Evident Change places police reform in the context of authentic police-community collaboration.

Our approach emphasizes transparency and accountability in both directions. We give communities the tools they need to hold law enforcement and elected officials accountable for change. In turn, we give law enforcement agencies concrete ways to engage community members as partners in the dynamic and ongoing process of public safety.

The components of our work are:

  • Community engagement. We bring together law enforcement, community members and organizations, and elected officials to collectively create equity-focused strategies for crime prevention and change.
  • Data analysis. We analyze data on departmental use of force, stops, calls for service, and community complaints to understand whether laws, policies, and decisions reflect sound crime-prevention strategies, constitutional policing, and bias-free policing principles. We bring to light the places where racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, or geographic disparities exist and guide reforms as needed.
  • Policy and practice assessment. We work with law enforcement agencies to evaluate innovative violence prevention strategies to assist policing leaders and their municipal partners in implementing progressive policing strategies. In one municipality, Evident Change developed and implemented a domestic violence protocol for officers arriving at the scenes of intimate partner violence incidents.
  • Law enforcement training. We have developed innovative training approaches that draw on the strengths of the community. For example, funded by the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance, Evident Change worked with children of immigrant parents to develop youth-led training curriculum that provides law enforcement with strategies for interacting effectively with youth. With the support of the Evelyn & Walter Haas Foundation, we worked with the San Francisco Police Department to develop and implement protocols and training to ensure the safety of youth present at the arrest of parents or caregivers.
  • Evaluation and implementation. We provide actionable analyses quickly so that law enforcement leaders have the data they need to effectively implement new models, evaluate progress on an ongoing basis, and adjust to those interventions to improve outcomes.    
  • Oversight. We provide monitoring of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Led by Dr. Angie Wolf and Joseph Brann, this monitoring requires the department to adhere to constitutional policing methods in stops, searches, seizures, bias-free policing, housing, community engagement, data collection, use of force, complaints, and accountability. Dr. Wolf and Mr. Brann also serve as co-monitors for the Kern County Sheriff’s Department, focusing on use of force; stops, searches, and seizures; responding to people with behavioral disabilities or in crisis; management and supervisory oversight; language access; recruitment, hiring, and promotions of sworn personnel; community policing; and personnel complaint review.

To learn more about Evident Change’s approach to collaborative policing reform, contact Chief Program Officer Dr. Angie Wolf.