The Norman Police Department and Ruth Knee Institute for Transformative Scholarship in the Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work at the University of Oklahoma announce a collaborative initiative, Partnership for Evaluating Police. This unique data-sharing and decision-making collaboration is among the first of its kind in the United States.

The strategic partnership brings together the police department with social work scholars to provide not only external, unbiased evaluation of police-related community contact data, but also to develop a consultation mechanism to learn more about how to adjust policies and procedures to better serve the needs of the Norman community.

The Ruth Knee Institute and OU School of Social Work will serve in an advisory capacity to NPD as an external evaluation partner to access data relating to policing activities to identify how this data could connect socio-cultural realties of the community, and to provide recommendations on how to address the complex realities of policing today. 

The first project will focus on assessing the impacts of NPD’s traffic enforcement on marginalized community members. Subsequent projects will focus on evaluation of the School Resource Officer program and mental health-related contacts.

Focused on furthering the mission and values of the police department, specifically related to human dignity, transparency, responsibility, and community partnerships, this partnership aims to create long-term solutions.

Additional information on the Partnership for Evaluating Police initiative will be released upon the launch of assessment efforts in the coming weeks.