Qualitative Research, Strategic Planning, Community and Stakeholder Engagement
Using participatory research to create OPA’s first outreach and engagement plan for 2019-2020.
Intro
The Office of Police Accountability (OPA) is part of Seattle’s police accountability system. OPA investigates complaints against Seattle Police Department officers (think Internal Affairs). Anyone can make a complaint. OPA provides independent oversight, supported by a mix of civilian and sworn staff and a civilian Director who makes decisions on allegations free from outside influence.
TIMELINE: The project began in January 2019 and was completed by June 2019. The plan continues to be implemented, tracked, and updated.
My Role
The Problem
OPA created and hired an outreach and engagement team of three in late 2018 to support OPA’s community engagement efforts. Before this time, OPA did not have a dedicated outreach team or an engagement strategy. Tasked with the goal to broadly “engage with community,” the community engagement team needed a strategic plan to be most impactful.
Research
AUDIENCES & USERS
General Public: Seattle residents, workers, and visitors (anyone who may have an interaction with SPD
Police Accountability Stakeholders
OPA staff and leadership
METHODS
Interviews with OPA leadership and staff
Interviews with 6 community organizations
Public awareness survey distributed online and at community centers. Received 195 responses.
KEY FINDINGS
Many people didn’t know about OPA.
Most people learned about OPA from the news.
Trust and perception of OPA and police differed by key demographics (age, gender, ethnicity).
Outcomes
STRATEGIES BASED ON RESEARCH FINDINGS
Raised public awareness through proactive engagement: increased community engagement from little to no engagement in 2018 to nearly 100 engagement activities in 2019.
Focused on engaging communities most impacted by policing- communities of color, youth, and individuals/families experiencing homelessness.
Built and maintained relationships with community organizations and stakeholders active in police accountability and public safety issues.
We increased public awareness throughout 2019, attending local community festivals to share OPA’s services through trivia games and conversation.
Project Approach
Understand
We learned more about the current and existing conditions about OPA and outreach and engagement.
What did OPA do in the past for outreach and engagement? What worked well, what did not?
What are parameters or constraints- what City policy, tools, or frameworks will influence or guide our work?
What resources do we have to work with? What resources does the City have that we can leverage?
Who are the stakeholders involved?
2. Research
We needed to establish a baseline of community and stakeholder awareness and perceptions of OPA. This research would help the team to define engagement strategies.
The Baseline Assessment utilized two methodologies—survey and interviews—to gather quantitative and qualitative data on the following research questions:
What is the public’s current understanding, attitudes, and perceptions of OPA and police accountability?
How are current OPA outreach and engagement tools being used?
What are the best ways or preferred methods to engage with communities in the future?
“We don’t feel cared for by the [police] system- police officers get away with everything. It’s important for OPA to be present at events in the community to build relationships.”
Interviews
OPA created a list of interview questions to ask key community partners (see Appendix 1: Interview Questions). The questions were intended to gather insight into current engagement with specific communities and populations within Seattle.
OPA interviewed six community organizations that represent a range of communities and populations that may be of interest to OPA in future outreach and engagement efforts (see Figure 2). These include hearing from organizations that work with communities of color and vulnerable populations, such as homeless individuals and families.
Survey
We created a survey with nine primary questions. The survey was available in English and Spanish, both online through Survey Monkey and on paper. Paper copies were distributed at select community centers throughout Seattle to represent populations in each of its policing precincts- North, South, Southwest, East, and West.
The survey was not intended to provide statistically valid data, but rather to gain a broad sense of how the community perceives OPA. The survey received 195 responses.
Survey Questionnaire
Opinions of OPA differed by race/ethnicity. Respondents who identified as Black or Hispanic were more likely to have an unfavorable view of OPA compared to respondents who identified as White or Asian.
Research Findings
Many people didn’t know about OPA - roughly half of survey respondents had heard of OPA.
Most people learned about OPA from the news.
Trust and perception of OPA and police differed by key demographics (age, gender, ethnicity).
These findings helped to inform the engagement plan. Several key strategies focus on raising awareness of OPA. We also focused outreach efforts on communities most impacted by policing- ones that indicated they trusted OPA and the system of accountability the least, including communities of color and youth.
3. Visioning
With a baseline established, we then could use the research findings from the public awareness assessment to help us think about goals for outreach. I led a visioning/brainstorm meeting to kick off the plan development phase, making sure everyone was on the same page and getting team buy-in. I also used it as a an opportunity to teach team members about the the strategic planning process and components of a strategic plan.
4. Drafting the Plan
Facilitated team workshops to begin to define strategies.
Wrote drafts and shared with team for review, comments, and editing (Track Changes)
Share draft with key stakeholders
MAJOR PROJECT DECISIONS
Focused on communities most impacted by policing, and aligning this with both OPA’s Strategic Goals and what we felt we could accomplish in 2 years
Designed to be flexible- plans change!
Team whiteboard session identifying structure and elements of the strategic plan, as well as a rough sketch of a user journey map (bottom).
5. Share
Once the plan was close to final, we shared plan with our police accountability system partners for review. Besides creating a full detailed report, we also created a condensed, simplified version to share with the public. I designed and created both the full report as well as the 2-page condensed flyer. The Community Engagement Team distributed copies to community organizations when we had check-in meetings with them.
Condensed/Simplified Version of Baseline Assessment and Engagement Plan.
6. Implement
With the plan completed, the Community Engagement team worked on implementing the agreed upon strategies and tactics. I also built implementation tools and dashboards to track our progress.
The team made significant progress on implementing these goals throughout 2019 and early 2020. With the onset of COVID and the civic protests related to police brutality in 2020, much has changed. The plan, though, has served to be a guiding document and was built with the intention to be adaptable and flexible to changing conditions. It is doing just that.
