Stratford Police Department has created and implemented a community policing program over the past ten years. The program is a hybrid of the Police Activities League (PAL) and a Stratford-innovated program, the Police Engagement Program(r) (PEP). PAL hosts year-long programs with K-12 students, ranging from social activities, sports programs and has three separate curricula in the schools, which were approved by the Stratford Board of Education. The Stratford PD also intervenes to provide support when social services are unavailable. Officers regularly engage with students to model empathy and encouragement. This gives the Police Officers positive engagements with all K-12 students throughout the year. These programs also generate goodwill amongst K-12 students’ parents-guardians and families. The PEP Program is a year-long series of officer training and wellness; and empathy and trust-building events amongst citizens, that became modeled on the 21st Century Policing guidance. Citizens and community leaders are given insight into being a police officer and participate in digital roleplaying, to experience threatening quick-decisions that officers often find themselves in. Officer experiences are shared, The including threats, concerns and problem solving. In 2022, 1,320 community events were hosted and reached approximately 70% of Stratford business individuals and residents annually. Over the past ten years, the Police Department has forged more than 100 community relationships, beginning with zero relationships ten years ago.
Stratford Police Department data reports the following progress: 80% officer participation (which increased over time as officers began to see the benefits of this positive community engagement); 74% decrease in violent arrests; 32% decrease in juvenile charges and/or offenses (past 5 calendar years); 37% decline in juvenile individuals arrested (past 5 calendar years); 100% positive engagement with youth; 30% decline in arrestable offenses (past four years); 429,340 social media reach for this community of approximately 52,000 residents. Of particulate note, there were zero complaints in 2022. Complaints decreased steadily since CY 2017 - 14 complaints; CY 2018 - 12 complaints; CY 2019 - 10 complaints; CY 2021 - 10 complaints.
The SPD’s police officer-to-residents ratio is approximately1 officer for every 497 residents. On average, Stratford’s 106 police officers (up patrol officers) answer 33,000 (average) calls to service per year for interventions (an average 311 cases per officer and 471 initial contacts by patrol officers), requiring the department to elicit the goodwill of its officers to participate in PAL-PEP via overtime.
During COVID, there was also a shift in population. The white population decreased, the African American and Hispanic populations increased.
The Department seeks technical assistance from the National Policing Institute to review programmatic data collection and analysis to ensure data-informed decision making. The Institute will perform a review of existing data and data collection methods; review and recommend appropriate methodology for analyses; assess and conduct a case study; and develop a PlayBook Framework for replication in other locations.
1. Data Quality Review. The Institute will review existing data and data collection methods to determine feasibility for its use to evaluate the PAL/PEP program. The team will review for data completeness and consistency and will determine if it can be compared to data collected from other sources and/or over time. The team will work with the Stratford PD team to establish research questions and identify data and data sources necessary to answer those questions.
2. Analysis Methodology. The Institute Team will review the existing analytic methodologies being used for measuring impact of the PAL/PEP program in Stratford. They will determine if the analytic design will answer the research question posed, and will provide recommendations for changes or limitations to the existing analysis and suggestions for alternative or additional analyses.
3. Case study. The NPI Team will conduct a case study of the Stratford PAL/PEP Program to complement the quantitative analyses. They will establish a case study methodology to gain a more nuanced understanding of the program, its success and challenges. From this, the NPI team will form a more full picture of how the program has impacted the community.
4. PlayBook Framework. Based on the case study, the NPI team will begin to tease out strategies and steps to incorporate for replication of the program. They will identify high-level themes and key strategies that have driven programmatic success and will organize them into a series of steps that will create a framework for a robust playbook. .
Stratford PD Team
The Stratford Police Department Team (SPD) has created the Police Activities League-Police Engagement Program (“PAL-PEP”) over the past ten years. Although a cohesive and complimentary team, their strengths are well positioned within their individual areas of leadership.
Lt. Eller is focused on program data collection and reporting, and he is the Director of School Services and Director of the Stratford Police Activities League. Lt. Eller, with Sgt. Lofton collaborates for officer training and experiences, and community experiences of Stratford policing. He is supervisor to the School Resource Officers and has been the primary Stratford PD liaison to the Superintendent of Schools and its entire administrative team.
Sgt. Lofton is focused on presentation and content for the PEP Program and police and community trainings. Sgt. Lofton, with Lt. Eller, collaborates for officer training and experiences, and community experiences of Stratford policing. He is also Executive Director of PAL and directs the programs for all youth sports and activities. He is Detective Sergeant of the Stratford Police Department, Detective Bureau.
Ms. McLaughlin is focused on community outreach and relationships, managing the activities calendar and events for the program and will lead grant supervision at the SPD and its subs, Naugatuck Police Department, Justice Systems Institute and National Policing Institute. Ms. McLaughlin manages the department’s police wellness programs. Ms. McLaughlin brings 30 years of experience working with community organizations and other non-profits and for-profit businesses.
The Stratford PD has innovated a community policing program. The Department seeks technical assistance from the National Policing Institute to assess the program for efficacy and create a case study so that the program can be shared with third party policing institutions. This case study will also identify areas for improvement and add important research-based guidance. The Stratford PD lacks the resources to conduct this stated work.
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