers so we're wonderfully
79:33
have we're always happy to work with
79:35
them
79:35
and I would like to thank our planning
79:39
and production team dr. Michael Sheridan
79:42
and Lissa Johnson at the Center for
79:45
Social Development
79:46
Sarah butts and raffia Vitaly
79:50
in esw yes-men comples mendes and for
79:54
hana Shafi at crisp so again uh we thank
79:59
you for coming we we had I think this
80:02
was a very fruitful discussion it will
80:06
be it is being videotaped and will be
80:10
may be available on there the Center for
80:13
Social Development website NSW's website
80:16
and Chris website so until we meet again
80:22
want to encourage everyone to stay safe
80:26
and wear your masks
