The Buford Hwy Corridor PSN

A Multijurisdictional Collaboration in Georgia, 2016 - 2019

Project Report

Foreword

Buford Hwy Corridor PSN Report

was prepared by

This project was supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance Grant No. 2016-GP-BX-0007

Findings and conclusions of the research reported here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Please direct inquires to

Shila René Hawk, Ph.D. 3235 Cains PL NW, Atlanta, GA 30305 [email protected], 404.881.1120 x101

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS Acknowledgements

This project would not have been possible without the “Buford Hwy Corridor PSN” task force, which included numerous hardworking individuals from the Northern District of Georgia’s United States Attorney’s Office, Brookhaven Police Department, DeKalb County Police Department, Chamblee Police Department, Rehoboth Baptist Church, and Applied Research Services, Inc.

In addition, the task force was supported by many individuals from the following agencies: the City of Brookhaven; Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI); Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC); Georgia Department of Community Supervision; Georgia Gang Investigators Association (GGIA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI); Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA); United States Marshal Service (USMS); Georgia State Patrol (GSP); Raising Expectations Consulting Group, Inc.; and, Michigan State University, among the others consulted.

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS Task Force

U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia

Brookhaven Police Department

DeKalb County Police Department

Chamblee Police Department

Rehoboth Baptist Church

Applied Research Services, Inc.

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS 2019 Evaluation Summary

Problem The Buford Hwy Corridor and South DeKalb County Georgia suffered from disproportionately high rates of gun and gang Reduced Violent Gun Crime crimes. Multiple agencies were - 14% reduction in Buford Hwy Corridor gun crimes responding to connected - Fewer weapons reported at schools incidents, yet efforts were not - 87 violent repeat offenders adopted for federal being coordinated. prosecution - 5% reduction in South DeKalb gun-related crimes - No known 2019 homicides in the Brookhaven Goals Buford Hwy beats

DECREASE

↓ Gun Violence Decreased Gang Activity ↓ Gang Membership and - Fewer violent crime arrests related to gang activity Activity - No known 2019 gang motivated homicides in ↓ Crime Along Buford Hwy DeKalb County Corridor - 50% reduction in overall criminal charges against ↓ Public Health Costs arrested gang member - 15% decrease in violence charges

INCREASE

↑ Cross-jurisdictional Increased Cross-jurisdictional Collaboration Collaboration - 80 face-to-face meetings - 12,600 hours of assistance ↑ Standardized Training - Comprehensive data sharing and utilization ↑ Data Sharing and Utilization - Full exchange of gun and gang activity information ↑ Police Legitimacy - 6 types of standardized trainings completed

Response A partnership was established Prevention/Intervention and Outreach between the Northern District of - 54 youths enrolled in mentoring program Georgia USAO, DeKalb County PD, Brookhaven PD, Chamblee - 150 weeks of youth basketball without a violent PD, Rehoboth Baptist Church, incident and Applied Research Services. - Only 10% recidivism among reentry program Efforts focused on violent graduates, compared to 59% on average offender suppression, youth - 5 types of community outreach activities organized intervention, and community outreach. The full report details the project process and impact.

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Table of Contents Foreword ...... i Acknowledgements ...... ii Task Force...... iii 2019 Evaluation Summary ...... iv Introduction...... 1 Context ...... 1 The Problem ...... 5 The Response ...... 7 Principle Aims ...... 8 Figure 6. Project Logic Model ...... 10 Law Enforcement ...... 11 Partnerships ...... 11 Suppression ...... 18 Prevention & Intervention ...... 28 Mentoring ...... 28 Open Gym...... 41 Reentry ...... 42 Outreach ...... 45 Community Gatherings ...... 51 Youth Engagement ...... 52 Awareness Campaigns ...... 53 Exhibitions ...... 55 Media ...... 56 Trainings ...... 57 Federal Prosecutions ...... 57 Conferences & Accreditation ...... 57 Tactical ...... 58 Technology ...... 58 Webinars ...... 61 Instruction ...... 61 Conclusion ...... 66 Recommendations ...... 67 References ...... 75 Appendix A: Project Summary Sheets ...... 79 Appendix B: TTA Report ...... 81 Appendix C: Community Survey ...... 85 Appendix D: Task Force Feedback Forms ...... 89

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List of Tables Table 1. Per-Offense Costs in 2008 Dollars and 2018 Estimate…………………………………….… 1 Table 2. Violent Crime Rate per 100k capita…………………………………………….…….………. 2 Table 3. Federal Gun Charges……………………………………………………………….……….…... 19 Table 4. Reviewed VROs……………………………………………………………………...………….… 20 Table 5. Federal Cases: Sept. 2016 – Sept. 2019………………………………………….…….……… 22 Table 6. Georgia Prison Admissions 2015-2019…………………………………………….…………… 24 Table 7. Gang Member Identification…………………………………………………………………… 24 Table 8. List of Known Gangs (& Subsets) in DeKalb County.….…………………….…….………… 28 Table 9. 2016 GDC In-State Releases (with 3 years follow up) …………………………….………… 43 Table 10.1. Community Survey Results...…………………………………………………….………… 47 Table 10.2. Community Survey Results Continued………………………………………….………… 48 Table 10.3. Community Survey Results Continued………………………………………….………… 48 Table 10.4. Community Survey Results Continued………………………………………….………… 49 Table 11. Human Trafficking Outreach & Education……………………………………….………… 55 Table 12. Police Survey Administration………………………………………………………….………. 62 Table 13. Respondents’ Characteristics………………………………………………………………… 62 Table 14. Police Departments’ Survey Results…………………………………………………….…… 63 Table 15. UCR Incidents: Atlanta MSA Rates per 100,000 Residents……………….………….…… 67

List of Figures Figure 1. Victims of Nonfatal Violent Crime in U.S……………………………………….….…………. 2 Figure 2. E.g., Violent Crime Clusters…………………………………………………….….….………… 3 Figure 3. GA County Diversity Map……………………………………………………….……………… 4 Figure 4. Proportion of GA Aggravated Assaults Committed in DeKalb County………………… 6 Figure 5. DKPD 2016 “Person Shot” 911 Calls……………………………………………………………. 6 Figure 6. Project Logic Model……………………………………………………………………………... 10 Figure 7. WCFI Survey Administrations…………………………………………………………………… 16 Figure 8. Buford Hwy Task Force: Collaboration Health Factors………………………………….…. 18 Figure 9. VRO Review Process……………………………………………………………………….……. 20 Figure 10. VRO’s Arrests Pattern…………………………………………………………………………... 10 Figure 11. Proportion of PSN Crimes Committed by Known Gang Members…………………… 25 Figure 12. UCR Reported Violent Incidents in DeKalb County………………………………………. 27 Figure 13. Percentage of GA Aggravated Assaults committed in DeKalb County.….………… 27 Figure 14. Partnering PDs’ Violent Crime Arrest Rates (per 100k) ……………………….….……. 27 Figure 15. Mentoring Program Participant Surveys……………………………………………………. 33 Figure 16. Enrolled Middle-School Participants: Avg. Attendance………………………………… 35 Figure 17. PSN Data Sharing Portal: Example Report…………………………………………………. 60

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS Introduction

It is rare for a criminal justice professional to have not heard of Project Safe Neighborhoods. Commonly referred to as PSN, it is a successful 20-year-long national violence reduction program out of the U.S. Department of Justice (McGarrell et al., 2013). The program hinges on building collaborations, using data to identify and track the most pressing violent crime problems, and then applying evidence-based or innovative practices that address them (McGarrell, et al., 2009). This report outlines such PSN efforts by the “Buford Hwy Corridor PSN” task force (2016 to 2019), led by the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO), Northern District of Georgia. The first sections define the framework, problem, and response plan. Then, subsequent sections describe the project implantation and outcomes. Context

Violence remains a serious public health concern as it is devastating and expensive to society. In fact, the leading cause of death in the U.S. is violent injury (CDC, 2018). For the survivors, serious physical and mental issues can be a long-term affliction (Vella, Warshauer, & Tortorello, 2019). While calculating all the personal and vicarious damage of violence may never be solved, the economic cost of violence in the U.S. consists of many variables (e.g., missed wages, treatment, prosecution and incapacitation, loss of productivity, pain and suffering, decreased quality of life) that equate to billions of dollars spent every year. Based on McCollister and colleagues’ (2010) estimated economic value of violence in 2008 U.S. dollars, Table 1 shows the 2018 approximate costs1 for murder, aggravated assault, and robbery. Together, this violence cost the public billions of dollars every year.

Table 1. National Institutes of Health Study: Per-Offense Costs in 2008 Dollars and 2018 Estimate

Justice Amount To Victim Offender System Intangible Total 2018 National 2018 Offense Type Cost Cost Cost Cost Adjusted Cost UCR Count2 Costs Est.

Murder $ 737,517 $ 148,555 $ 392,352 $ 8,442,000 $ 8,982,907 16,214 $ 173,355,053,018

Agg. Assault $ 8,700 $ 2,126 $ 8,641 $ 95,023 $ 107,020 807,410 $ 102,846,260,096

Robbery $ 3,299 $ 4,272 $ 13,827 $ 22,575 $ 42,310 282,061 $ 14,204,158,167

$ 290,405,471,281

Using the cost estimates produced by DeLisi and colleagues (2010) (who argue they include more offender-relevant variables in their monetization procedures), the price tag significantly increases to approximately half-a-billion dollars spent on these three crimes in 2018.

1 Adjusted based on the U.S. Department of Labor inflation calculator: https://www.in2013dollars.com/us-economy 2 Retrieved from: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/tables/table-1

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Neither estimates include the expense to hospitals Figure 1. Victims of Nonfatal which results in millions more lost (Peek-Asa, Violent Crime in U.S. Butcher, & Cavanaugh, 2017; Gani, Sakran, & 1,400,000 0.48% Canner, 2006). Further, these costs are only 1,200,000 0.46% calculated for the known incidents; alternative 1,000,000 0.44% data suggests around half of violent victimizations 800,000 0.42% go unreported to the police (Morgan & Kena, 600,000 0.40% 2018). According to National Crime Victimization 400,000 0.38% 3 Survey data, violent victimizations increased 28% 200,000 0.36% from 2015 to 2018, to a current rate over 23 victims 0 0.34% per 1,000 U.S. resident (Morgan & Oudekerk, 2019). 2015 2016 2017 2018

The same trends displayed in Figure 1 are found Serious Violent Crime Count among violent crime with a weapon and that % per persons 12 or older resulted in an injury (Morgan & Oudekerk, 2019).

The reason successful PSN strategies are data driven and targeted is because violence clusters among people and places. Certain victims/offenders and communities experience repeat incidents, while Violent Crime Is NOT Evenly Distributed others are never exposed (Goins & Simpkins, 1992; Across Persons and Places Litacker, 1996). Research has long established that serious violent crime is more likely to occur among small groups of individuals in certain geographical enclaves compared to others (Leovy, 2015; Kennedy, Brown, Brown, & Flemming, 1996).

For instance, Southern states typically Table 2. Violent Crime Rate per 100K capita have higher rates of homicide than the 2015 2016 2017 2018 rest of the U.S. Recently released UCR National Average 384.6 397.1 394.9 380.6 data (2018) puts the national violent Northeast 321.2 317.1 306.2 292.7 crime rate at 380.6 per 100,000 people. Midwest 358.0 378.4 379.4 361.4 Table 2 shows that the Northeast and South 405.6 404.7 424.4 403.9 Midwest fall below that average while West 397.9 418.4 425.6 423.2 the rate in the South is consistently higher.

In addition, violence rates are regularly observed to be greater in urban areas compared to rural regions (Lee, Maume, Ousey, 2003). Then, within an urban area it can be further traced to communities (Shaw & McKay, 1942). In fact, about half of crime stems from around 6% of people

3 NCVS data are collected from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households regarding nonfatal crimes. For more information, visit: https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NACJD/NCVS/

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Figure 2. E.g., Violent Crime Clusters and 3% of neighborhoods (Weisburd, 2015; Wolfgang, Figlio, & Sellin, 1972); this is particularly true for nonfatal shootings (Papachristos, Wildenman, & Roberto, 2014). Areas most blighted by violence share comparable characteristics. Impoverished communities are at greater risk of experiencing serious violence than middle and upper-class neighborhoods (Parker & Pruitt, 2000; Williams & Flewelling, 1988). Areas with higher rates of unemployment, racial segregation, family disruptions, and mobility have been shown to struggle with high crime rates (Bursik & Grasmick, 1993; Sampson, Raudenbush & Earls, 1997; Shaw & McKay, 1942) and the highest homicide rates in a city (Meithe & Meier, 1994; Ousey, 2000; Peterson & Krivo, 1993; Shihadeh & Steffensmeier, 1994). The presence of group or gang activity (Cronin et al., 2007) in neighborhoods is also predictive of higher homicide rates (Laurikkala, 2011; Lee, 2011) as violence and gun use become normalized (Anderson, 1999). Given the outlined importance of locations, the next sections describe the project setting.

Georgia

As the 8th most populated state, Georgia (GA) is home to over 10.6 million people living within 59,000k square miles. With a diverse landscape, high and growing annual Gross Domestic Product 4 and a strong connection of infrastructure and global access; Georgia has been regularly listed among the top 10 fastest growing states.5 It also has a busy criminal justice system. On average, each year there are nearly half-a-million arrests, 52,000 inmates, and 230,000 individuals on correctional supervision. These offenders drive an annual violent crime rate that has historically matched the national average (FBI, 2018). The Northern District of Georgia

In addition to the state criminal justice system, there are three federal court districts in GA. In 2017, Northern District United States Attorney (USA) Horne was succeeded by Byung J. “BJay” Pak. USA Pak oversees around a hundred Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSAs), who serve 46 counties (2/3rd GA population) across the Atlanta, Gainesville, Newnan, and Rome Division Offices (locations pictured right). One of their primary goals is to mitigate violent, gun, and gang crimes. This means frequently working cases in the metro-Atlanta area.

4 Retrieved from: https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/georgia 5 Retrieved from: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/estimates-cities.html#table1

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The Metro-Atlanta Area

The Georgia violent rates are largely driven by cities with populations over 100,000. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget lists the metro-Atlanta area as one of the most populated urban area in the world with 6 million residents. About 35 people move to Atlanta every day, with even more flocking to the suburban sprawl; consequently, population growth will rise by nearly three million more residents over the next thirty years. 6 According to Uniform Crime Report data, violent crime occurs five time more often in metro-Atlanta than anywhere else in the state.

The Atlanta Regional Commission defines the metropolitan area by 10 counties (pictured above).7 In the past decade,8 there have been over two-million arrests made by local law enforcement in metro-Atlanta. A third of those were for serious crimes and 13% violent felony arrests. The 71,000 violent-felony arrests averaged 3 charges and 12% were gun related. Around 22,000 of the arrested offenders were known gang members 9 who have racked up 30,000 lifetime gun charges so far (avg. 36 years old). In the Atlanta area, offenders are known to commit crime in multiple jurisdictions. On average, violent offenders have been arrested by five agencies. One of those agencies is often within DeKalb County as it is the second highest violent crime rate and arrest counts in the city. DeKalb County

DeKalb County (est. 1822) is one of the fastest Figure 3. GA County Diversity Map growing counties in GA with an average annual change (2010-2018) of 6,580 residents. 10 The U.S. Census Bureau 2018 estimate puts the population over 750,000. 11 That equates to 2,823 people per square mile, thus it is a densely populated county compared to the state (i.e., 179 people per square mile). It is also one of the most diverse areas in metro-Atlanta (see Figure 3) with 71% people of color (9% Hispanic/Latino, 7% Asian, and 55% black/AA, and 19% non-English languages spoken at home). Unfortunately, it also has one of the lowest

6 Retrieved from: https://atlantaregional.org/news/press-releases/metro-atlanta-population-to-grow-by-2-9-million- and-reach-8-6-million-by-2050-atlanta-regional-commission-forecasts-show/ 7 This is not comparable to the U.S. Census Metropolitan Statistical Area which includes 28 counties. 8 The most recent arrest data available were used to count arrests from July 31, 2009 – July 31, 2019. 9 Subject to ARS coding from sources of GA data as no central gang member database exists. 10 Retrieved from: https://www.dekalbcountyga.gov/news/dekalb-county-top-three-metro-population-growth 11 Retrieved from: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/dekalbcountygeorgia

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS per capita incomes ($32,100), amount of high school graduates (89%), people employed (67%), and owner-occupied home values ($176,000 median). Within a year, 18% of people move residences and each year over 100,000 DeKalb County residents are uninsured and impoverished. As the county has grown and faced challenges over the years, the police continue to work with “the public and within the framework of the U.S. Constitution to enforce the laws, preserve the peace, reduce fear, and provide for a safe environment”.12 The Police

DeKalb County Police Department (DKPD) is the second largest authorized force in metro- Atlanta. At the time of this project, Chief Conroy oversaw 700 to 800 officers (~1100:1 officer-to- resident ratio). DKPD managed 271 square miles divided into four precincts. The department handled a large volume of crime with a quarter to a third of arrests being violent crime related. Two smaller city police departments in DeKalb County partnered on this project—Brookhaven (BPD) and Chamblee (CPD).

The City of Brookhaven (est. 2012) was just over 50,000 population. Chief Yandura oversaw between 65-75 BPD officers (~600:1 officer-to-resident ratio). BPD served 12 square miles divided into 5 zones. They averaged 10-15% of arrests for violent crimes. The City of Chamblee (est. 1908) was around 30,000 residents living in the 7 square mile jurisdiction. Chief Williams was succeeded by Chief Thomas in 2018. CPD employed 70-80 officers across 4 zones (~450:1 officer-to-resident ratio).

All three of the departments were dealing with sprawling gang violence, from South DeKalb up through the “Buford Hwy Corridor.” Since, each jurisdiction contained part of the 3-mile- long Buford Hwy (pictured left), the PDs often were dealing with the same problem people. While multiple agencies were responding to connected incidents, no efforts were being coordinated. Next, we detail the extent of that problem before the project started in 2016.

The Problem

While the Fulton County violence had been reduced in recent years (ARS, 2017), municipal concern persisted in DeKalb County. DeKalb County had the second highest violent crime rates in the metro-Atlanta, so when it increased by 13% in five-years’ time, the USAO was alarmed.13 Between 2011 to 2015, law enforcement noted that homicide incidents had increased by 8%,

12 Retrieved from: https://www.dekalbcountyga.gov/police-services/welcome 13 Data retrieved from: https://gbi.georgia.gov/services/crime-statistics/gbi-crime-statistics-database

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS aggravated assaults by 5% and robberies by 27%. This Figure 4. Proportion of GA meant that even though the county only housed 7% of Aggravated Assaults the GA population, it had contributed up to 16% of the Committed in DeKalb County murders and 19% of the robberies in the past decade. 9% In fact, the amount of aggravated assaults committed 9% in DeKalb had nearly doubled over the past decade 8% (see Figure 4). 8% In 2016, the GA homicide rate was 6.46, while the 7% DeKalb county rate was 11.17. The disparity seemed 7% to be driven by offending in the South DeKalb area. 6% One precinct was logging 30-40% of serious violent crime in the county. The USAO reviewed the South 6% DeKalb numbers and realized that in just a few years, 5% their share of homicides rose 5% and robberies and assaults increased by 14% and 12%, respectively.

Talking to DKPD officers clarified that the issue was crimes involving guns and gangs. This was not necessarily a new issue but as the city expanded, so did DeKalb’s population density, the gang violence, and public awareness. A DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, Gang Unit Investigator said “It happens all over our county. Gang stuff goes on every day in this county.”14

More than 100 criminal gangs were operating in the jurisdiction. In 2015-2016, over 400 gang members had been Figure 5. DKPD 2016 "Person Shot" 911 Calls detected by the DKPD Gang Unit and 200 guns had been seized. Indeed, there was a disproportionate volume of “person shot” calls for service to the South Precinct (see Figure 5) and half of the homicides were linked to gangs. Gangs in South DeKalb included some of the most notoriously dangerous: Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples, Mexican Mafia, and MS-13. Evidence included social media posts and graffiti (e.g., picture below).

14 Retrieved from: http://thechampionnewspaper.com/news/local/gang-recruitment-begins-early-in-dekalb- county/

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The DeKalb gang crime was particularly affecting the Buford Hwy Corridor. CPD and BPD noticed gang activity along the parts of Buford Hwy in their jurisdiction as well. Both of the other PDs were seeing increased activity among gang members of Norteños, Sureños, Latin Kings, Blocc Crips, LaRazza, Bloods and Gangster Disciples. Although BPD and CPD had limited gang training and neither had a gang unit, they had identified 10 and 16 gangs respectively.

While the violent crime incident counts may seem small compared those logged by DKPD, the 300% increase in CPD homicides between 2014-2016 was upsetting. Aggravated assaults in Chamblee increased by 119% and 114% in Brookhaven. In 2016, 100% the (3) homicides, 88% of (97) robberies, and 83% of (64) aggravated assaults in BPD’s jurisdiction were in one of the two beats covering the Buford Hwy Corridor. Additionally, 61% of the robberies and 81% of the assaults in the Buford Hwy beats involved a gun. Communities were being terrorized, deteriorating, (e.g., pictured above) and needed to be reengaged. The Response

Many PSN sites have successfully reduced violence rates, particularly gun and gang crimes (McGarrell, et al., 2009). Recognizing that, a PSN grant was applied for to support such efforts in South DeKalb County and the Buford Hwy Corridor. The proposal was to respond to the above described community-based problems through targeted law enforcement of the most violent offenders and be comprehensive in including agencies and service providers in crime prevention (see the logic model on page 10). Funding was awarded at the end of 2016, and a strategic plan was approved at the beginning of 2017. The strategy developed and implemented through the USAO adhered to all five PSN design elements as prescribed by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Core PSN Elements

• Partnerships with local and state agencies • Strategic planning with a research partner • Training on laws or crime trends • Community outreach and public awareness campaigns • Accountability through progress reports

Partnerships

The strategy as set forth by the USAO to ameliorate the violent crime rate within the identified areas was predicated on the successful Atlanta PSN (ARS, 2017). The USAO demonstrated leadership in coordinating the different components of the program, while ensuring that all modifications and regular assessments of the strategy were data-driven and properly contextualized. It required robust coordination and collaboration of multiple federal, state and

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local law enforcement agencies in accord with faith- based and social service agencies within the target areas. The partnerships were to ensure that violent Principle Aims repeat offenders were fully prosecuted (through the federal system), and the target areas received the focused crime suppression it needed, but also were Multiagency Gang Task Force provided services designed to prevent youth from joining gangs (see principle aims listed left).

➢ Implement Exchange of The key task force members were AUSAs, command Information Among Agencies staff and detectives from DKPD, CPD, BPD, Rehoboth ➢ Coordinate Operations Church as the community partner and researchers ➢ Improve Cross-jurisdictional from Applied Research Services, Inc. They regularly Deconfliction met on the last Thursday of every month. Those ➢ Make Data-Based Decisions meetings were frequently supplemented with calls, electronic communications, special events and ➢ Increase Federal Prosecutions smaller meetings. Other agencies aided as necessary. • Violent Repeat Offender The partnerships were essential to the success of the Incapacitation project and the ultimate betterment of the target • Gang Suppression communities.

➢ Standardize Gang Strategic Planning Investigations Training At the start of the project, the USAO, research partner, and police crime analysts accrued essential data and conducted rigorous analysis to inform and shape Target Communities planning. Then, the task force followed the SARA model of problem solving (i.e., Scanning, Analysis, ➢ Provide Youth Programming Response, and Assessment) throughout the grant. The • Prevent Gang Membership law enforcement agencies and ARS worked in ➢ Better Police-community tandem to create a data feedback loop, wherein the Relations increased police focus on gun and gang activity ➢ Create Awareness of Human funneled essential quantitative and qualitative data Trafficking Services to ARS, and ARS shared analyses with the task force. ARS exchanged with the agencies’ crime analysts ➢ Decrease Gun and Gang Activity and command staff often as well. ARS also accessed the state criminal history repository to generate arrest ➢ Reduce Violent Crime trend reports and other state agency data for ad hoc analyses and to provide essential information on the target offenders or to identify root problems within the target areas. Other information sharing occurred between gang investigators and with the assistance gang investigations software.

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Training A pressing concern for the task force was the lack of appropriate and thorough reporting of gang activity. It was a priority to standardize gang education, member identification techniques, case investigations, and response tactics, within and by the task force. Training was also provided on federal prosecutions, data analyses, and other gaps in knowledge and technical capacity. Rehoboth Baptist Church provided tutoring on a variety of topics to youth in the target areas.

Outreach The outreach component of the strategy was robust. Two types were employed by the PSN task force: targeted and general. The targeted efforts focus on prevention to deter youth from starting criminal activity and getting involved with gangs. The general efforts included community gatherings and youth engagement as the task force recognized the importance of connecting with residents. It also helped the USAO and task force to understand community needs around social services that relate directly to a reduction to gun and gang crime. Lastly, human trafficking awareness campaigns were conducted because gangs are increasingly involved with prostitution and the victimization of young women and men.

Accountability In addition to quarterly status reports sent to BJA, the project included process and impact measures beyond traditional output variables. Indeed, data were used make modifications to the strategy throughout the project, as well as collect qualitative and quantitative information to report intermediate and longitudinal gains. The additional accountability measures are essential to PSN reporting as areas with a stubborn core of violence do not change quickly or within the timelines of evaluations. As such, the task force integrated mixed tracking metrics and project sustainability. Methodological details are provided with the project results in the next sections, which specify how these core PSN elements were implemented.

THE REINVIGORATION OF PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS NATIONALLY

The Buford Hwy PSN was born out of the 2016 competitive PSN grant awards, but later married to a districtwide approach. The government started PSN in 2001 with funding for all U.S. Attorney’s Offices based on a formula accounting for area population and violence rates. In 2012, funding allocations were switched to a competitive grant process. Applicants would submit proposals that outlined their problems and idea to solve them, then a select few projects were awarded the funding to make it happen. In 2017 (a year into this project), the Attorney General announced PSN was being reinvigorated to the national scale in response to widespread increases in violent crime. The subsequent year PSN funding was once again provided to the 94 USAOs based on a distribution formula. Correspondingly, the North District of GA USAO expanded PSN efforts to include a Violent Repeat Offender task forces in the four divisions, a reentry program, justice-involved youth mentoring, and multiple new target enforcement sites. Some of the metro-area overlaps are reported here.

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Figure 6. Project Logic Model

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Law Enforcement

Law enforcement efforts were led by the USAO and three partnering police departments. They met every month starting in 2016 to exchange information, organize operations, improve deconfliction, and work on federal prosecution cases. The last 3 months of 2016 were devoted to building the multijurisdictional task force strategic action plan. Then, at the beginning of 2017 U.S. President Trump took office and assigned new U.S. Attorneys. During the time required for the USAOs to reconfigure, the task force worked on building trust, integrating more data-based decision making, normalizing communications, and standardizing training. While it may seem that these characteristics would be organic due to the nature of the job and project goals, there are variations in experiences, operating procedures, and organizational culture among police departments that challenge collaborations. This section details the project work on partnerships and suppression, and related impact findings. Partnerships Trust is established through Deliberately building rapport among partnering agencies Transparency is an important part of PSN. The collaboration was formed Dependability through regular communication, open sharing of gang Engagement investigations, and trainings (discussed later). One of the Competency first steps was for everyone to exchange professional and Reciprocity contact information; and, it was rare for many days to Reasonableness pass without partners communicating. At times it could be Credibility as quick and simple as officers needed to identify gang Authenticity activity or graffiti in the field, and another agency would respond; whereas other efforts included extensive Respectfulness planning and management. The task force continuously looked for ways to strengthen coordination, exchange resources, and support local officers. For instance, when new officers or federal agents would join the group, they were provided an ‘on-boarding’ packet that included 1) a project summary (see Appendix A), 2) general description of roles and responsibilities, 3) contact details, and 4) outline of how cases are adopted by AUSAs (discussed later). Furthermore, the departments regularly share information about PSN related activities in the form of weekly highlights, summary sheets, and incident reports. Information on investigated gang crimes and criminals, typically obtained from social media, Formulytics, and records management systems (RMS) were passed to all project officers. Data were also received from the research partner on the history of persons with new arrests and under correctional supervision.

The PSN-related work helped the task force’s standing among other agencies. They were requested to consult and be brokers of information in the metro area. In part, this was due to

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS strategic efforts by task force members to organize and host gang-intel meetings for additional metro-area police to further share what had been learned, extend deconflict efforts and focus on long-term problem solving. An example of the use of their expertise would be when detectives met several times with School Resource Officers about gang-related crimes. They offered guidance on a complicated incident investigation and monitored the case as it progressed. In addition to internal partnerships, the task force worked with other state and federal agencies. ATF and FBI employees attended task force meetings and worked on cases.

Joint Operations

Proactive police work included supporting officers during directed patrols, undercover tactics, compliance checks, and other investigations that could reduce the likelihood of gang and gun violence. For instance, a BPD officer pulled over a car that resulted in a search. The search revealed drugs, stolen guns, and a large amount of cash. When the PSN commanding officers were notified, a partnering lieutenant advised the suspects were gang affiliated. Subsequent investigations revealed the individuals were connected to a local nightclub suspected for gang-related crimes, as well as human trafficking (another PSN- related concern). That cued the taskforce to expand their investigation towards the PSN area clubs. One lounge had accumulated complaints of illegal activity and another was suspected of prostitution. They conducted compliance checks and ran the backgrounds of employees and frequent patrons. They discovered that guns were being sold in a club parking lot and that gang members frequently had parties there.

In fact, social media searches found that a known gang member was going to have a birthday event that would likely lure rival gang violence. The task force responded quickly to interrupt the gun sales and organize an operation to possibly prevent a retaliation shooting. The group held a briefing to decide how to handle the situation, ultimately coordinating a special operation to provide high visibility patrols in the club area to deter criminal activity. An operational plan was agreed upon, a radio signal was designated, and all were briefed. The three departments deployed officers (of various ranks), one of which was in an undercover vehicle and another K- 9 equipped. The officers worked the entire night together. There were no shootings, gang- initiated or otherwise, related to the event. Officers later regrouped to provided expert gang testimony to the Brookhaven City Hall to close the establishment.

In another PSN operation, several locations were identified as sources of gang activity and related serious crimes (e.g., pedestrian robberies), so the task force devised action plans to address the issues, worked together in organizing and conducting a response, and later reviewed the outcomes for what could be improved. When the team worked to solve a string of gang-suspected burglaries in Chamblee and Brookhaven, several warrants were obtained for violent offenders.

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The task force also monitored locations and reviewed pole camera footage specifically looking for drive-by shooting and carjacking offenders. Several locations with gang recruiting and initiations were surveilled. They conducted bus-line sweeps as a group when organized smuggling was questioned. An undercover operation of a trap house, followed by a search warrant to seize evidence of prostitution, resulted in two individuals arrested for pimping, one person was arrested for prostitution, and another booked for a warrant issued by an outside agency. Another investigation lead to a significant haul of seized guns (see picture left).

When the partners were not conducting joint operations, they helped with federal efforts. ATF was a significant presence in the project, both in providing and requesting casework. One case resulted in six suspects being charged with the Gang Act in addition to burglary and robbery charges and seizure of five firearms and an assortment of drugs. The FBI was also involved, helping to build cases and lead operations. PSN officers assisted the FBI’s Atlanta Safe Streets Gang Task Force as well, which resulted in the arrest and indictment of 30 gang members and associates on RICO-related charges.

There was also a connection between an ongoing FBI investigation and a task force gang investigation of a home invasion/robbery that occurred in Brookhaven. A firearm stolen from the home-invasion victim was recovered from an aggravated assault incident in Cobb County carried out by members of a target gang. PSN task force members provided social media research and analysis regarding the connection between the perpetrator of the Brookhaven home invasion and his possible links to the target gang. Brookhaven shared those findings with the FBI Gang Unit as well as the USAO. As a result of the coordination, the Brookhaven home invasion may serve as predicate in the eventual federal RICO prosecution.

Lastly, the PSN task force worked with the USAO and local DA offices to develop a “gang initiative” for the larger Atlanta metro area. Known gang member profiles were solicited from the police departments and then discussed as possible federal cases and fourth amendment waiver searches. The team presented 60 offenders and a couple of dozen were considered federally indictable. While not an exhaustive list of their partnership efforts, these operation examples serve the purpose of outlining the range of team endeavors. Methods and Results

Over 80 face-to-face group meetings were convened, as well as countless ad hoc calls, emails, texts, and other forms of contact. Camaraderie 80+ group development was not only deliberate and maintained, it was appropriate meetings to respond to offenders who were committing crime across the jurisdictions.

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Overall, the PSN efforts resulted in roughly 12,600 hours of assistance 12,600 hours focused on stopping gang- and gun-related violence, particularly in the of assistance PSN targeted communities. That work focused on violent gang member deterrence and arrests as assistance to any unit (such as helping to interview gang members), canvassing and searches, fugitive round up, response to gang-motivated homicide and commercial robbery crimes, and supporting uniformed officers in the PSN area. The task force capability was leveraged to train more than seven other police agencies throughout the Atlanta metro area on how to collect and disseminate gang data as well. Task force members also consulted with the Omaha, Birmingham, and Memphis police regarding cross jurisdictional gang offending.

Collaboration Interviews

Interviews were conducted throughout the project to understand what the officers thought about the partnership and provide opportunities for improvement. Officers often expressed interest in being involved in federal prosecution and taskforce operations. The taskforce seemed to truly understand the purpose and benefits of prosecuting someone federally and wanted “hands-on” practice working that side of the courts. The officers all believed that nothing had been rushed (i.e., the property planning time was allotted) and teaming up had gone quite well. They reported feeling comfortable with the lead AUSA and research partner. Comparing the start and end of the project, many officers said they feel more open with the team.

The team believed they had “gotten closer” during conferences, operations, information sharing, and trainings. An officer noted they feel “very comfortable with the other police department members.” While communications and coordination among the collaborative were deemed strong, one agency did perceive they invested more time while having fewer resources than the others. Nonetheless, it seemed everyone felt they could reach out to another taskforce member for help anytime, and they would always get a response. They highlighted it was easy to get “in touch” with others and schedule meeting. One officer alleged they can speak for others to say, “we have no qualms about contacting each other” and that partners were willing to help even on their day off.

Everyone continues to feel they can reach out to another taskforce member for help anytime. Discussions about working with the other departments suggest the overall foundational qualities necessary for operative collaboration persisted. This should remain through the direct officer contacts, as well as participation in the districtwide meetings.

These sentiments are an accomplishment in that people who previously have not worked together now have a shared outlook, common goals, and were energized by the implications of success. Often projects start with excitement but maintaining momentum is challenged by operational battles, so it is a project achievement that the team remained motivated and participatory. There are now fewer barriers between agencies that often encounter the same dangerous felons, with limited resources and previously soiled information.

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A comprehensive partnership among agencies was achieved!

Task force members noticed improvements throughout the PSN initiative. For example, they valued the advances in in their security of communications and shared perspectives. They noted how helpful it was to bond and create trust through shared laughs and experiences. Officers observed improvements related to the project team’s adaptability to change, frequency of information sharing, flexibility and robustness of communications, and confidence in others’ skills.

Tribalism is firmly institutionalized within police departments as a means of self-preservation, identity, anchoring, pride, and allegiance. It has taken a laser-clear mission, group assurance, and systemic thinking to breakout of an institutional culture, permitting the cross-pollination of ideas. Furthermore, the team expressed interest in more collaboration. They celebrated small wins, as well as triumphs, to break down barriers and reinforce collaboration. The development of a common language and operating procedures were merged.

Based on those and other activities, a desire for more “on-the-ground” time between the departments was expressed and actualized. They thought a building clearing exercise (reviewed in the trainings section) was very beneficial in establishing comradery and interpersonal knowledge. The joint compliance checks of PSN-area businesses helped clarify the team label and hierarchy, so officers knew who to go to in order to get what they need. It was reported that subsequent to each joint operation, the officers’ roles and responsibilities became clearer, work improved, and plans went more smoothly.

While the departments were communicating somewhat regularly, and appropriately had information brokers from each unit, several members wished the collaboration was full time or at least that there were more meetings. Officers also proposed it would be helpful for all partners to better know the other jurisdiction’s problematic areas; to see those neighborhood and gangs. They suggested shift switching where taskforce members rode a day with one of the other departments. It was argued that this could also help cross-train on codes, how to ping people for information, warrant execution, gang identification, suspect movements, and help reduce information sharing lag time. So, meetings increased, and officers spent time in each of the jurisdictions, which expanded their daily knowledge and consideration.

One officer mentioned it would be useful to streamline field identification of gang members and Formulytics profile entries across the departments. However, officers felt more time should be devoted to taskforce communications, investigations, and after-action reporting as these things were at times easier if shared instead of officers having to each do so within their one agency. This is true of most collaborations, which often prove fruitful but should be balanced with current responsibilities, not added.

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In addition to interviews, systematic observations and communication coding suggested the information sharing was significant to the collaboration’s efforts to combat gang violence. These agencies were working to capture information on the same people; however, violence is generally not limited to one area and consequently perpetrators tend to move across jurisdictions, leaving investigators in each individual area with limited identifiable information on them. Through information sharing, agencies were able to connect the pieces of data that each independently collected to present a full portrait of the perpetrators of gang violence in the PSN areas. This taskforce therefore highlights the importance of inter-agency data sharing and the potential impact this information has in violence reduction efforts. Collaboration is thus key to improving the success of anti-gang initiatives. Another way collaboration was measured was through the surveying of participants.

Collaboration Health Surveys

The Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory (WCFI) is an established measure of the health and development of a collaborative body. The WCFI consists of 40 items related to collaborative functioning in a variety of areas, and, in addition to providing a one-time index, it is useful as an assessment of the growth and development of a collaborative over time. Participants respond to each of the items by indicating their degree of agreement using the following Likert-type scale: 1) Strongly Disagree, 2) Disagree, 3) Neutral – No opinion, 4) Agree, 5) Strongly Agree. The WCFI was administered to all persons present at three task force meetings over the course of the project.

Figure 7. WCFI Survey Administrations

Wave I (n=17): February 2017 Wave III (n=9): Avg. Score = 3.62 September 2019 Avg. Score = 4.35 Wave II (n=10): September 2018 Avg. Score = 4.19

When comparing the survey results over the three distribution waves, the average score consistently increased over time (see Figure 7 above). The factors with the highest scores, indicating the collaboration’s relative strengths, centered around mutual respect among partners, a shared vision and stake in the outcome, strong communication, an ability to compromise, and strong leadership:

• I have a lot of respect for the other people involved in this collaboration (4.89). • My organization will benefit from being involved in this collaboration (4.56).

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• People involved in our collaboration are willing to compromise on important aspects of our project (4.56). • Everyone who is a member of our collaborative group wants this project to succeed (4.89). • People in this collaboration communicate openly with one another (4.56). • The people who lead this collaborative group communicate well with the members (4.56). • The people in this collaborative group are dedicated to the idea that we can make this project work (4.67). • The people in leadership positions for this collaborative have good skills for working with other people and organizations (4.56).

Responses also suggest that there is room for growth. The factors with the lowest scores were in the areas of community legitimacy as leaders, having an appropriate cross-section of members, as well as adequate staffing to meet goals. Areas for improvement/augmentation include:

• Leaders in this community who are not part of our collaborative group seem hopeful about what we can accomplish (3.78). • Others (in this community) who are not part of this collaboration would generally agree that the organizations involved in this collaborative project are the “right” organizations to make this work (3.78). • All the organizations that we need to be members of this collaborative group have become members of the group (3.89). • Our collaborative has adequate “people power” to do what it wants to accomplish (3.67).

In addition to increases in the overall scores, the percentage of persons agreeing across all individual factors improved. The highest increases in agreement ranged between 65% and 71% for the following factors:

• When the collaborative group makes major decisions, there is always enough time for members to take information back to their organizations to confer with their colleagues about what the decision should be. • People in this collaborative group have a clear sense of their roles and responsibilities. • People in this collaborative group have a clear sense of their roles and responsibilities. • This collaborative group has tried to take on the right amount of work at the right pace. • We are currently able to keep up with the work necessary to coordinate all the people, organizations, and activities related to this collaborative project.

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The factors can be grouped into 19 collaboration domains for easy comparison of the start and end collaboration health (see Figure 8 below). Taken together, these findings suggest that in general, the Buford Hwy PSN task force had many of the foundational qualities necessary for solid collaboration.

Figure 8. Buford Hwy Task Force: Collaboration Health Factors 2017 % Agree 2019 % Agree

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%

Flexibility

Adaptability

Shared vision Shared

Unique purpose Unique

Skilledleadership

guidelines

self-interest

and outcome and

thecommunity

communicationlinks

Multiple layers of participation layers Multiple

leader in the community in leader

Appropriate pace of development of Appropriatepace

Open and frequent communication frequent and Open

Favorable political and social climate social and Favorablepolitical

Development of clear roles policy of and clear Development

Members see collaboration as in their in as Memberscollaboration see

Established informal relationships and relationships informal Established

Appropriate cross section members Appropriateof cross

Members share a stake in bothprocess in stake a Members share

Collaborative group seen as a as seen group legitimate Collaborative

Concrete, attainable goals and goals objectives attainable Concrete,

Mutual respect, understanding, and trust and understanding, respect, Mutual History of collaboration or cooperation or collaboration in Historyof Sufficient funds, staff, materials, and time and materials, funds, staff, Sufficient Suppression

The other primary law enforcement strategy was to incapacitate the most persistent and dangerous felons. Federal prosecutions were used in the Atlanta PSN to appropriately prioritize cases for local or federal courts. In fact, case screening techniques are commonly used in PSN strategies (Decker et al., 2006). Prosecuting such local ‘problem people’ federally can be advantageous in several ways: 1) charges can be added under the federal gun statues (see Table 3 below15); 2) federal prisoners are not locally housed which can disrupt criminal affiliations

15 Retrieved from: https://www.robertslawteam.com/Federal-Criminal-Defense/Federal-Sentencing-Process/How- much-jail-time-do-you-get-for-federal-gun-charges.shtml

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS and gang tie; and 3) smaller federal caseloads can result in faster, more certain decisions comparted to state courts. By targeting offenders with arrest and conviction histories that included chronic violence, firearms, and/or gang activity, the Atlanta PSN reduced gun crime in communities blighted by violence (ARS, 2017). It stood to reason that replication of the model would produce similar results.

Table 3. Federal Gun Charges

Prison Sentence Statutory Statutory Applicable Description of Gun Crime Minimum Maximum Law (Statute) Using, Carrying, or Possessing a Gun in 18 U.S.C. § Furtherance of Crime of Violence or Drug 5 years Life 924(c)(1)(A)(i) Trafficking Crime Brandishing a Gun in Furtherance of Crime 18 U.S.C. § 7 years Life of Violence or Drug Trafficking Crime 924(c)(1)(A)(ii)

Discharging a Gun in Furtherance of Crime 18 U.S.C. § 10 years Life of Violence or Drug Trafficking Crime 924(c)(1)(A)(iii)

Possessing a Short-Barreled Rifle, Short- 18 U.S.C. § Barreled Shotgun, or Semiautomatic Assault 10 years Life Weapon in Furtherance of Crime of Violence 924(c)(1)(B)(i)

Possessingor Drug Trafficking a Machinegun, Crime Destructive 18 U.S.C. § Device, or Firearm Silencer / Muffler in 30 years Life Furtherance of Crime of Violence or Drug 924(c)(1)(B)(ii)

Trafficking Crime 18 U.S.C. § Second Offense Under § 924(c) 25 years Life 924(c)(1)(C)(i)

Second Offense Under § 924(c), when the 18 U.S.C. § Offense Involves a Machinegun, Destructive Life Life 924(c)(1)(C)(ii) Device, or Firearm Silencer / Muffler

In 2014, the USAO created the Atlanta VRO (Violent Repeat Offender) task force, which used consistent selection criteria and data analysis to identify and federally convicted the most egregious violent offenders, avoiding an estimated 3,000 crimes. As the group met regularly to share intel on individuals and gangs, protocols for offender reviews - presenting and developing cases - were established (see review process as Figure 9 below). For instance, VRO presentations to the task force required officers to articulate a pattern of serious violent crimes and provide intel documentation (with at least one felony conviction in the individuals’ criminal history). It was also expected that updates would be delivered on VROs being watched or actively prosecuted. Those protocols were adopted for the Buford Hwy task force to reproduce the gun and gang crime reduction effects in the South DeKalb and Buford Hwy areas.

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Figure 9. VRO Review Process

Police Task Force 'Watch List' Attention Review Data VRO Activity Collection Federal Case

Figure 9 (above) displaces the VRO review Table 4. Reviewed VROs process. DKPD, CPD, and BPD used field intelligence and law enforcement records N=269 Max Mean S.D. Age 83 31 12.71 to select cases for the task force to review Male Yes 78% 0.41 each month. Then, they presented the case Nonwhite Yes 84% 0.36 to the group. The group discussed the GA Arrest History offenders’ contribution to violent crimes in # Total 45 5.62 6.43 # Misdemeanor 30 2.44 3.55 the target areas, and participation in gun Misdemeanor (N/Y) Yes 73% 0.44 and gang activities. Some cases included # Felony 31 3.19 4.01 gang members, some human trafficking, Felony (N/Y) Yes 76% 0.43 # Prior Violent 7 0.84 1.27 others drug trafficking, and nearly all Violent (N/Y) Yes 45% 0.5 included gun violence. Information from # Sexual 2 0.06 0.27 outside agencies or the research partner Sexual (N/Y) Yes 5% 0.22 were included when possible. # Prior Property 27 1.65 2.75 Property (N/Y) Yes 60% 0.49 The task force averaged 7 offender reviews # Drug 15 0.9 1.58 Drug (N/Y) Yes 42% 0.5 a month (Sept 2016 – Sept 2019), adding up # Supervision 10 0.86 1.65 to 269 cases evaluated. About two-thirds of Supervision (N/Y) Yes 33% 0.47 the cases were of known gang members, # Domestic 3 0.12 0.43 but all considered a danger to others. Domestic (N/Y) Yes 9% 0.29 # Gun 6 0.35 0.74 Table 4 (right) shows the reviews consisted of Gun (N/Y) Yes 24% 0.43 GA Conviction History mostly individual who were nonwhite (78%), # Total 16 1.53 2.45 male (84%), and averaged 31 years old Conviction (N/Y) Yes 57% 0.5 (median age 28). They had accumulated # Misdemeanor 10 0.62 1.36 3,500 charges (58.5% felonies, 18% violent, Misdemeanor (N/Y) Yes 30% 0.46 # Felony 10 0.9 1.53 28% property, 14% drugs), across 1,500 Felony (N/Y) Yes 45% 0.5 arrests. The average age of their first arrest # Violent 4 0.28 0.65 was 21 (S.D. 8.6) and first conviction 24 (S.D. Violent (N/Y) Yes 20% 0.4 8.4). A third of their first convictions (at the # Drug 7 0.28 0.7 Drug (N/Y) Yes 20% 0.4 average age of 24) was for a felony, 12% for # Property 11 0.42 1.15 violence and 18% drug related. Property (N/Y) Yes 22% 0.42

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Methods and Results

Suppression data were collected from task force communications, in-person meeting notes, investigation files, and multiple agency databases. Data coding was designed based on predefined fields, which were comprised of taskforce target activities and outcome metrics. Coding was performed independently in a standardized manner by multiple researchers, with centralized reliability checks. Some cases are ongoing, such as one against a Crips gang member who was caught with guns, drugs, and counterfeit money. Other cases are at various stages of prosecution. Overall, there were meaningful anti-gang and anti-violence measures, increased federal prosecution of the most violent offenders and gang members, and mitigation of gun and gang violence in the target areas.

Federal Cases

There are fewer Violent Repeat Offenders (VROs) committing crimes in the target communities due to the efforts of the Buford Hwy Task Force. Figure 9 displays the VROs’ offending pattern before the task force identified them and after cases were effected. Not only were their arrests escalating, the VROs were more likely to be arrested for a serious crime, violence, and illegal gun possession supervision comparted to other GA offenders. VROs were more likely to be a gang member, have a prior incarceration, and failed community. In fact, the VROs had three times the arrest history of the average GA offender at 31 years old. Clearly incapacitating targeted VROs increased the safety and wellness of officers and communities.

Figure 10. VROs' Arrests Pattern 160

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1974 1997 2004 2017 1977 1978 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2018 2019

One third of identified VROs were adopted for federal prosecution. Declined cases were either not deemed ‘ready’ for federal prosecution, were deferred to the state courts, or did not meet the standards of federal court. Many VROs undoubtably knew each other and were even

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS committing crimes together; therefore, specific and general deterrence contributed to the PSN impact. Table 5 displays the characteristics of those felons by case review status.

Table 5. Federal Cases: Sept. 2016 - Sept. 2019

Declined Cases Adopted Cases (n=182) (n=87) Max Mean S.D. Max Mean S.D. Defendant Age 83 30 12.32 73 34 12.94 Male 1 77% 0.42 1 0.82 0.39 Nonwhite 1 81% 0.39 1 0.91 0.29 GA Arrest History16

# Total 33 3.58 4.09 45 9.91 8.13 # Misdemeanor 15 1.85 2.58 30 3.67 4.79 # Felony 21 1.73 2.37 31 6.24 4.93 # Prior Violent 7 0.59 1.06 7 1.37 1.50 Violent (N/Y) 1 36% 0.48 1 63% 0.49 # Sexual 2 0.08 0.31 1 0.01 0.11 Sexual (N/Y) 1 7% 0.26 1 1% 0.11 # Prior Property 10 1.00 1.40 27 3.00 4.09 Property (N/Y) 1 53% 0.50 1 75% 0.44 # Drug 5 0.58 0.96 15 1.59 2.26 Drug (N/Y) 1 36% 0.48 1 56% 0.50 # Supervision 10 0.40 1.16 9 1.83 2.07 Supervision (N/Y) 1 20% 0.40 1 62% 0.49 # Domestic 2 0.11 0.36 3 0.15 0.54 Domestic (N/Y) 1 9% 0.29 1 9% 0.29 # Gun 3 0.18 0.48 6 0.71 1.01 Gun (N/Y) 1 14% 0.35 1 45% 0.50 GA Conviction History

# Total 15 0.71 1.57 16 3.24 3.02 # Misdemeanor 7 0.07 0.58 10 1.79 1.73 # Felony 8 0.64 1.18 10 1.45 1.99 # Violent 3 0.13 0.45 4 0.60 0.87 Violent (N/Y) 1 9% 0.29 1 41% 0.50 # Drug 2 0.12 0.37 7 0.60 1.03 Drug (N/Y) 1 10% 0.31 1 40% 0.49 # Property 4 0.15 0.55 11 1.00 1.73 Property (N/Y) 1 9% 0.29 1 49% 0.50

The 87 VROs were judged by the task focus as the most dangerous and prosecutable among the ‘watch list’ comparted to the declined cases. They averaged 6 more arrests, 4 more felonies, over 20% more had committed property and drug offenses, and 42% more had parole or probation arrest. Of key distinction, the prosecuted VROs had significantly higher rates of violence and gun related incidents and felony convictions. These data indicate the task force targeted the worst of the worst.

16 Data were derived from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI)/ Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC), the State’s official criminal history repository. All tables are a product of ARS programming analyses; thus, individual agency data may vary. Data only include arrests by agencies within 159 GA counties, not all arrests executed inside those jurisdictions. Arrest counts are based on the most serious offense at booking. Column counts are not mutually exclusive, as an arrest severity (i.e., felony) and type (e.g., violent) may count the same charge. All inquiries should be directed to ARS.

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In one example of a federal case, the task force learned of a man, known as a member of the “Duct Tape” gang, who was continuously threating DeKalb community members with a gun (shown right). In a recent incident, the gun was turned on a tow-truck driver and then an apartment complex manager. The task force reviewed his criminal history to find 75 prior arrests and multiple felony convictions for violence, drugs, and theft. It was clear from this individual’s chronic- escalating offending, lying and obstruction of law enforcement, and history of violating community supervision that incapacitation was required. He was deemed a suitable target for federal prosecution given that he was committing serious violent crimes (e.g., armed robbery and aggravated assault), which endangered local families (e.g., a history of cruelty to children and brandishing weapons) and his gang ties needed to be severed. The USAO adopted the case, and even though the defendant attempted to intimidate witnesses, he was found guilty.17

Another VRO (pictured left), “Grumpy” was identified as a member of the “18th Street” gang. He was known for using a gun in Chamblee to commit felonies while trafficking methamphetamines. In fact, at the time of arrest he was in possession of 4.5 pounds of meth. The young male also had a history of probation violation, felony convictions, and the use of narcotics. His federal prosecution resulted in a sentence of nearly nine years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.18 As part of the messaging to other VROs, the USAO and police departments released statements and case updates. Gangs

Georgia gangs include national organizations (e.g., Crips pictured right), some ‘home-grown ‘groups, and neighborhood clicks. About 50,000 gang members have been identified, with over 3,000 admitted to Georgia prisons each year. Gang member profiles stand out even among the most serious Georgia inmates. Looking at the difference between gang members (n=15,000, 16% of inmates) and nongang members in state prisons over the past five-year, Table 6 (below) shows they have significantly different characteristics. Gang members are more likely to be young males, who did not finish high school, are serving for violent crime, and had serious discipline issues.

17 More information can be found at https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga/pr/local-gang-member-sentenced- federal-prison-threatening-tow-truck-driver-gun 18 More information can be found at https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga/pr/gang-member-sentenced-federal- prison-possessing-drugs-and-firearm-while-probation

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Table 6. Georgia Prison Admissions 2015-2019 (n=88,865)

Gang Members Other Inmates Profile Characteristics Difference Male 98% 86% 12% Admitted Younger than 25 42% 19% 23% HS Dropout 47% 34% 13%

Single 91% 86% 5% Previously Employed 27% 33% -6%

Prior Incarceration 61% 47% 14% Major Crime was Violent 48% 30% 18% Serving for any Violent Crime 62% 49% 13% Required Max Security 24% 7% 17% Any Prison Infractions 83% 54% 29%

Violent Prison Infractions 41% 19% 22% At-risk for recidivism 50% 37% 13%

Gang members in Georgia commit crime at higher rates than the average offender. Known Georgia gang members have been arrested over 150,000 times (65% for felonies) in the past decade, for more than 47,000 violent and 17,000 gun-related crimes. Gang members are more likely to serve time for a violent offense, have a prior incarceration, and they are twice as

likely to commit violent disciplinary infractions during their prison stay.

Of Georgia’s 159 counties, DeKalb accounts for the second largest percentage of gang member arrests. In 2015, DeKalb County accounted for 17% of gang violence arrests in the state, which was reduced to 6% in 2017, 4% in 2018, and 3% as of October 2019. Those findings are related to the number of gang memberships in DeKalb.

Table 7. Gang Member Identifications During the years leading up to this PSN, DKPD (12 mo.) (12 mo.) (12 mo.) (9 mo.) identified 200-250 gang members annually, who were arrested for a total of 1,000 Types 2016 2017 2018 2019 charges each year. During this project, the Crips 28 21 17 11 amount of gang members identified by the Bloods 102 88 57 84 police declined (see Table 7), and their crime GD 38 21 5 11 charges were reduced by half. Other 13 23 23 36 Total 181 153 102 142

Known gang members were previously responsible for 6% of booking charges among the 3 task force PDs, and only 3% in the last few years. More significantly, before this project (2015) 8% of violent crime charges were the result of gangs in one of the 3 jurisdictions; whereas 2017-2019 it

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a substantial reduction was obtained during the project (see Figure 11 below).

Figure 11. Proportion of PSN Crimes Committed by Known Gang Members

18% 15% 12% 9% 6% 3% 0% 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Translating the suppression of gang violence into arrests, over 250% fewer violent crime arrests were the result of gang activity in 2018 (last full year of data) comparted to 2015 (last full year before PSN). In fact, DKPD reported that none of their 2019 murders were gang motivated. This is significant considering that half of homicide arrests in 2015 were gang related. This suggests that before the project, gang members were five times more likely to commit murder.

None of the 2019 homicides in DeKalb County were gang motivated

Similar patterns were found among aggravated assault and battery, carjacking, and home invasion. Gang member arrests were 10 times less likely to be for armed robbery the years before the Buford Hwy PSN comparted to recently. Overall, even when gang members were arrested by the PDs, the likelihood it was for serious violence fell from 32% in 2015 and 34% in 2016 to 17% in 2018 and 15% as of October of 2019.

However, efforts to prevent and suppress gang activities are ongoing as the PDs still encounter a lot of members. During the project, police identified 600 gang members, primarily Bloods and Crips. Pictures of rallied Bloods are easy to find (example pictured right) and they have a long-standing feud with the Crips (example pictured right) that often results in violence. Table 8 on the next page lists the known gangs in DeKalb Co.

19 Includes MS charge at arrest = rape, manslaughter, murder, aggravated battery, armed robbery, kidnaping, hijacking/carjacking, battery, home invasion, (home) burglary, drug trafficking, and aggravated assault.

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Table 8. List of Known Gangs (& Subsets) in DeKalb County

Crips 59 Hoover Gangsta Crip Grape Street Rolling 20’s Crips 8 Trey Gangster Crip Hoover Crip Rolling 60’s Crips 97 Trey Insane Gangster Crips Nepali Boys Rollin 60’s Money ABZ Crips Playboy Gangsta Crips Team/ExtortionRolling 90’s Crips Altadena Crip Rolling 100's Crips Shotgun Crip Compton Gangster Crip Bloods 310 BLOCC Mofioso 151 Piru Blood Stone Villains Neighborhood Rolling 20’s 18 Trey Bloods Born Takers PDE (Paradise East) 2 Rixh Brownsville Brooklyn Piru Sex Money Murder (SMM) Bounty Hunter Bloods BTM Sho Block 2Glock40 Campanella Park Piru Valley High Piru 32 Entertainment Cedar Block Piru West Covina Mob Piru 36 Fruit Town Brim (Taliban) Denver Lane YNT Blood Young Sakk Gang 45 Bix Panama Piru (or 456 Drugrixh / Hoodrixh YR (Young and Reckless) Piru)54 Brim Bloods East MOB Piru Young Thug Cartel (YTC) 59 Brim Bloods Elm Street Piru Wildlife 61 Brim Bloods Family No Friend (FNF) Subsets 62 Brim Bloods Fly Guys Zoo Krew 64 Brim Bloods G-Shyne (or Gangster Killer Fruit Town Piru (1831) 9 Trey Bloods (or Billy Bad Ass) Bloods)Inglewood Family Gangsta Tree Top Bloods ATM BloodMOB Piru 228 Bellhaven (BHB) Gangster Disciple Black Disciple GD Untamed Guerillas Hate Committee Insane Gangster Disciple Same Shit (SS) Hispanic 18th Street Plaster Road Suerenos Nortenos Buford Hwy MS 13 SUR 13 Plaster Road Goonz Other 187 Mafia Bruce Street Posse Little Niggas Get Money 2100 / Hoe Haters Cash Money Boys Money Related Inc./Swag Life Ghost Face Gangsters Committed To Da Cash SGDB (Strap Gang Don’t Bang) African Mob Squad CRDC (Candler Road Dream Sin City Disciples Aryan Brotherhood Chasers)Da Real Runts Strip Gang Black Amigos Gang Drop Mobb Vice Lords Black Mafia Family (BMF) Duct Tape Young Takers Black Mobb Famerica ZOE Bloxh Rixh Famerica: Play for Keeps (PFK) Bout Dat Action Free Racks Subset Bread Family / 2BF Good Fellas Young Slime Life (YSL) SMM

The reduction in gang activity is related to an increase in the sense of safety for the children in the PSN area. Informal interviews were conducted with School Resource Officers at the two elementary schools and a high school along the Buford Hwy Corridor known to recruit kids and have active gang members enrolled. Fewer weapons were reported on campus. This suggests students either feel less need for protection or fewer weapons were being used.

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Crime Trends Figure 12. UCR Reported Violent It was expected that the above detailed Incidents in DeKalb County law enforcement efforts contributed to an 3700 overall decline in crime. Figure 12 shows that 3600 UCR reported violent incidents significantly 3500 decreased in DeKalb (for the last full year of 3400 the project and most recent year data were 3300 available). Particularly Figure 13 shows that 3200 the percentage of Georgia aggravated 3100 assaults committed in DeKalb that had been 3000 increasing (see Figure 4) were reversed. 2900 Echoing the decline, fewer and less serious 2800 2015 2016 2017 2018 arrests were necessary. Over half of the charges by the 3 PDs’ arrests in 2015 were for felonies; that fell to 45% in 2018 and 44% as Figure 13. Percentage of GA Aggravated Assaults Commited in of October of 2019. Only 6% of the arrests DeKalb County involved a gun and PSN charges were 10% reduced by half. Figure 14 shows the partnerships’ arrest rates per 100,00 residents 9% have dropped precipitously. 8% DeKalb gun-related incidents also declined, from 27% to 22%. Related, the South precinct 7% calls for firearm incidents slightly decreased during the project. Similarly, in 2015 South 6% DeKalb accounted for 42% of assaults, which dropped to 39% and homicides 5% 2015 2016 2017 2018 declined by 2% as of November 2019. Violent crime was decreased in Chamblee and Brookhaven as well. Chamblee Figure 14. Partnering PDs' Violent Crime Arrest Rates (per 100k) robberies and homicides were down over 30%, and aggravated assaults were 130 reduced by over 50%. Significantly, as of the end of this project 2019, no homicides had 110 occurred in the Brookhaven Buford Hwy beats and the proportion of gun crimes 90 committed there was reduced by 14%. Violent crime monitoring in each of the 70 jurisdictions is ongoing as part of the 50 reinvigorated PSN districtwide strategy. 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

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Prevention & Intervention

Rehoboth Baptist Church (RBC) was brought on as a Buford Hwy PSN partner to provide community violence prevention efforts. They adopted a three-prong prevention approach. Two prongs focused on targeted outreach, including a mentoring program for at-risk boys and open gym/midnight basketball. A third general outreach prong (discussed in the next section) focused on human trafficking awareness and service provision. This section details these efforts and the outcomes. Mentoring

RBC’s mentoring program, originally envisioned to target high school students at risk for involvement in the criminal justice system, included three components. The first component was academics with tutoring support for all participants. The second component consisted of life skills and law and justice programming. “Overcoming Obstacles,” a program used nationally, was the selected life skills curriculum. The goal was to ensure that participants had effective skills in a variety of areas including communication, goal setting, problem-solving and conflict resolution. Law and justice were to be taught using curriculum developed by an ex-DKPD officer, who administers it as a consult service to the county schools. RBC wanted participants to understand the workings of the criminal justice system, how to interact with the police, and other basic law/justice skills. The final piece of the program was athletics, overseen by the program director, a former professional basketball player with considerable experience recruiting and coaching teen players.

The original plan to was implement the program (free of charge) once per week for 30 youth at a local high school. The church ideally wanted programming to occur on their campus, however decided to offer the program on the school campus until such time that a viable transportation plan could be arranged. RBC hoped to transition the program to the church campus in second year. The church not only has a large athletic complex and classrooms for instruction, but they thought students would thrive and grow better outside of the school environment which may not be viewed positively by at-risk youth. Each of the three curriculum components was expected to encompass one hour of time for a total of three hours. Snacks/drinks were also to be provided by the church. The church was working closely with a local high school and it was expected that all program details would be in place to begin the mentoring program at the start of the 2017-2018 school year (August 2017).

Unfortunately, the mentoring program encountered many challenges along the way to implementation. The initial challenge arose when an abrupt change in leadership occurred at the high school where RBC was to launch the program. They had spent many months working with the principal finalizing program details, only to learn that the principal had been unexpectedly replaced. RBC tried to make in-roads with the school’s new leadership yet found the process to be difficult and slow. As they continued to work with the high school, they

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS expanded their options by contacting leadership at other local schools. They received interest from two DeKalb County middle schools.

The new school year began in August of 2017 with RBC still in various stages of negotiations with the three schools about program implementation. Shortly into the school year, one of the middle schools advised that they were unable to secure the agreements needed for implementation and they removed themselves from consideration. Efforts continued with the other two schools. During this time the administrator of the remaining middle school took an unexpected leave of absence due to health issues which further stalled implementation efforts.

During negotiations with the prospective schools, RBC expressed concerns about retention and transportation. ARS contacted Raising Expectations (RE), an award-winning program for at-risk youth, and an Atlanta PSN grant recipient with an excellent track record of student retention. It was thought that they could provide guidance to ensure program success. Local PSN leadership agreed and a request for technical training and assistance (TTA) funds was made to allow RE to work with RBC and make recommendations (TTA approval took longer than expected; funds were approved, and an initial meeting occurred in November of 2017).

Implementation of the mentoring program finally began at a Middle School in January 2018, with 21 students, all of whom were hand selected by teachers and administration as being at- risk for school failure and criminal justice involvement. Most of the youth struggled with grades and attendance. The school’s population is primarily Hispanic and resides in a low-income area, adding additional risk factors such as poverty and parents that may not speak English. The program was scheduled to occur on the school campus two days per week (4pm - 6pm).

2017-2018 Mentoring Program Tweaks were made to the original implementation plan. RBC was not able to arrange scheduling to bring the tutor or law/justice contractor to the middle school 37 youths enrolled during program hours. All students in the mentoring program were already required to stay after school five days per week for additional instruction due to poor grades. Their enrollment in the mentoring program meant that they still received three days of tutoring assistance, so RBC cut the tutoring portion of the program. The two-hour time slot was divided between life skills/law and justice and athletics. Since the law and justice consultant could not be present, the athletic director presented this material, as well as the life skills curriculum.

The life skills program was designed to be presented in a classroom setting, but delivery modifications were made when the school placed the program in the gym. The gym was typically shared with school sports teams which created a situation where students had to sit in the bleachers surrounded by the noise and commotion of others for much of their program time. This led the director to have to improvise and turn structured life skills and law and justice lessons into conversational instruction and discussions. Athletic time was not impacted as the youth

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS were able to use the gym or outdoor fields to engage in sports activities. While the intended focus was to be basketball instruction, many participants preferred soccer.

Despite repeated promises from the high school, RBC was not able to get the program operational as hoped. They still wanted to test the program’s viability with the high school population, so the program director used his sports connections with the local high schools to identify a group of eligible youth across all DeKalb County high schools with basketball as the centerpiece. The program director asked local high school coaches to provide the names of students who had tried out for the basketball team but did not make the cut, and that were believed to have underlying issues making them at-risk for delinquency.

A group of 30 students were identified and sent invitations to learn about a free mentoring program that included intensive basketball instruction to improve competency and skill. Twenty-two youth attended the informational session and 16 enrolled. The program also began in January 2018 and was held on two different days of the week (6pm to 9pm). The original schedule of three one-hour blocks of activity were implemented on the church campus with tutoring provided by a local principal, and law and justice by a contractor who was a 20+ year veteran of DKPD. The athletic director (pictured right) managed the sports portion of the program. Parents were responsible for providing transportation for their child to and from the program.

Both programs ended April 2018, just before the start of a week of standardized testing which closed out the DeKalb County school year. Much was learned through implementation of the two programs, as well as from the TTA report provided by Raising Expectations that month. RBC used this information to make changes to the program for the 2018-2019 school year. Some of the key lessons learned were that conducting programming on the church premises provided staff more control, organization, and structure. That allowed a quiet area with tables/chairs for learning, and the gym for basketball instruction.

RBC staff believed that the middle schoolers were more receptive to the program and amenable to change than the high school students, so they decided to strictly target that population the following year. RBC also thought that athletics served as a useful “carrot” to keep the kids engaged when their motivation waned. Transportation was an issue in the high school program which relied upon parents to drive the boys to the program. Only about six of the students regularly arrived in time for tutoring, with many boys arriving during the second hour of the program (life skills/law & justice). While RBC saw the need for transportation services to ensure timely arrival, they were unable to actualize it the following year.

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Year Two Mentoring Program

During the summer of 2018 RBC sought an appropriate group of youth for their revised mentoring program. They posted a notice on their website and distributed flyers advertising 15 free scholarships to their winter basketball program for qualified boys in 7th and 8th grade. The scholarship was contingent upon participating in the mentoring program (see flyer to the right). RBC also received referrals from a local Recreation Center for at-risk boys.

The church described “at-risk” eligible youth as being at risk for gang involvement and in need of structure, guidance and support. After reviewing applications, seven boys were initially selected that enrolled in the year two mentoring program that launched on Monday September 10, 2018, running from 6pm to 9pm on Monday and Wednesday evenings, with basketball league practices on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings, and games on Saturdays. Additional applications were received in the weeks following the launch and the program quickly maxed out at 15 boys by the end of September.

After the program began, the athletic director was asked to describe how the boys enrolled were “at-risk.” He advised that several of the boys had fathers currently incarcerated, with one boy whose father is serving a long-term sentence for a violent gang-related crime. Another boy’s father had been very recently murdered during a drug transaction. Several of the youth were described as refugees struggling to assimilate into American life, with at least one that was severely traumatized by violence in his home country. Most of the boys were described as living in areas where gangs are both prevalent and a normal path for the youth that reside there. In addition, the director advised that all parents expressed concern that their children were in peril of going down the wrong path. The athletic director felt very confident that appropriate youth had been selected. Further, he advised that he developed close relationships with the boys and their families and was well-versed in the life issues and challenges they faced, and that he regularly talked with each boy to monitor progress and provide guidance.

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In addition to the structured aspects of the program, 2018-2019 Mentoring Program the director served families as a mentor, and sometimes a mediator. He reported spending a lot of 15 youths enrolled time after hours texting and talking with parents and participants, offering counsel and support. It was common for parents to ask him to serve as an arbitrator to help negotiate difficult problems. Parents and children alike seemed to view the director as a respected authority in dealing with problematic behavior and tough situations. This was not an official part of the program, but such afterhours time with children/families seems to have been a regular aspect of the program for most.

The mentoring program continued until the end of April 2019 when standardized testing began to close out the school year. During the 2018-2019 school year, the research staff conducted surveys and focus groups and met quarterly with RBC staff to stay abreast of progress. The program kept to the planned itinerary of events for the duration of the year with an hour of tutoring provided by a local principal, an hour of life skills/law and justice provided by a consultant and ex-police officer, and an hour of basketball (in addition to basketball practice and games on the church league team during basketball season).

At the project close-out meeting held a few weeks before the expiration of the grant funds, ARS was advised that the mentoring program had not been re-started with the new school year. The reason given was a lack of funds to continue the program. The program director informed that he was still committed to the program and was still in contact with most of the participants and their families. He still tried to serve in a mentor-like role outside of the program. At a PSN task force meeting, the church pastor advised that the church intended to restart the program at some point in the future. Methods and Results

Data were collected on the mentoring program evaluation using multiple sources: attendance sheets, direct observation (primarily in year one), surveys, focus groups, interviews, and a review of school data. Raising Expectations also conducted direct observation of the mentoring program in 2018 and wrote a detailed report outlining program strengths and weaknesses (see full report as Appendix B).

Pre/Post Participant Surveys

Pre-test surveys were administered to youth attending both the 2017-2018 school year program and the 2018-2019 program. The surveys were designed to better understand the beliefs and living conditions of the participants to provide insight into risk, and to assess opinions of/interactions with law enforcement. Research staff attended on a scheduled day and surveyed all youth present. Between administration at the three mentoring groups, a total of 28 surveys were collected.

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The original plan of distributing the surveys again as a post-test to assess if participation in the program had any effect on the youths’ views of law enforcement was scrapped due to the abbreviated timeframe of the first-year program (less than half of the school year). Participants were instead provided exit surveys to assess opinions on the program itself. In the second year, a focus group was conducted at the conclusion of the program. Research staff met with the youth at a year-end BBQ, planning to administer post-test surveys after the focus group. However, even though the youth eagerly participated in the focus group, attentions greatly waned towards the end as the smells of cooking food wafted into the room. The veracity of data that could be collected at that point was questioned and the on-site researcher decided post-test surveys were not practical; attention spans had been exhausted.

Of the 28 participants responding to the pre-survey, FIGURE 15. Metoring Program just over half described themselves as black, with Participant Surveys (N=28) the remaining youth identifying as Hispanic, White, Asian or American Indian/Alaska Native. It was almost an even split with approximately half of Black/AA respondents saying that they were aged 11-14, Hispanic and the other half aged 15-18. Over half (57%) said White that they lived in a two-parent household. Twenty- Aisan five percent lived with a single mother, and 11% Other with a single father; one participant lived with relatives other than their parents.

Most respondents described the neighborhood where they lived positively. More than 80% said that they liked where they lived and that gangs, gun use, drunkenness, poor people, and vandalism were either “not so common” or “not common” in their neighborhood. One quarter said that trash dumping, and littering were somewhat/very common, and nearly one-third said that physical fighting/assault were somewhat/very common. Eleven percent agreed that it was stressful to live in their community. One-quarter of respondents said that they 1/4 of the youth participants had personally been the victim of a crime reported being a victim of crime (primarily non-violent crimes). Eleven percent reported having been arrested; 61% reported 11% had been arrested that a family member had been arrested. Just over one-third of the youths said that a family member had been to prison; five 61% of respondents had a family reported a parent had gone to prison. member previously arrested Approximately one in four said that they worry about being the victim of a crime, 18% reported a parent shooting, or of a loved one being shot. had been in prison

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When asked to talk about friends, 41% had friends that regularly use and sell drugs. Forty-three percent said that they knew where to buy drugs at school and 14% knew 25% know someone who where to get them in their community. Only one youth carried a gun at school reported regularly using drugs or ever having traded drugs

for money. Seven percent said that they have friends who regularly carry guns, and one in five reported having a 36% had access to a friend that had been shot. Five of the youths said that gun if wanted someone threatened to shoot them. A quarter of the youths know someone who brought a gun to school and 11% had carried a gun one third hear gunshots often. Eleven percent admitted they had carried a gun themselves, but more than one- third said they can access a gun if they want one.

Forty-four percent of respondents said there were gangs at their 44% reported gangs school. One in five reported having been asked to join a gang in their school and 21% had friends in a gang. Only two youth said that they were in a gang and two had been the victim of a gang crime.

20% have been asked Perceptions of the police varied. Most youths felt that the police to join a gang treat people fairly, are respectful, and feel comfortable calling the police when they have a problem. Seventy percent also said 21% of their friends that their families have a positive view of the police. However, 46% reported having had a bad experience with the police, one- were gang members third are afraid of the police, 57% do not trust the police, and 71% think that the police treat people differently based upon race.

Direct Observation

During the 2017-2018 school year, research staff directly observed four of the mentoring sessions of both the middle and high school mentoring programs (8 total). The research team noted that many of the youth in both programs seemed to have built strong relationships with the athletic director and displayed considerable respect for him. The high schoolers also seemed to have developed a close relationship with the principal overseeing academic instruction. Many of the high school boys also seemed to admire the ex-police officer who provided the law and justice material. The staff involved in the program seemed to be very well-suited to their duties and well-versed in dealing with the at-risk youth population. The program director often commented that he felt he had the right team in place for a mentoring program, and based on observations, we think that the youth would agree.

There were several concerns observed at the middle school program; the first of which was the school’s inconsistent after-school announcements to gather the students for the program.

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Sometimes office staff forgot to make the announcement, other times they called the program by differing names which confused the students causing them to not attend. Another observed issue was the location where the program met. They were assigned to the gym which meant sitting on bleachers without benefit of desks and chairs. The gym was also typically used for at least part of the session by other clubs and athletic teams. On two visits the track team was present for about half of the session. More than 50 kids were talking and laughing as they warmed up, and then a coach took them through a coordinated stretching exercise, shouting instructions. The director did the best he could to engage the youth in life skills conversations, but it was a major challenge with the noise and distractions. This setting also made it impossible to implement the life skills curriculum as designed, presenting major fidelity issues.

The research team also noted concerns at the high school program. The first issue was the arrival of students. Tutoring was done for the first hour of the program. While the program had 16 participants, no more than 6 were ever present for tutoring when the research team was onsite. It was said that this was due to the reliance on parents for transportation and many parents were unable to get their children there by the 6pm start time. The second block of time was used for life skills or law and justice. During this period, 7pm to 8pm, most students would arrive, often interrupting the lesson. Another concern was that the life skills curriculum was never administered during site visits, so it is unclear if program fidelity was maintained. Lesson plans for the law and justice material were not provided, so program fidelity was not assessed.

During the grant extension into the 2018-2019 school year, the program was visited three times (to administer surveys and conduct a focus group with participants), but no observatory data was collected during this time period.

Attendance Records

RBC kept daily mentoring program attendance records. The 2017-18 high school program showed strong attendance with an average of 13 of 16 boys present each session. Attendance for the middle school Figure 16. Enrolled Middle-School program however was not as robust. Of the original 21 Participants: Avg. Attendance students selected to participate, an average of 9 attendees were usually present. One individual only attended the program once, and two youths only showed twice. Several students were suspended for long periods of time and at least one was expelled during the time period. Those who attended did so regularly, with the other half of students rarely being present. In contrast, records show the 2018-19 program had strong attendance with 13-14 of the 15 enrolled participants attending each session (see Figure 16).

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Focus Group

A focus group was conducted during regular mentoring program hours in April 2019 with the year two mentoring participants. The program director scheduled a special end-of-year celebration for the children and their families. Eight participants and four parents attended.

Participants were first asked to talk about the academic/tutoring portion of the program. All the boys said that they had attended tutoring sessions and all reported positive experiences. They talked about getting help with their studies, encouragement, and support. One said that he probably got better grades this year because of the help he received.

Participants were asked to share feedback on the law and justice and life skills programming they received. All said that they had participated, although they indicated that all the lessons were law and justice centered. It is not clear if they received any life skills programming. All spoke highly of the law and justice material. One youth said that it was his favorite part of the program.

When asked to talk about their experiences, the group cited learning CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation), fire safety, their legal rights, how to interact with the police, as well as self-defense techniques. They also talked about a scared-straight video that they had seen which a few said had ‘scared them straight’ – they did not want to get locked up. One boy also commented that they had to do a writing exercise on what they could do when they got angry. He found the exercise to be very helpful and felt that it helps him respond more positively when upset.

All participants said that they had participated in the basketball portion of the program. There was much excitement around this subject. The boys talked about having a lot of fun playing basketball, as well as seeing their skills improve. They joked with each other about their strengths and weaknesses on the court and one boy looked at the interviewer and said “It’s okay – we’re just messing with each other. That’s what friends do.” Four participants also indicated that they had gotten haircuts at the program. One boy said that he really needed a haircut and he knew it helped his family that he got it for free.

Participants were asked to share their opinions on all the key staff. All staff received high marks, and all were described as “good guys.” Several participants also commented that everyone that runs the program cares and they appreciated that. Several of the group also thought they could come to any of the staff with problems and get good advice; with one describing the staff as “safe.”

When asked to share their favorite part of the program, Program Favorites: the main aspects cited were learning CPR (the boys Learning CPR expressed pride in having the skills to save a life), learning Learning Legal Rights about their legal rights, playing basketball, and learning Playing Basketball good sportsmanship. One boy said that he was just glad Learning Good Sportsmanship to have a fun place to come after school.

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When asked what could be done to improve the program, the main suggestion was that the program provide food. The boys talked about arriving hungry since the program began during the dinner hour. In fact, many said that they were hungry when they arrived, and starving when they left. They wished that meals were provided, or that there were at least snacks available. Next, several respondents indicated a desire for extra focus on basketball skills and not just open play. These boys wanted more practice, more drills, and more Kids want a program with: honing of their skills to become better players. Several Food Provided also said that they wished that they got to practice with Focused on Basketball Skills better equipment. They referred to the basketballs as Better Equipment “old and not good.” Lastly, there was a request for a Add Spring Basketball League spring basketball league as well as the ability to play To Join Midnight Basketball basketball with the Friday night high schoolers.

The focus group ended with the boys being asked if there was anything else that they wanted to share about the program. Several commented that the program was fun, and one said that it kept him out of trouble. Several commented again about the need for food to be provided. Another commented that he really enjoyed making new friends, to which several others shook their heads in agreement. In closing one boy said “I’m gonna miss everyone in the summer.”

Interviews

The research team had planned to conduct interviews with school personnel and parents for qualitative measures of the program’s impact. Unfortunately, interviews did not transpire. Research staff had met the key staff person at the middle school who had organized the year one mentoring program during onsite observations. This person was asked if they would be willing to provide feedback at the close of the program and they agreed, yet all emails and phone messages requesting an interview went unanswered. There was no administrative school staff to contact for the high school program as RBC went through coaches to obtain program referrals. In conferring with RBC, it was determined that relationships had not been built with parents in either program that would facilitate participation in interviews or a focus group. The only parental feedback in year one came in the form of a letter written to RBC (later shared with ARS) where the parent praised the program for helping their son to learn manners and to stop skipping school. They further added that their son is doing very well now.

In year two the director advised that he was working hard to develop stronger bonds with the parents, including an initial introductory meeting with all parents. At the end of the year the research team and RBC discussed focus groups and parental exit surveys. RBC felt that exit surveys were likely to receive a more positive response from parents. ARS was advised that many youths had single parents with other children to look after and that it would be a hardship or impossibility for them to take time away to participate in a focus group. There were also some

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS potential language barriers with the refugee families in the program and it was believed that a simply worded survey would be more likely to receive a response than an open forum where they shared feedback.

Exit Surveys: Parents

A simple survey was designed online utilizing SurveyMonkey. In April 2019 RBC staff emailed the survey link to parents and asked for their participation. A reminder message was sent about two weeks later. The program director also included a reminder to complete a survey in his year- end celebration invitation text to all parents. Despite these efforts, as well as assurances of anonymity, only four of fifteen parents completed a survey.

The online parent survey consisted for eight questions, took about five minutes to complete, and asked about Parents want programs with: their child’s experiences with the mentoring program. Structure Three males and one female responded, and all One-on-one attention indicated that their child was in the 8th grade. Parents Good communication were asked to share what they hoped their child would Emphasis on grades/homework get out of the program. They mainly hoped that the Build Teamwork program would provide a safe and enjoyable place for their child to go after school hours, improvement in academic performance, and positive role models. Parents indicated that their child made some of the gains they had hoped for upon enrollment. Positive changes reported were increased self-esteem, and assistance with completing homework assignments. Parents were asked if changes could be made to improve the program in the future. Suggestions included adding more structure to the program, more one-on-one attention, better communication with parents, a stronger emphasis on grades and homework, and more focus on teamwork.

Exit Surveys: Youths

Exit surveys were conducted with the year one mentoring groups (high and middle schoolers). ARS coordinated exit survey distribution with RBC, but later learned that RBC had also conducted exit surveys. It is unclear if receiving questionnaires from two sources had any impact on participant feedback. The ARS-administered exit survey was a simple survey consisting of six questions centered around the positives and negatives of the program.

All participants indicated that the program had been a positive experience. When asked to report what they most liked about Youths report the mentoring the program, the number one response was program was a positive experience basketball. Participants enjoyed playing the game and building their skills on the court. A

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS few also mentioned that they enjoyed making new friends. When asked to cite the main things that they learned in the program, the most common responses (in order) were improved basketball skills, becoming more mature/responsible, and learning how to stay out of trouble. Participants also said that the program could be improved with the inclusion of more coaching staff, opening the program to more youth, and by providing food.

In addition, one student from the middle school program wrote a letter to RBC sharing his thoughts about the program. His letter said that he did not want to participate in the program at the beginning but that he came to view the facilitator as “cool” and he appreciated learning about basketball and how to stay out of trouble. Prior to receipt of the letter, research staff had been onsite at the program and witnessed firsthand the obvious bond that had formed between the student writing the letter and the program director.

School Records

One of the key topics of conversation as RBC prepared to launch their mentoring program was the imperative for official school data for evaluation of the program’s effectiveness. A detailed list of data fields needed for the study was provided. The research team has experience working with school data and was aware of the challenges in securing access. ARS advised that memoranda of understanding, detailed data requests, and confidentiality agreements would be provided as needed; ARS also offered to meet with school officials and do whatever was necessary to facilitate data procurement. RBC staff notified that they would handle the acquisition of data. That never came into fruition to the extent required for an appropriate outcome evaluation. The following should be considered sentiments conveyed secondhand.

For the year-one mentoring program, RBC obtained grade and attendance information on a sample of participants.20 They reported a 66% reduction in absences between the first and second semester (58 days vs. 20 days) for eight middle school students. It was also reported that seven students had mild improvements in their academic performance. RBC recounted that an administrator at the middle school stated that there had been positive changes for several participants since program inception. Among the data obtained on high school participants, RBC reported their combined grade point average the first semester was 68%. This rose to 71% in the second semester— a 3% increase.

Records on seven participants in the year-two cohort were provided to ARS in an spreadsheet with a notation that it represented a “random sampling of the boys.”21 RBC staff advised that the program director acquired those grades and attendance records from school progress reports, but not who provided them. The program director also visited several schools and spoke

20 The reader is cautioned that these data were not received via official channels from the school district or parents to ARS. RBC obtained the information, then provided ARS spreadsheet summaries. ARS has no way of verifying the accuracy of the data, nor explanations of student record missingness. 21 Information on the randomization techniques used were not provided, so it’s unclear if the data indeed represents a random sample.

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS with guidance counselors or secretaries to obtain attendance information. Parents provided feedback on school behavioral issues as well.

Five of the seven students showed an average 6-point improvement in their Math/English grade point averages between semesters one and two. Grades were not provided for two participants, but the spreadsheet indicated that these two persons had gone from failing all their classes in semester one to passing four-out-of-five classes in the second semester. Most of the students had no attendance related issues that year, but one student who had skipped nine days in the first semester only missed four days in the second. In terms of behavior that warranted disciplinary action from the school, one student was suspended twice Fall 2018, then only once the following spring 2019.

Raising Expectations Technical Assistance Report

Raising Expectations (RE) is an award-winning organization that successfully works with at-risk youth to facilitate high school graduation and post-secondary education. RE not only has significant experience working with at-risk children, but they also have a proven track record of success with this population. For example, 100% of students enrolled in the RE program from 2016-2018 graduated with a high school diploma. Nearly all RE students graduate on time and have post-secondary plans. RE was a partner with the Atlanta PSN 2014-2016 project. During that time, they worked with at-risk youth within the Atlanta PSN target areas. Their activities were documented in the final project report and ARS felt that their success in working with the PSN population uniquely situated them to provide valuable TTA to RBC in their PSN mentoring program endeavor. After conversation with the grant recipient, it was agreed that RE would bring valued insight to the project and approval was obtained for funds to be used for technical assistance to RBC.

An initial meeting between RBC and RE was held on November 15, 2017 to learn about the RBC’s mentoring program and a TTA plan was developed. Assistance concluded on April 30, 2018 with submission of a final report and a close-out meeting to discuss findings and recommendations. The full RE report is available as Appendix B and includes review of both the middle and high school mentoring program administered in year one.

The final report provided feedback on positive aspects of the program and suggested action steps for improvement. Positive observations included positive interactions between the students and instructors and other participants, and experienced/qualified instructors delivering program material.

RE provided many suggestions to improve the program and better engage participants. Some recommendations included: more parent engagement, completion of student interest surveys, student engagement contracts, team-building exercises, cultural sensitivity training for staff, transportation, incentives for program engagement, identification/training of volunteers to support the program, monthly data meetings to ensure programmatic goals are being met,

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS implementation of evaluation and measurement tools, and partnerships with other organizations. Open Gym

The second prong to RBC’s prevention program was open gym hours. The concept was to provide a safe and fun place for local youth to congregate. In year one, RBC operated two programs – one for middle school boys and one for high schoolers. Open gym for middle school youth was in operation during the summer months of 2017 and 2018 when DeKalb County schools were on summer break. Middle school boys were invited to play basketball Monday through Friday at the RBC gym. During 2017 the open gym hours were 12:30pm to 5:30pm, and in 2018 from 6pm to 9pm. Participation in open gym cost $5 weekly, but was provided free of charge during the grant period. Transportation was not provided, but the athletic director provided supervision and coaching to participants. In 2019, the middle school open gym program was combined with the high school program.

RBC enacted a midnight basketball program for high school youth. The program was based upon the midnight basketball initiative of the 1990’s designed to provide a constructive outlet for at-risk youth, especially during peak crime hours. RBC talked with local police officials and were advised that Friday evenings were the most frequent times for youth to get into trouble, so the church opted to fill the void with Friday evening programming. While there was much skepticism about the effectiveness of such programs at reducing violence during their heyday in the 1990’s, some studies suggest positive effects. For example, a study of the 1994 Anti-Crime Bill prevention measures in Kansas City suggest positive results in that crime was down in the neighborhoods with basketball programs during games (10pm-2am Thursday to Saturday) (Cleaver, E. “Proactive Approach to Preventing Crime” University of Dayton Law Review Volume: 20 Issue:2. Winter 1995, 733-738.) In addition, another study of more than 20 cities with midnight basketball programs found no changes in violent crime rates, but did find significant reductions in property crime rates (Hartmann & Depro, 2006).

Midnight basketball began in 2017 on Friday nights from 9pm to midnight and continued every Friday night through the grant period. DeKalb County has a midnight curfew for youth, so the director was careful to ensure that youth that walked to the program left in time to make it home before curfew. The typical $1 per youth fee was waived. In 2017 and 2018 high school youth aged 17-20 were permitted to play ball. In the summer of 2019, the midnight basketball program was also opened to the middle school youth that had participated in the mentoring program, as well as high school youths.

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In addition to open basketball play, the athletic director also regularly brought in local college talent to help participants build their skills. Local police officers also made appearances in the gym from time to time to cheer on the players, or sometimes even took the court and interacted directly with the kids.

The athletic director used to own and operate a basketball gym and was well-versed on the challenges involved in maintaining order and civility amongst participants. During the grant period another large church in DeKalb County had to shut down their midnight basketball program due to gun violence. To maintain order, the athletic director established active, open lines of communication with participants to learn of potential problems, and new youth were not permitted to participate until they had been unofficially vetted to determine if they had gang ties or unsavory interactions/intentions with current participants. His methods kept midnight basketball violence-free during the duration of the grant. Methods and Results

The research team relied upon weekly attendance logs There were no incidents of from RBC to monitor participation. Attendance in the violence or weapons open gym program averaged about 10 persons per session. The logs reflect that approximately 25 youth were regularly attending midnight basketball during the grant period. Results suggest that RBC successfully provided a positive environment for local youth by opening the doors of their gym at no charge. Attendance was stable for the duration of the program and RBC reports that there were no incidents of violence or weapons found on campus. In addition, RBC reports that there were several positive interactions between the police and youth which had the potential to build trust between the youth and law enforcement. Reentry

Reentry programs that focus on servicing those most at-risk can have the biggest impact on violence rates (Umez, 2017), which in turn reduces the associated costs (see Table 1). The “2018 Update on Prisoner Recidivism” by the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that 68% of prisoners are rearrested within three years (Alper & Markman, 2018). Characteristics that varied across time to recidivism were sex, race, age, and crime type. ARS computed comparable statistics for GA and found the same proportion of rearrests among 2016 in state releases. Just as many had been arrested multiple times before incarceration, 73% of those who were rearrested, were arrested more than once after release. Table 9 (at the top of the next page) shows the percentage of rearrests, by similar characteristic examined in the national report. Males, younger individuals, people of color, and those undereducated have a harder time reintegrating (i.e., higher recidivism rates) compared to their similarly situated counterparts. Additional analyses show that individuals previously charged with a gun crime and are known gang members are more most likely to reoffend.

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Table 9. 2016 GDC In-State Releases (with 3 years follow up)

Rearrested within Any 1st Arrest Any Rearrests for Count (%) 6mo 12mo 18mo 24mo Rearrests for Felony Felony Violence Gun 2016 Inmates 16,117 (100%) 24% 41% 51% 58% 68% 45% 61% 14% 8% Released Male 14,264 (89%) 24% 42% 52% 59% 69% 46% 62% 15% 9% Female 1,853 (12%) 17% 33% 43% 50% 60% 39% 52% 6% 2% Under Age 30 at 5,249 (33%) 29% 49% 60% 67% 76% 51% 69% 18% 14% Release 30 or Older at 10,687 (66%) 21% 37% 47% 54% 64% 42% 56% 12% 5% Release Nonwhite 9,440 (59%) 23% 39% 50% 57% 67% 42% 59% 16% 9% White 6,677 (41%) 25% 44% 54% 60% 68% 48% 63% 10% 6% No High School 9,576 (59%) 25% 42% 53% 60% 70% 47% 63% 15% 9% Diploma or GED HS or GED 6,541 (41%) 22% 39% 49% 55% 65% 42% 58% 11% 6% Graduate Major Offence 4,910 (30%) 22% 38% 49% 56% 66% 42% 58% 19% 10% Violent Major Offence 11,202 (70%) 24% 42% 52% 59% 69% 46% 62% 11% 7% Non-violent Prior Gun-related 4,333 (27%) 24% 42% 54% 61% 71% 48% 65% 17% 14% Arrest No Prior Gun- 4,333 (27%) 23% 40% 50% 57% 66% 44% 59% 13% 6% related Arrest Validated Gang 2,312 (14%) 36% 57% 69% 75% 83% 60% 78% 23% 21% Member Not a Gang 13,805 (86%) 21% 38% 48% 55% 65% 43% 58% 12% 6% Member Young, Male, Prior 486 (21%) 36% 59% 73% 79% 85% 63% 80% 25% 31% Gun Charge, & Gang Member

Part way through the Buford Hwy PSN, a districtwide strategy was developed which included a comprehensive reentry component. In coordination with the GA Department of Corrections (GDC), the USAO established a program at the Atlanta Metro Reentry Facility for known gang members with gun-violence convictions who are at high risk of reoffending. The program has involved young males from South DeKalb communities.

The PSN reentry program aims to reduce barriers to reentry (e.g., criminal thinking, employment, treatment, housing, and other services) through a six-month course (provided by EGRESS Consultants and Services, LLC,), reconnection with family, and the deployment of credible messengers (adult in-reach pictured right). Credible messengers have been incorporated into various programs across the country (based in hospitals, communities, youth detention centers) and it is now

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS considered a promising evidence-based practice (Butts et al., 2015; Cramer et al. 2018; Lynch et al., 2018; Lopez-Humphreys & Teater, 2019; Picard-Fritsche & Cerniglia, 2013). Rarely has this approach been applied to help adults in prison prepare for release (Umez, 2017).

The idea of a credible messenger (CM), wherein ex-offenders help to prevent others from criminal offending, is a public health approach to reduce violence. CMs are peer mentors who have experienced what the returning citizen feels and the challenges they face. Indeed, the CMs are people who previously served substantial sentences in state or federal prison and have dedicated themselves to anti-recidivism efforts. Unlike other mentoring initiatives, CMs are “wounded healer” so they are uniquely qualified to connect with individuals with similar backgrounds and usher them into a new stage of life.

The USAO works with 21 credible messengers trained by Community Connections For Youths (CCFY) out of New York. These CM mentors are part of the Offender Alumni Association (OAA), a non-profit, grassroots organization that provides support forums that encourage former offenders to reduce recidivism and establish healthy relationships in their communities. CM mentors help the program participants learn strategies to deal with the circumstances that led them to join criminal street gangs or to engage in violent criminal activity. While acting as agents of change for those at-risk, CMs also solidify their commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Together, the program participants and mentor build trusting relationships for a minimum of six months prior to reentry. Those relationships are then maintained throughout release for support, guidance, encouragement and accountability. Methods & Results

Three cohorts (n=87) have been selected since 2018. All referrals were male, with an average age of 31 and significant criminal histories. Twenty-eight percent of their previous 644 combined arrests were for violence (48% for felonies). They were convicted of serious violent crimes, such as murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. They were validated members of violent gangs such as the Crips, Bloods, Gangster Disciples, Ghostface, and Good Fellas members. Fifty of those individuals graduated from the course (76% retention) and 20 have since been released with mentor support; cohort #3 is about halfway through the coursework.

Among those released so far, 20% returned to DeKalb County and more than 70% were able to find employment. While releases have staggered throughout 2019, most program participants have been out of prison for six months or longer and only two have been rearrested (10%). That is significantly lower than the average and is no doubt in part due to the more than 1,350 contacts with their mentors. These efforts are ongoing and significant to reducing violence.

The reentry program is so popular there is a waiting list to enroll

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Outreach

To start the project, the task force exchanged information about the target areas’ communities. South DeKalb and the Buford Highway Corridor have a multitude of factors – low income, low educational attainment, unemployment, and majority rental housing - that are directly related to high violent crime rates. Indeed, many of the problems seemed to be arising out of a section of the corridor with a large proportion of rental properties and a strip mall with several night clubs, near a large high school (pictured below). There was such a history of mobility and poverty that the only restaurants and retailers were fast food and dollar stores.

Rental Housing

Club or Liquor Store

School or Youth Center

Fast Food or Dollar Store

Subsequently, together law enforcement and the research partner spent time in those areas assessing the extent of community social and physical disorder and collective efficacy. There were people loitering, gang graffiti, and homes in disarray (examples pictured below). Officers pointed out places where gang members lived and noted they felt community members would not cooperate providing information or serve as witnesses in a case connected to any crimes in the area. To better understand the extent to which the Buford Hwy communities were experiencing crime and their attitudes towards the police, a survey was administered.

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Understanding the Community: Methods and Results

At the beginning of 2017, a multimethod survey administration strategy was deployed to collect data from South DeKalb County and Buford Hwy residents. ARS developed the survey based on the research literature and examples obtained from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). The objective was to measure public perception of police legitimacy, procedural justice, satisfaction with the police, fear of crime, gun victimization, familiarity with the justice system, normalization of violence, quality of life, neighborhood social disorganization and physical disorder (attached as Appendix C). The single page survey (double-sided) of easy check-box answers took roughly 10 minutes to complete. English and Spanish versions were distributed online, in person, and via group leaders. A copy was also shared with academics working on a community surveying “tool kit”.

The research team spent extensive time over several months reaching out to two dozen community groups and neighborhood associations for approval to distribute surveys at their meetings. These efforts did not yield a very high response rate. Many solicits went unanswered; others denied it due to residents’ fear of law enforcement. It was unclear if offering an incentive would have changed cooperation as immigration inspections were a primary concern.22

One group agreed to place a link to an online version of the survey on their website. A group serving the Hispanic community also asked people to complete a Spanish version of the survey at community events and sent both the Spanish and English online survey links to staff and partner agencies. Efforts to reach the Hispanic community were particularly marred by fear. The individuals who tried to assist in those neighborhoods reported that most of the people they approached were not willing to do so primarily because they worried about writing down opinions of the police. They would engage in conversation with staff about the police, but were not comfortable taking the paper survey or talking to researchers. There seemed to be a bit less fear in this community when asked to complete the online version. However, the community group advised that illiteracy was an issue as many of the persons they helped are unable to read English or Spanish.

When the research team was invited to meetings, it would take several more weeks to get a slot on their agenda. Therefore, surveying was not completed until mid-year 2017. Before each administration a brief summary of PSN was provided and the survey procedures explained. The research team received 107 surveys (including both paper and online versions). That final tally was much fewer than expected. All survey data were entered for analysis by ARS staff using a standardized template.

22 Recognizing this the Brookhaven City Council approved funds for “the Latin American Association to provide outreach services to the Latino and Hispanic populations in the city.” Retrieved from: https://www.reporternewspapers.net/2018/11/21/brookhaven-contracts-with-latin-american-association-for- outreach-services/

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Respondents’ ages ranged from 19 to 84, with a mean age of 47, and the majority were either currently or previously married (22% single, never married). They had different races (36% Black/African American, 29% Hispanic, 28% white, 9% Asian, 3% American Indian, Alaska Native, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander or Other). More respondents were female (58%) than male (36%) and nearly two-thirds own their home.

Community Survey Findings

The task force was interested in what issues were straining community relationships and where to seek improvement. Therefore, residents were asked to share information on their own personal contact with police. Table 10.1 shows that just over one-quarter reported having contact with the police in their community in the past year. While not in the past year, 1 in 10 reported that they had been arrested for a misdemeanor offense, and 2% reported being arrested for a felony offense. Thirty-seven percent had a family member previously arrested. About a third of respondents said that they have a child under 18 years of age living with them.

Table 10.1. Community Survey Results (N=107)

Yes No Have you had any contact with the police in your community in the past 12 months? 27% 51% Have you ever been shot? 0% 80% Has a loved one ever been shot? 17% 64% Have you ever been the victim of a crime? 16% 65% If yes, was it a violent crime? 15% 49% If yes, did the crime involve a gun? 42% 9% Have you ever received a traffic citation? 52% 14% Have you ever been arrested for a misdemeanor? 11% 56% Have you ever been arrested for a felony? 2% 68% Have any family members been arrested? 37% 33% Have you been arrested in the past 12 months? 0% 71% Do you have any children under 18 years old living with you? 31% 45%

Turning to Table 10.2 on the next page, we learned that half or more of respondents thought that the following issues were a problem/big problem in their community: illegal drugs, gun use, poverty and gangs. At least one-third believed that trash dumping/littering, youths “hanging around,” vandalism/graffiti, unsupervised children, and physical fighting/assault were a problem/big problem in their community. Forty percent agreed that living in their community was stressful. Residents also expressed concern for the youth in their community with approximately half agreeing that many youths have witnessed violence and that youth in the community engage in violent activity. This was not too supersizing given the DeKalb County Board of Health conducted a Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2017, finding that 9% of high school students did not attend school because they felt unsafe and 9% carried a weapon and 21% had been in a fight at school.

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Table 10.2. Community Survey Results Continued(N=107)

Somewhat Somewhat Very Not True Not True True True Disobeying the police is seldom justified. 5% 8% 25% 26% The youth in this community engage in violent activity. 3% 22% 26% 21% Neighbors in this community watch out for each other. 3% 12% 39% 20% I would not hesitate to call the police for assistance. 1% 6% 21% 46% I would not hesitate to call the police to report a crime I witnessed. 2% 9% 21% 40% I am satisfied with police services in this community. 10% 1% 20% 34% Many youths in this community have witnessed violence. 4% 15% 20% 32% Living in my community is stressful. 16% 15% 31% 9%

Not a A Small A A Big Problem Problem Problem Problem Gangs 10% 22% 35% 22% Gun use 8% 18% 24% 36% Illegal drugs 5% 17% 23% 39% Trash dumping/littering 6% 20% 23% 23% Physical fighting/assault 11% 22% 23% 12% Poverty 3% 20% 31% 29% Unsupervised children 8% 26% 24% 13% Vandalism/graffiti 7% 35% 22% 17% Youths “hanging around” 8% 21% 22% 19%

When thinking about their local police department, most respondents believed that the police were usually/always fair, respectful and responsive to community concerns. However, concerns were expressed in several areas (see Table 10.3). Forty percent of respondents said that the police rarely/never explain their decisions, and over one-third felt that the police are rarely/never responsive to peoples’ needs. Just under one-third (31%) thought that the police were rarely/never effective at addressing crime, and nearly 29% reported rarely/never being satisfied with the overall performance of their police department. In addition, more than one in three said that they rarely/never trust their local police department.

Table 10.3. Community Survey Results Continued (N=107)

Never Rarely Usually Always …do officers treat people fairly? 2% 14% 67% 7% …are officers respectful? 3% 14% 58% 11% …are officers responsive to community concerns? 2% 21% 54% 10% …do you trust your local police agency? 10% 21% 46% 11% …are you satisfied with the overall performance of your local police department? 4% 25% 44% 10% …are police effective at addressing crime? 5% 26% 42% 9% …do officers sufficiently explain their decisions? 9% 31% 26% 8% …are police responsive to peoples’ needs? 5% 30% 36% 8%

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Lastly, respondents reported on their fear of crime. More than two-thirds reported that they worried about being the victim of a crime often or daily, and 16% had been the victim of a crime. Just under three-fourths worried daily/often about their home being burglarized. More than half regularly worried about a loved one being the victim of a violent crime, and more than a third worried about personally being shot. No respondents reported having been shot and 17% had a loved one who had been shot. Forty-four percent worried daily/often about being mugged. While 59% felt that neighbors in their community watched out for each other, 7% would hesitate to call the police for assistance, and 11% would hesitate to call the police to report a crime that they witnessed.

Table 10.4. Community Survey Results (N=107)

Never Rarely Often Everyday How often do you worry about being a victim of crime? 2% 26% 40% 27% How often do you worry about your home being broken into? 3% 18% 43% 30% How often do you worry about being mugged? 4% 43% 36% 8% How often do you worry about being shot? 13% 40% 26% 8% How often do you worry about a loved one being the victim of a violent crime? 4% 32% 33% 20%

In sum, the survey found that residents in the community tend to have respect for the police and think they are fair; however, trust, effectiveness, and responsiveness were concerns. Respondents also reported that drugs, guns, gangs, and poverty were issues in their community, as well as concerns about local youth witnessing and engaging in violence. In addition, they expressed much fear about being the victim of crime, with a small percentage afraid to call the police for help, and 1-in-10 were hesitant to call the police to report a crime that they had witnessed. While arrests were not common among respondents, more than a third reported that a family member had been arrested. Based on these findings, the task force began planning specific community forms or gatherings, including the following themes guide:

Community Engagement Guide Key Points Placing responsibility on the part of both the police department and community members to work towards solutions through interaction and dialogue. Forum is really about crime fighting, it’s also about crime prevention, which can be achieved through building relationships between the community and the police.

Key Themes Community Cohesiveness, Vigilance Neighbors should be connected with each other. Attending meetings such as this one, getting to know neighbors, and exchanging phone numbers is important for building community cohesion and attention. Effective policing entails residents investing in their community. That is, being vigilant.

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Trust and Police Legitimacy In addition to building community cohesion, it is important for community members to learn to see the police as part of their communities, not as outsiders ➢ This can be achieved by cooperating with the police, as working alongside officers can help change negative perceptions of them - seeing them as people, not badges. The community survey results reported that although residents respect the police and think they are fair, they do not trust them and they are concerned about their effectiveness, and responsiveness. ➢ By spending more time in the communities, simply interacting with residents (not asking for information), the police are there to respond faster and get witness cooperation when a crime does occur. ➢ To build trust, the police need to organize more planned, positive interactions to help everyone see the good in communities. Knowing community members will also help build community trust and police legitimacy in these neighborhoods. ➢ Police also need to hold each other accountable for misconduct. This can help build community trust and help legitimate police. ➢ The community surveys also reported that the police don’t explain their decisions, so police can help matters by explaining what we are doing, and by using de-escalation techniques when dealing with suspects. These things can help build community trust in officers. Drugs, Gangs and Guns Police need to build stronger relationships with the community that way community members can feel comfortable reporting incidents of drug use, gang activities and gun use. Increased police presence and quick responsiveness can help build community trust in reporting when incidents involving drugs, gangs, and guns occur. Youth Violence Community programs should be coordinated to decrease youth involvement in violent activities. This could be an area where the police can partner with the community to help create and provide activities for youth. Adult Victimization Community survey respondents expressed their fears about being victims of crime. A small percentage reported that they are afraid to call the police for help, and one in ten are hesitant to call the police to report a crime that they witnessed. ➢ Police can address this issue by education residents on the crime trends and PSN efforts ➢ Building community trust will help make residents comfortable with crime reporting. Immigration and Policing Representation matters. Recruiting more officers from the local communities will help build trust and police legitimacy. Language assistance is important and representation in police departments can help decrease language barriers between communities and police. Fears of ICE, raids, and deportation are a major issue. Building community trust through the organization of planned, positive interactions can help decrease fears of the police or confusion of officers for ICE agents.

Approaches to Positive Interactions Continuity of community forums such as this one is key to building strong community/police relations. Bonds are not solidified after one experience; it is going to take a couple of years for police to build trust in communities. Community meetings are key to help establish the bonds. New officers can be introduced at these meetings to welcome them to the community.

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Community Gatherings

Each of the partnering police departments participates in a several community events every year, such as “coffee with a cop” and “national night out”; however, as part of the project planning, all partners reviewed the World Health Organization’s report on the causes and correlates of violence, agreeing that the ecological model was the holistic strategy to apply. That multilayered public health approach acknowledges the role of the community in [gang] crime prevention (Krug, Mercy, Dahlberg, & Zwi, 2002; Simon, Ritter, & Mahendra, 2013). The 2005 “Engaging the Community in Project Safe Neighborhoods” by the Institute for Law and Justice was also consulted to decide that specific PSN community forms were necessary.

The task force agreed that when community members are empowered and supported to take responsibility for their neighborhood and believe the police are a legitimate authority to be obeyed, informal social control (self-regulation and social order) are heightened. Keeping an open dialog with community members is an important component of creating that environment. Further, citizens are likely to provide the police tips regarding problem people or problem places and serve as witnesses in cases. The task force decided to keep community members informed on the project, solicit their cooperation, and improve relationships in the target enforcement area; thus, it was incorporated into their strategic action plan. This turned out to be much harder than originally conceived, or experienced. Methods and Results

Although the task force knew engagement must be customized to fit each community (Institute for Law and Justice, 2005), it took several iterations to tailor it correctly. One of the first challenges was finding a place and time that was particularly welcoming to the communities most affected by gang and gun violence. The need for a project coordinator and dedicated AUSA resulted in no meaningful organization being done until the end of 2017.

In 2018, the task force sought help arranging a meeting from the Latin American Association (LAA). LAA agreed to host a form at their facility and facilitate informing area residents for the task force. Flyers were circulated in both English and Spanish (pictured right) and posted on social media.

The task force was excited – 25 representatives attended. The USA and CPD Chief were ready to talk. A reporter was taking notes. Yet, no citizens ever showed. The experience had perhaps bonded the task froce some but other methods would be required to make inroads with the commuinty.

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When it came time to organize the next event, they went to where people live—the commons area of an appartment complex. The task force decided a less formal approach was more likely to entice residents to ‘hangout’ with them (i.e., moments to build collective efficacy). Additionally, they provided food and scheduled the event on a weekend. The cookout was done in April and nearly as soon as the hotdogs were ready, the citizens started arriving. Families, with kids of all ages spent time with the police and an AUSA (fluent in Spanish).

In addition to these PSN coordinated community engagements, the BPD community officer on the task force has been working hard to reengage the Hispanic community. Since 2016, he has engaged residents around the Buford Hwy Corridor in a 10-week Hispanic Citizen Police Academy. As a result, BPD now has a relationship with 70 people in the communities. Youth Engagement

In addition to the youth mentoring programs discussed above, the partnering officers looked for ways the task force could engage juvenile community members. Regardless of where or which department organized it, all of three police departments supported the events. In the summer, officers held “Kids Fest” to play games and share hot dogs with local youths that provided time for mentoring. One such event included the task force detectives speaking to children at a South DeKalb County Academy and providing them with bags containing coloring books, pens, and other goodies. They also organized educational sessions to prevent gang membership at schools, summer camps, and Police Athletic League using on the national G.R.E.A.T (Gang Resilience Education And Training) curriculum.

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Awareness Campaigns

The final prong of RBC’s community prevention efforts centered around human trafficking awareness/prevention. A 2014 study identified Atlanta as the top city in America for human trafficking (Dank, 2014). RBC advised that they see evidence of this daily as their church is situated directly off an interstate within view of three extended stay hotels known to be hubs of sex trade activity. DKPD have advised RBC leadership that they are aware of the problems that plague these hotels and frequently target them for sting operations. Regrettably, police efforts are spread thin across a multitude of such sites throughout the county.

RBC partnered with the local chapter of “Street Grace,” a faith-based organization dedicated to sexual trafficking prevention and protection. Street Grace embraces a variety of initiatives to end sex trafficking including education, legislative advocacy, and training. In addition, they support a helpline to connect victims of sex trafficking to needed resources, and conduct direct outreach on the streets in known trafficking areas. RBC and Street Grace collaborated to work as a “street team” to provide direct outreach at the three hotels just outside the RBC campus.

The two organizations centered their efforts around a meal. The idea was to provide food and gift bags containing a prayer card with the Street Grace helpline number. The initial event was a spaghetti dinner in May of 2017, hosted at the church. Door hangars advertising a community dinner were created and placed on the doors of the rooms at the three hotels. Signs were also posted in the office of two of the hotels. A program of food and worship was planned, and gift bags were created for guests. Bags were made for men, women and children, and this model was used during all sex trafficking events. The bags for the children contained a bottle of water, snacks, coloring books/crayons, and other small toys or novelties. The bags for the men contained a bottle of water, snacks, and a varying array of toiletries. For the females, the bags were similar to those for the men, but also included a card with the Street Grace hotline number. The cards were discreet and did not openly advise that the line is for victims of sex trafficking, rather they advertised general support and resources. If a pimp called the line, they would not know that it provided help for persons being sex trafficked; operators are highly trained to question, sort, and decipher callers and offer services accordingly.

The inaugural event was described as a lovely evening filled with song and worship, but organizers admitted that they were disappointed with the low number of persons in attendance. RBC and Street Grace decided to strategize before their next event and make changes to foster greater attendance.

The group decided that while the church provided a safe and comforting environment for the event, they felt that attendance could be increased if they took the event to the grounds of the hotel(s). They decided to provide lunch to the residents of one of the hotels on Saturday November 2017. Door hangers were placed on rooms at the hotel several days in advance inviting guests to a free community luncheon. A team of volunteers from RBC and Street Grace

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set up a tent and food tables in the hotel parking lot near the hotel office and boxed lunches were a donation.

RBC and Street Grace were overwhelmed by the response to the event. They brought 80 boxed lunches, and all were quickly distributed. RBC considered the event to be a huge success as all food and gift bags were distributed to hotel guests. They also reported that several people came to church the next day, and parishioners continued to minister to several occupants in the days following the event. In addition, a few days after the event two women came to the church seeking to charge their cell phone. They told church staff that they had been held against their will at the hotel and forced to engage in sexual activity. RBC was able to immediately connect the girls with Street Grace who placed them in a Safe House until they could be safeguarded home.

A third sex trafficking event was held in June of 2018 at the same hotel. Between the November and June events, the church formed the LoveLoud Ministry Team, a group of about a dozen church volunteers dedicated to organizing and staffing sex trafficking events in cooperation with Street Grace. The team decided to employ the same community luncheon method as the prior event, with a few tweaks. First, they nearly doubled the amount of meals provided. In addition, instead of distributing door hangers a few days in advance, they instead went door- to-door, personally inviting guests to come down and enjoy a free lunch. Guests at two nearby hotels were also invited. The team also ordered a few vegan meals as there were some guests not able to partake in the November lunch because they did not eat meat. Lastly, the team decided that police presence was not well received. Previously, some local police officers had joined in the church’s efforts. The team felt that made some people nervous and likely kept others from being permitted to engage by their pimps and/or traffickers. Despite the eagerness of the police department to assist, the team asked them to not attend; police expressed understanding the decision. The team felt very pleased with the event changes and reported that 145 meals and gift bags were distributed. They further reported that the event had a very positive tone and included considerable conversation and camaraderie between church volunteers and hotel guests.

A fourth event was held in September of 2018. The RBC team decided that they wanted to maintain their ability to serve many while also increasing their opportunities to engage and interact with individual guests. Instead of providing boxed meals, they opted instead for a picnic feel and brought a grill, hamburgers, hot dogs, condiments, and sides and grilled out in the parking lot. They hoped that the smell of the cooking food would attract more people, and that a picnic-type vibe would encourage more interaction.

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RBC reported success that they handed out gift bags and food to more than 150 people staying at the three hotels. This same method was used again for a fifth event in April of 2019 and RBC again reported effectively serving more than 150 persons between the three hotels. Methods and Results

The sex trafficking awareness events were intended as opportunities to engage community members in known sex trade hubs. In addition to providing a meal, gift bag, prayer and an invitation to worship at the church, the underlying goal of the events was to distribute Street Grace’s helpline number and to have persons onsite that could immediately refer persons in need of help. This type of community wo rk does not lend itself to the standard methods of evaluation. Anonymity is a crucial component which allows Street Grace to discreetly disseminate potentially life - saving information. In addition, Street Grace does not track how persons learned about their services (i.e. an RBC community event). Their goals are simply to provide the resources needed to help victims escape trafficking and rebuild their lives. There is also no way to know how many of the person reached through these events were the victims of sex trafficking. All persons, no persons, or any combination of those touched may have been involved. The goal of these efforts was simply to get Street Grace’s contact information into the hands of as many potential victims as possible.

The results of RBC’s sex trafficking efforts led to at least 533 persons receiving food and a gift bag. About half of the recipients were female and their gift bags contained a prayer card with Street Grace’s helpline number. In addition, volunteers personally bought and hand-delivered food to the rooms of several persons that arrived after all meals had been distributed. At least one person received help fixing their car onsite.

In addition to reaching over 500 persons Table 11. Human Trafficking Outreach & Education through these events, women staying at Community Event Date Persons served the hotels came to the church claiming (food/gift bags) to be victims of sex trafficking that were May-17 8 connected to Street Grace. There were Nov-17 80 Jun-18 145 also countless others who received hope Sep-18 150 and encouragement, and some who Apr-19 150 were connected to the church through Total Served 533 attendance at services. Exhibitions

Other general outreach conducted by members of the Buford Hwy PSN Task Force were in the form of presentations and booths at events. DKPD often coordinated with the DeKalb County Board of Health to present to the public about crime, gang activity, and their responses. For instance, a presentation was given at the Fall Family Safety Event and the Minority Youth

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Violence Prevention work group. Another common opportunity to educate the public was among the school officials, particularly Red Robbin Week each year (i.e., a national drug-free and violence prevention awareness campaign).

Detectives participated in “Community – Cop Talk” at a PSN area church. The purpose of the event was to continue to address and strengthen public trust and legitimacy. The topic for the event focused on juvenile delinquency and youth crime as they are often related to gangs. Following the presentation, there was an open dialogue with the public and a panel. The Gang Detectives discussed relationships between the youth and gang related activity.

Other presentations included several conferences, such as the National PSN meeting, American Society of Criminology, and a regional law enforcement meeting (pictured first right). Those presentations focused on implementation challenges and the project research findings. Officers from the partnering agencies, a researcher, and USAO representative attended. The USAO also did various information sessions (e.g., addressing the Georgia Bar Association and community partners) and tables at conferences and outreach events (e.g., pictured second right). Media

The last platform used to keep the public updated involved posting information about PSN on the USAO webpage,23 and posting updates on social media. For example, when a PSN cases resulted in the conviction of an armed career criminal for carjacking, a summary was released through multiple outlets.24 Interviews with reporters were also used to ‘spread the word’. Outlets include the Atlanta AJC, NPR, and the Medical Association of Georgia radio show (pictured right). The point is to keep the public informed and encourage them to support law enforcements’ efforts.

23 https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga/PSN 24 https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga/pr/armed-career-criminal-sentenced-25-years-violent-carjacking

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Trainings

A big part of addressing all the PSN elements and creating a multi-agency task force is training. Everyone needs to share an understanding of the goals, terminology, and procedures. In addition to the TTA received for the youth mentoring program (discussed above), a range of trainings were incorporated into this project. To start, the task force reviewed relevant literature, such as the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Comprehensive Gang Model materials25 and the National Gang Center Strategic Planning Tool26 during the strategic planning stage. Other training priorities included federal prosecutions, gang investigations, technology, and tactical operations. Federal Prosecutions

It was important that investigators knew how to build a federal case since they would be expected to do so under the grant; however, officers are typically only trained on state courts. Therefore, the USAO provided a formal training at the start of the project, highlighting the advantages of taking a gang case federally and the extra considerations needed to do so. Half-a-dozen USAO employees spent a day educating 25 officers from the partnering agencies on the ends-and-outs of federal prosecutions. The training fully walked officers though 1) the differences between federal and state cases; 2) the requirements of federal case building; and, 3) the expectations and advantages of working with a federal prosecutor. The training focused on the best practices for compiling evidence for successful gang and gun prosecutions. The topics included search and arrest warrants, terry stops, search warrant exceptions, sentencing under federal law, testimony of an officer (federal court), a short primer on federal statutes, Miranda rights, and criminal procedure. Afterwards, ARS discussed the history of PSN and the research partner role, which helped with establishing ARS within the ‘circle of trust.’ Conferences & Accreditation

In 2017, thirteen officers from DKPD, BPD, and CPD went to the National Criminal Gang Association Annual Training in Chicago. During interviews later, the officers advised they learned a lot about what was being done to address gang crime nationally. They noted, however, that the conference would have been more instructive if “how to do it” was better incorporated. It was clear the trip had been instrumental in building comradery. Officers were obviously more comfortable within the group (e.g., joking and sharing stories) at the next task force meeting.

Then, each year of the project members of the task force attended the Georgia Gang Investigator Association (GGIA) Annual Gang Certification and Training Conference. The

25 Overview video, official’s guide, assessment guide and implementation manual retrieved from: https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Comprehensive-Gang-Model 26 Retrieved from: https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/SPT

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS certifications included basic, intermediate, and advanced certifications on gang awareness, identification, prosecution, case studies, and regional intelligence updates. The focus of the conference was adjusted to follow the most pressing investigation issues, best practices, and training needs. It was good for the task force to learn how other agencies were working on gang problems and about collaborations to share information that strengthened law enforcement responses. The research partner also attended.

Those interviewed praised the experience, saying the speakers were excellent and it was helpful to be around investigators who shared a similar vision of enforcement, to network, and to discuss cases. Officers who have attended other trainings suggested more issues were vetted in the allotted time, although the material did not feel overwhelming or disconnected to the trends in their area. The task force reported being able to obtain some insights into active investigations and gain meaningful contacts within the statewide agencies (e.g.., corrections & supervision). As members of GGIA, the task force was also kept abreast of all regional meetings and joined the metro-Atlanta Gang Intelligence Group.

Other conference trainings were experienced by various partners. The community partner, researchers, and police (including the BPD Chief) attended the BJA Innovations Suite Researcher-Practitioner Fellows Academy hosted by Michigan State University. That multiday training fostered the integration and translation of practitioners and researchers work, promoted data-driven decision making, and provided support for evidence-based practice implementation. The overarching goals were to bring ‘science into the field’ towards fair and cost-effective justice. All materials received were shared with the full task force. Tactical

The three departments worked together in a building-clearing and searches training. The training focused on designating threats, using the same lingo/codes, and identifying the best approach to multi-jurisdictional operations. It began with a classroom style PowerPoint and video. Then, simulations with mixed PD teams (14 officers each) forced the officers to apply the information. Each group received feedback on two scenarios. ARS attended to document, build rapport, and discuss project details. This training was the result of feedback from the first PSN operation, wherein officers acknowledged different standard operations and radio codes that inhibited their prior communications. Technology

A dozen iPads were distributed to taskforce members to increase on the job technological savvy. A sizable percentage of the team had old and limited flip phones that were not

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS conducive to accessing the internet, emailing on scene, taking pictures, or completing documents, all which gang investigators frequently need to do in the field. Officers search social media and other online platforms for gang affiliation, slang, photos, or posts among individuals they encounter and suspect to be gang members. Often when they verify that a person is a gang member, they want to take their picture, record interviews, save notes, and complete a profile sheet; the ease of those tasks was improved via the tablets. There is even an app called WHOVA used by the GGIA they downloaded for information sharing.

The iPads were also been used to show photos to witness and juries, such as of known gang members, graffiti, or tattoos that are well displayed with the larger, clearer screens. Facetime conversations were used to update fellow officers on while in the field. For instance, it was used in a certain gang neighborhood or during a march that was questionably gang involved. It was envisioned that the iPads would allow for the PDs to access gang investigations software in the field. That software was another technological advancement provided the task force.

The software, Formulytics27, was acquired for CPD and BPD. DKPD had been using it so they served as the experts. In addition to Formulytics being designed to help officers build gang cases, it has a notification function to connect investigators conducting investigations on the same offenders. It is widely used by the metro-Atlanta police departments, so acquisition allowed the task force to interface with breath of additional agencies.

PSN-NDGA-CrimeStats.com

As part of the districtwide strategy, a data submission portal was created for law enforcement partners. The USAO reporting webpage was developed to consistently and systematically track crime, rather than sending individual requests and so everyone has access to the reports. PSN partners submit monthly counts of Part I crimes, nonfatal shootings, gun-involved incidents, and calls for service (person shot & shots fired) via a USAO hosted dashboard to reduce the number of table requests, extractions and defining time, and individual analyses required for project accountability. After data are added, a timely, actionable report is generated for each police department. An example of the report is presented on the next page as Figure 17.

Essentially the fields are counts of serious crime already aggregated for reporting to command staff, only when they are entered into the webpage, it automatically calculates percentages, rates, and provides graphs. Those readouts compare monthly serious crimes with two years prior which can be internally circulated to help with monitoring and reporting of each TEA and in comparison, to the jurisdiction as a whole. The PDs can also login to update or download their reports at any time. Training and training materials were provided to all partnering agencies.

27 http://www.formulytics.com/

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Figure 17. USAO Northern District of GA, PSN Data Sharing Portal: Example Report

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Webinars

One training goal was to increase exposure of research, data use, and evidence-based practices among the partnering police agencies. To that end, the task force was interested in and received guidance through several national webinars during the project. For example, at the beginning of the project they learned from New York officers on how license plate recognition technology can be used to disrupt gangs, guns and drugs. Later, the team was invited to a webinar by the National Public Safety Partnership on Detroit’s Project Greenlight. They heard about how Detroit police worked with local business to implement a violence reduction strategy; and, the related challenges, successes, and lessons learned. Most recently, the task force members participated in the National Institute of Justice webinar on Protecting Against Stress & Trauma: Research Lessons for Law Enforcement that focused on promoting officer mental wellness.

Department analysts were also invited to webinars through the task force. Three crime analysts from two of the police departments observed the BJA webinar entitled "Enhancing Crime Analytics: An Overview of the Nationwide Crime Analysis Capability Building Project". The analysts learned about how existing Crime Analysis Centers are improving efficacy and effectiveness strategies to quickly identify and apprehend suspects.28 Through that webinar the analysts were also linked to “Crime Analysis Capabilities Toolkit” as a resource. Those analysts also subscribed to the Justice Research and Statistics Association webinar on Social Network Analyses, which introduced them to the concepts, existing community policing efforts, and strategies for incorporating it into initiatives. Lastly, an analyst learned about risk terrain modeling. It was developed by Rutgers researchers as a systematic method of predicting where crimes will likely occur given correlating factors and places with high risk and density factors. The PSN strategy hinges on the understanding that there are a small number of places that consistently remain criminal hot spots and that spaces can be influenced to reduce crime; thus, police analysts were interested in how to model it. Instruction

In addition to receiving training, the task force sought to train others or share what they had learned. One example of this was a course is worth 40 hours of continuing education credit created by the DeKalb County Gang Unit during the grant. They developed the Basic Gang Investigation Court and administered the first session to 30 officers. Spots were held for officers at CPD and BPD. Members of the task force also helped train officers on task forces in other divisions under the districtwide strategy and the USAO produced a ‘welcome’ video (https://usaogantraining.org/PSN-VRO)) to standardize the message to all. As another example, CPD did a citizens’ academy training on gangs and invited all task force members.

28 Retrieved from: https://bjatta.bja.ojp.gov/media/event/webinar-enhancing-crime-analytics- overview-nationwide-crime-analysis-capability-building

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Methods and Results

In addition to the documentation of trainings and observation insights discussed above, a formal pre/post survey was administered to the police at each agency to measure the extent to which the federal prosecutions training, project experience, and efforts were impactful. The research team also conducted one-on-one interviews to assess the use of technology in investigations.

Police Surveys Table 12. Police Survey Administrations Police officers were surveyed April to June 2017 BPD CPD DKPD to gauge their perceptions, experiences, and Total (n=119) (n=71) (n=813) training. A link to the twelve-question electronic 2017 Pretest survey was recommended by each chief to all # of Submissions 506 57 35 414 sworn officers via email. The results were % of Total ‒ 11% 7% 82% Sworn Force 862 72 78 712 summarized and distributed to task force Response Rate 59% 79% 45% 58% members to help them better understand their 2019 Posttest own and partnering departments (pretest # of Submissions 497 62 36 399 report available upon request). Then a posttest % of Total ‒ 13% 7% 80% Sworn Force 891 82 67 742 administration was conducted August to Response Rate 56% 76% 54% 54% September 2019 to measure the extent to which there had been change among the factors throughout the project. Table 12 displays the Table 13. Respondents’ Characteristics

submission totals and response rates for each 2017 2019 department. Pretest Posttest (N=506) (N=497) Nearly the same number of submissions were Male 84% 81% received each round of administration, with a Younger than 30 15% 10% similar distribution of officers. Table 13 shows the 30 – 39 years old 30% 29% distribution of demographics, formal education, 40 – 49 years old 37% 38% tenure, and rank among the officers who took 50 or older 16% 19% High School or GED 11% 11% the pretest vs. posttest. There were marginally Some College/Trade 46% 46% more females and older officers with longer Bachelor’sSchool Degree 34% 35% tenure in the second administration, and fewer Graduate Degree 9% 9% patrol officers; yet the samples are very similar. Tenure < 5 years 15% 15% Moreover, the samples generally reflect the Tenure 5-10 years 23% 15% Tenure 11-15 years 20% 21% historical composition of the PDs. Tenure 16-20 years 17% 16% Table 14 (on the next page) shows the survey Tenure 20-25 years 14% 23% Tenure < 25 years 10% 10% findings of both administrations and the change Patrol Officer 42% 36% in results between them. The first two columns Detective 19% 19% are the percentages of affirmative responses Sergeant 16% 19% among measures. The second column is the Lieutenant or higher 13% 13% Other 3% 2%

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BUFORD HWY CORRIDOR PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS percentage change (x = ((# posttest - # pretest) / # pretest) * 100) from the pretest to the posttest.29 The last column is the generalized effect per sworn officers (x = (posttest % response / posttest # force) minus (pretest % response / pretest # force)).

Table 14. Police Departments’ Survey Results

Pretest Posttest % Change per (N=506) (N=497) Change Sworn Officers Perceptions of Community Feel Respected and Trusted 74% 75% 0% +30 Citizens Feel Unsafe 57% 55% -5% -1 Gun Violence Problem 66% 66% -1% +19 Gang Issues Problem 70% 60% -17% -67 Value of Policing Strategies Problem Oriented 45% 47% +2% +31 Calls for Service 77% 77% -2% +22 Community Oriented 51% 61% +16% +104 Zero Tolerance 38% 31% -20% -51 Directed Patrol 49% 48% -2% +5 Broken Windows 23% 22% -7% -2 Predictive 18% 15% -16% -22 Knowledge of the Federal System Worked with Federal Prosecutor 36% 38% +3% +28 Received Federal Prosecution Training 11% 13% +24% +21 Contributed to a Federal Prosecution 26% 28% +5% +25 Identified More Than 3 Differences 45% 49% +8% +49 At Least One Case Building Difference 75% 79% +3% +57 At Least One Prosecution Difference 56% 59% +4% +43

The “Perceptions of Community” measures addressed if officers felt that people in their jurisdiction respect and trust them, were generally safe, and the extent to which gun violence and gangs are problem. When the police believe they less criticized and are effective, officers are more likely to be satisfied with their employment (Brough & Frame, 2004; O'Leary-Kelly & Griffin, 1995). Research shows that this has a reciprocal relationship with job performance (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001) and overall recruitment and retention (Shields & Ward, 2001) within police departments. Two-thirds believed they were usually or always treated with respect and trusted as an officer. This is somewhat lower than what citizens reported in a 2018 Gallup poll‒85% trust the police. However, citizen of color tends to have poorer perceptions of the police (Peck, 2015) and the project jurisdictions have higher Black or African American and

29 Note this is not the raw difference in percentages (x = % posttest minus % pretest) so to adjust for variance by corresponding sample sizes.

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Hispanic populations than nationally represented, so the police seem have a reasonably accurate sense of the dynamics. About half of the officers felt citizens in their jurisdiction are somewhat or very unsafe,30 which is likely related to the high percentage who also believe there are gun and gang issues. Officers rated ‘how big of a problem guns and gangs are’ on scales from one (not a problem) to ten (an extreme problem). Approximately two-thirds of officers rated gun violence and gangs a problem level of seven or higher. From the pretest to the posttest, perceptions of gun violence as a problem slightly increased and gangs significantly decreased (see Table 14). Officers at the beginning of the project were 30% more likely to say there was a big gang problem in their jurisdiction than currently.

The officers were also asked to rank order the importance of seven policing strategies: Problem Oriented (data driven problem solving), Calls for Service (911 responding), Community Oriented (relationship building), Zero Tolerance (aggressive enforcement, stop-question-frisk), Directed Patrol (targeted presence), Broken Windows (addressing social and physical disorder), and Predictive (i.e., PredPol) policing. The “Value of Policing Strategies” section in Table 14 shows the percentage of officers who ranked each strategy as first, second, or third. When working to address violent-crime and gang-related issues and build relationships with communities, research suggests that problem-oriented and community policing are good approaches, whereas zero-tolerance (e.g., stop and frisk) can be counterproductive, particularly in areas with racial disparities and low police legitimacy (Gill et al., 2014; Telep & Weisburd, 2012; Weisburd, Telep, & Hinkle, 2010). This message was shared with the departments for the project.

The posttest results suggest that 31 and 104 additional officers considered problem-oriented and community policing important strategies compared those surveyed in the pretest, respectively. In fact, officers were about 50% more likely to promote community policing to the top of the list in 2019 than they were in 2017. Synchronously, there was a reduction among approximately 51 officers’ who considered zero tolerance policing a priority, which translates to officers being around 30% less likely to consider it a top strategy.

The last section of Table 14 displays measures of police “Knowledge of the Federal System.” Since one of the project goals was to increase federal prosecution of the most violent and gang involved offenders, it was expected that more officers would receive training and experience of federal casework. Indeed, all measures of knowledge were increased by approximately 21 to 57 officers, with the highest percentage change among those who had federal system training (24% increase). When asked to identify which of the conditions applied to federal prosecutions, half of the officers picked more than 3 correct differences compared to the state system. More officers were able to identify case-building differences (e.g., indictment arrests or interview requirements) than prosecution differences (e.g., can stack gun charges or not governed by a bail system); nonetheless, the majority picked at least one of each. As expected,

30 Future research should explore how officers define citizen safety, what drives these perceptions (e.g., citizen behavior, location variations, crime rates, etc.), and effective ways to make improvements.

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Process Interviews: Technological Employment

Interviews were conducted by ARS with eight members of the PSN taskforce. The interviews were informal, contextualized through participant observations, and provided the opportunity to reinforce the information feedback loop intended to drive strategic planning and commitment. The officers held various rankings, represent both sexes, and were mixed White, Black or African American, and Hispanic. One of the major topics discussed was technological employment.

During one-on-one interviews, task force officers were asked about the use the iPads and the Formulytics software. The officers all reported the iPads allowed them to complete the above noted tasks more proficiently. They viewed the updated technical equipment, more appropriately matching the climate of the job. One officer event called it “invaluable equipment.” Due to the iPads being outfitted differently to comply with each department’s protocols and the need for multiple models, Formulytics was used (or not) despairingly among the officer while in the field.

While they all absolutely wanted Formulytics access and entry capabilities in the field, several taskforce members reported being somewhat disenchanted in how they were able to use it. Some officers were still having to record the gang members information only to redundantly enter it into the system later. A major purpose of the database was to connect departments through gang-specific intelligence that showed gang member movements throughout jurisdictions and support major communication. It seems the platform does more to collect gang data within units than between them, as little information is shared across agencies – it is a case building tool, not intelligence database. Even identifying that another officer has entered the same gang member is challenged because there is no probable search function and users must navigate multiple looping pages and text fields to understand an offender’s affiliations. Further, each member must be added by each department and only then does the officers get a notification that another agency has a similar profile, so officers cannot just look for people. No details regarding cases at other departments are provided, only a contact number if the entry officer added it. Still, the officers liked having anything as no other gang investigation software is available or widely used. Each department noted the platform is great for logging and organizing gang data and very easy to use.

It was suggested that if departments had access to just basic information about possible gang members, the large percentage of inquires (i.e., officer contacts on similar profiles) for false positives could be reduced. Users need to be able to pull trends and quickly see associates instead of having to dig around in the reports. Similarly, the promise of predictive analytics that provides automatic affiliation-pattern detection and analysis was not actualized. Officers either do not have this function or are unaware it exists. Feedback from the interviews were provided the Formulytics technicians who are working on a 2.0 version.

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Conclusion

This project can be considered successful across several metrics. A strong collaboration and capacity were built among law enforcement. Task force members found the initiative easy to understand and workable. Expectations were connected to the goals and articulated to individuals. The goals were also connected to the agencies missions and expected performance. Knowledge was developed among the partners, the communities, and a foundation of skills, materials and a clear process were established. Research was integrated at every stage. Data were used to make decisions and track progress. An exchange of information among agencies was established and operations coordinated, resulting in deconfliction and increased investigations effectiveness. Practices among the PDs were aligned, outreach incorporated, and sustainability created. Overall, violence in the target areas declined.

To further measure impact and opportunities to improve districtwide, a final task force survey (see Appendix D) was administered in September 2019. Data were collected at what was the last meeting of the Buford Hwy PSN only task force. Partners felt they knew more about the communities, as well as about each other. They reported they learned new ways to engage the community, realized the importance of focusing on local at-risk youth, and discovered the need for more community training/education on gangs. The task force also noted learning the types of cases the USAO can prosecute and how to prepare federal cases for trial. Some gained a greater understanding of how policies/procedures vary between the local police agencies, and that each municipality had unique needs/challenges. The research partner was cited as an important part of the team that improved efficiency by providing science-based information, best practices, and data analyses.

Respondents said that the collaboration and teamwork of the partners was the part of the project that they most liked. One person said “… (we) created a bridge between the federal and local law enforcement unlike anything I experienced in my career.” Another wrote “We all had the same mission and when the ‘feet on the street’ got together, things got done.” The least liked aspects of the project were that not all partners were equally involved. Suggestions for improvement included equal investment from all partnering police agencies, funds for a full- time task force, and a more streamlined grant process to prevent delays.

All respondents indicated they would continue to work with the agencies on the team after the project, and that they would participate in the larger Atlanta taskforce moving forward. That larger task force is a merge of the sustained Atlanta PSN, this project, and expansion. In October 2019, members started attending the full Atlanta Division meeting, wherein all metro-area agencies are invited to discuss cases. Over a dozen agencies were there, information on gang and gun offenders were exchanged freely, and six new cases were adopted by the USAO.

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Since USA Pak took office in 2017, PSN actions have been prolific throughout the Northern District of GA. As it relates to this project, violence in the Atlanta metropolitan area has been reduced from over 400 incidents per 100,000 residents before this project, to nearly 300 (see Table 15 below). Homicides went from 6.2 incidents per 100,000 residents to 5.7, which was below the 2018 Georgia rate of 6.1. Similarly, the rate of aggravated assaults in the metro-area declined to 194.7, while the national rate was 246.8. Additional efforts not discussed here also contribute to these results.

Table 15. UCR Incidents: Atlanta MSA Rates per 100,000 Residents

Year Violent Homicide Robbery Assault Property 2016 403.2 6.8 144.1 228.2 2,998.30 2017 367.6 6.7 115.4 219.4 2,865.70 2018 320.7 5.7 94.1 194.7 2,575.00

Recommendations

As part of the project process, ARS conducted frequent quality assessments and provided recommendations for improvement. While this project report signifies it has technically ended, most of the efforts reported here will continue as either a modified version or incorporated into the districtwide strategy. ARS submits several suggestions for consideration to agencies interested in program replication. Law Enforcement

1. Standardize Reporting. Data for this report were derived from multiple sources and replication of analyses will be a challenge for any PSN task force. It was necessary to develop a more structured and organized way to collect police data (see Trainings section above), review cases for federal prosecution, and track targeted outreach. Protocol development and use should be prioritized.

a. Data should be collected using uniform data fields whenever possible, and include measures of each major decision point by date. It is recommended that dates of case review, adoption decision, and processing (e.g., indictment, and sentence) be kept. Other fields should include the unique identification numbers, sentences length, supervision status, and other key pieces of information will allow for much easier and quicker impact analyses.

b. There must be a method of record-keeping and data sharing between partnering agencies to provide case updates, maximize the effectiveness of face-to-face case reviews, and continually monitor outcomes of strategic enforcement efforts and outcomes. When asked about their experiences with

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USAO case collaboration, most of the taskforce said they said more updates on cases would be helpful.

2. Monitor Trends for Continuous Quality Improvement. It is not enough to just collect data for an impact evaluation, process assessments are invaluable to efficiently and effectively utilizing resources. Thus, it is helpful to embed a research partner and measure more than recidivism rates. For instance, the Northern District does quarterly reviews (if not more frequent) of targeted outreach (e.g., mentoring contacts), calls for service, crime trends, offending patterns, procedures, trainings, and cases, among other metrics of outcomes.

3. Increase Collaboration with the Department of Community Supervision (DCS). DCS assistance is critical, as many violent and gang offenders are under probation or parole supervision. DCS officers have specific knowledge of offenders and their associates, offering unique contributions to the case adoption and prosecution process. Further, felons in possession of guns while under community supervision are a danger to officers conducting home visits and coordinating services. The use of supervision searches among high-risk cases can identify threats and increase safety. Recognizing this, the USAO has invited DCS to all Violent Repeat Offender division meetings and Target Enforcement Site meetings. In addition, the research partner reviews DCS data when applicable. Prevention and Intervention

1. Develop a strategy for youth mentoring program sustainability. The mentoring program ended with the completion of the 2018-2019 school year. During the grant period, RBC advised that they knew well that the community greatly needed this type of program and they intended to make the program a permanent fixture at the church. Unfortunately, this did not materialize; the program did not begin with the new 2019-2020 school year. RBC staff did not provide specific reasons for the program’s termination, but the decision seems to be financial in nature. Both the pastor and athletic director have voiced strong support for the program, so we recommend that avenues for continuation be explored. While RBC could explore other grant opportunities, we recommend that a path towards program permanency be taken instead. There are many options including fundraisers and donations for student scholarships to cover the cost of programming. In their TTA report, Raising Expectations recommended that RBC explore partnerships with other organizations to help support program goals, as well as the solicitation and training of volunteers to help sustain the program. RBC has developed a strong alliance with Street Grace to support their sex trafficking prevention efforts; we recommend that similar partnerships be developed with organizations serving at-risk youth in DeKalb County to resurrect and sustain the mentoring program. The county is rich with organizations that serve at-risk youth in a variety of capacities. RBC has an ideal facility for the program; partnerships that could provide assistance with tutoring, meals, transportation, mentoring and other services could provide the supports needed for longevity. RBC also has a large congregation that could be tapped

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for volunteer support. Other churches in the area could also be considered for both partnership and volunteer opportunities. In addition, the metro Atlanta area has many colleges and universities that could also be investigated for student volunteers. RBC touted their strong ties to the county police department, and participation in the PSN grant has also provided exposure to other local police departments who could potentially be recruited as partners to support the program long-term.

2. Incorporate risk assessment into program eligibility. We recommend that an official assessment tool be incorporated into the program eligibility criteria. RBC involved persons with experience working with at-risk youth to help them select program participants (i.e. school administrators, coaches) which was a positive step towards identifying the type of youth they wished to target. The youth pre-tests showed that some youth exhibited some of the most common factors associated with juvenile delinquency such as peers engaged in illicit activity and substance use. However, we recommend that an official risk instrument be used to more accurately identify high risk youth. This not only helps the program to better target scarce resources on the high-risk population, but it also helps avoid the inclusion of low risk persons. There is much research showing that mixing high and low risk persons has a deleterious effect in that it raises the risk of the low risk population. There are many youth risk assessment instruments which can be considered, including the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory, Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version, The Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth, Gang Risk of Entry Factors (GREF), Gang Risk Assessment Instrument (GRAI or GRAI-M), and The Early Intervention Foundation Risk Factors for Youth Violence and Gang Membership.

3. Ensure data agreements are in place to obtain the information necessary to conduct an outcome evaluation. School data is well-protected and typically requires strict confidentiality and data protection agreements. Official data on grades, attendance, and disciplinary actions for all participants is critical to understand a program’s impact on academic performance and behavior. The handling and storage of juvenile data often requires tight guidelines and data encryption rules that must be followed. If program staff are not able/qualified to comply with such measures, an outside research firm or University assistance may be sought to ensure the proper acquisition, transfer and use of data. In addition, agreements to talk to administrators and/or teachers to obtain anecdotal information on factors such as participation, attitude, and relations with peers are also important components of a solid outcome evaluation. Obtaining permission for such conversation from the school and/or parents is also important.

4. Obtain greater parental engagement. RBC made efforts to engage parents in the process much more in the year two program. We applaud these efforts, but recommend that even more be done to involve parents. While an initial program meeting was held that involved parents, we recommend a more involved parent orientation separate from the children be held where parental expectations are discussed. Parents should agree not only agree for

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their child to participate in the program, but they should commit to provide transportation, to engage with program staff on regular intervals to provide updates on their child’s progress and needs, provide data needed for program evaluation such as information on academic performance, behavior, and the completion of surveys, as well as participate in focus groups or other forums to share feedback and suggestions. RE attributed much of their program success to intense parental involvement whereby parents weren’t only working with program staff, but they also agreed to maintain a level of accountability at home to enforce program standards and lessons.

5. Incorporate evidence-based curriculum and ensure program fidelity. The Overcoming Obstacles program was selected for the life skills portion of the program. This program is in use in all 50 states and educators report effectiveness in many areas such as helping students cope with stress, resolve conflicts, improve problem-solving skills, as well as improvements in both grades and school attendance. However, such results rely upon delivery of the program with fidelity, meaning that lessons are taught in the manner intended by the author. During year one observations, the curriculum was not being administered as intended at the middle school due to the lack of classroom space and the need to teach in bleachers in a loud gym. It’s unclear how the program was delivered to the other groups as it was never presented when research staff were onsite. While a summary of some of the topics covered in the law and justice portion of the program were provided, the actual curriculum was not, so we are unclear if this program is evidence-based and whether it was delivered with fidelity. When selecting program curriculum, we strongly suggest that evidence-based programs be used with fidelity to ensure maximum effectiveness.

6. Ensure that program staff are trauma informed. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) advises that it’s safe to assume that everyone that encounters the criminal justice system has a history of trauma and therefore “universal precautions” should be employed. The youth in the program were identified as high-risk putting them at greater risk to be the victims of trauma. In fact, the pre-tests indicate high levels of trauma. For example, one-quarter said that they themselves have been the victim of a crime, and nearly six and ten say that they have witnessed violence. We recommend that all staff working with the mentoring program be trauma-informed to help increase safety, reduce recidivism, and promote recovery. There are many trainings available that can provide this knowledge to staff, including SAMHSA’s GAINS Center for Behavioral Health and Justice Transformation program, “How Being Trauma-Informed Improves Criminal Justice System Responses.”

7. Explore options to include a transportation component to deepen the reach of at-risk youth that can participate in the program. There were many discussions during the launch of the program about finding ways to transport youth to/from the program. RBC was not able to find a viable solution during the study period, but we recommend that options for transportation be explored if the program is re-instituted. It seems that some youth missed

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sessions due to a lack of transportation, and youth that may have greatly benefitted from the program were excluded if their families were not able to provide transportation. We recommend exploring grants or partnerships with other organizations to ensure that eligible youth can participate, regardless of their family’s ability to provide transport.

8. Greater police involvement with the program. The mentoring program had very limited involvement from the local police department. RBC reported that on occasion local county police would pop in to observe the youth playing basketball, but officer involvement was not a central part of the program. Early planning efforts had included a basketball tournament where youth would challenge the police to three-on-three games, but this never materialized (primarily due to a shortage of police coverage across the county). While the youth received law and justice information from a retired DKPD Officer, RBC’s reported close relationship with the County Police Department was not employed to support the program. Creating a role for officers to engage with at-risk youth could help improve relations, build trust, and respect for the police. Surveys of the youth in the program found that more than half don’t trust the police, one-third are afraid of the police, and 71% think that the police treat persons differently based upon their race. These data indicate much room for improvement of relations between the youth and law enforcement. We recommend that the program (if reinstated) include greater involvement with the local police, and that outlets for positive interaction between the youth and police be established.

9. Employ Technical Assistance Recommendations. RBC received technical assistance from Raising Expectations, an award-winning prior PSN grant recipient with an excellent track record of success with at-risk youth. They provided direct observation, a final report, and a close-out meeting to review their findings and recommendations. We recommend that these recommendations be reviewed and considered if the program is reestablished in the future. RBC may also want to consider engaging Raising Expectations as a partner in ongoing sustainability efforts.

10. Develop a strategy for open gym program sustainability. The open gym program provided a positive outlet for local youth for three years. We recommend that RBC develop a plan for sustainability to continue providing this program to the community. The church may want to consider partnering with the county police for future grants whereby the church and police can work together to provide a midnight basketball program. The church could also seek other community partners to help shoulder the cost of the program; partners may also be able to expand the program’s offerings for an even more enriching experience. For example, The Alternative Midnight Basketball League Program (AMBLP) provides workshops along with basketball to provide participants with information on topics such as conflict resolution, interviewing techniques, and how to apply for college financial aid. Grants and/or partnerships may also be available through the local school system, county, or local recreation leagues. Participants, their families and the community at large may be willing to engage in fundraising activities to ensure the program’s longevity.

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11. Develop Partnership with local organizations to expand the program beyond basketball. Other midnight basketball programs (such as those under the auspices of the AMBLP) include enrichment programs along with athletics. We recommend that RBC consider including components such as drug education and career counseling with future iterations of the midnight basketball program. RBC can develop partnerships with other local organizations that can provide such programming. For example, Goodwill of North Georgia may be able to provide a speaker on career-related topics, or a local Toastmasters club may be able to provide volunteers to provide sessions on leadership or public speaking. In addition, partners that can help fund special events for participants could also be sought to support an awards banquet. A partner to assist with transportation so that midnight basketball could be available to a wider audience might be another avenue to consider.

12. Assess participant needs and satisfaction. Open gym was presented as a safe space for youth to interact and engage in basketball. Attendance was the only outcome measure evaluated; did local youth participate in a non-violent arena playing sports? If the program continues in the future, we suggest that evaluation efforts be expanded to include feedback from both participants and their families, as well as a review of local crime rates to monitor any impact. Were drops in violent crimes seen in the target area? Are youth and families getting what they need from the program? Based upon other midnight basketball programs that include an additional layer of social services, we suspect that many participants might also need/benefit from the addition of such programming. Assessing needs and satisfaction would allow RBC to better direct their efforts to fill gaps that may impact the success of participants. Outreach

1. Increase community engagement. While there have been some good events, articles in the media, postings on Facebook, and presentations at conferences, we recommend more community outreach. Public awareness campaigning and engaging community members in activities related to anti-gang strategies have been shown to decrease crime and sustain decreases.

2. Go to where people live. The task force learned that asking community residents to meet somewhere outside of their normal environment reduces the likelihood of attendance. Events that occur where people are going to be, such as schools, parks, and apartment complex are more successful places to engage.

3. Develop a strategy for human trafficking awareness campaign sustainability. RBC leadership advised that future sex trafficking awareness events are not clear due to funding. RBC and Street Grace have created a strong working relationship and the LoveLoud Ministry Team was created with persons committed to the work. We recommend that RBC and Street Grace work closely with the LoveLoud to strategize ways to continue the work. RBC leadership expressed much support for this type of ministry work and told of a volunteer base

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that was energized by the mission. We suggest that RBC play on the vigor of volunteers by encouraging them to find ways to solicit donations, conduct fundraisers, write grant applications, or other activities that will help support efforts to serve the at-risk community that sits within eye-shot of the church campus.

4. Develop Partnership with local organizations to sex trafficking efforts. We recommend that RBC and the LoveLoud Ministry Team reach out for other partners in their efforts. While LoveLoud and Street Grace have the “manpower” to conduct the events, perhaps local grocery stores or restaurants could be partners to provide food. RBC could also consider partnering with other local churches that also support Street Grace’s work. In addition, RBC staff talked about seeing great need in the population served at the hotel. Stories were told about children without proper footwear, women without appropriate clothing for job interviews, families without adequate food, women in need of medical care, etc. RBC and LoveLoud could work together to find other local organizations willing to partner and participate in these community events to provide needed services. RBC talked about how increasing interaction time with persons being trafficked helped to foster trust and increased the chances of persons being brave enough to ask for help. Providing on-site services with Street Grace partners standing by has the potential to not only provide needed services, but also to increase the chances that a victim of trafficking will feel comfortable and have the opportunity to reach out for help.

5. Find opportunities for the LoveLoud Ministry Team to continue their work in a manner utilizing less resources. The church formed a volunteer group committed to the mission of helping victims of sex trafficking. While large-scale events with food are a great way to engage the community at the target hotels, the group can also fulfill their mission in a less grandeur fashion. RBC has a close relationship with the owner of the hotel who is committed to the mission of assisting victims of sex trafficking. Perhaps they could work with hotel leadership to keep a stack of Street Grace cards in the reception office, laundry room, vending/ice machines, or other common areas. Volunteers could gain permission to be on the property to personally distribute cards door to door while inviting persons to attend church, or to females seen walking around the hotel grounds. By working with hotel management, it’s likely that the group can find an array of opportunities to distribute the helpline phone number outside of a largescale event. Training

1. Information increases confidence and effectiveness. Georgia has a strong anti-gang act but effective apprehension and prosecution is still a challenge that can be addressed though collaboration. Software to share information can reduce silos. There are legal challenges and training requirements that must be overcome, and it requires mass buy-in.

2. Teach all officers. The USAO has identified as a main contributor to this problem insufficient training of uniformed officers, who often are the first to arrive on the scene of a crime, but

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who may not recognize that the crime is gang related. Understanding the fundamentals of a federal prosecution should also be as common as state courts knowledge. Doing presentations at local PDs roll call or developing a training video or online course e.g., certification) should be considered. Gang conferences would also be a good venue.

3. Educating the offenders. Making sure that all at-risk adult and youths know gun laws could reduce the likelihood some will carry, thus use a gun during confrontation. Overall Project Lessons Learned

Invest the time • Planning takes longer than expected • Take the necessary time to get it right • Requires extensive USAO time away from prosecutions • Engage research partner from the beginning • Maintain Communications • Agency relationships take years to build • Appreciation and respect go a long way • External Engagement can be the answer Act strategically • Define the target requirements • Set expectations and follow them • Integrate research, data, & analyses from the start • Listen for “outside the box” ideas Set realistic expectations • Focus on capacity & responsivity • Be willing to adapt • Enthusiasm AND pessimism are contagious • Make it, and its champions a priority Continuous data analyses • Prioritize data validity and consistency • Abandon ineffective practices • Local LEO participation and input are critical • Research partner trust must be earned • Automate, standardize, and regulate when possible • Evaluation component to measure impact carries message and improves buy-in Incorporate sustainability efforts at every turn • Standardize data and procedures • Regular meetings with all partners • Monthly Reporting • Celebrate all successes Remember • There is always more to learn • Everyone always wants additional funding

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Appendix A: Project Summary Sheets

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Appendix B: TTA Report

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Appendix C: Community Survey

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Appendix D: Task Force Feedback Forms

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