City Council
September 19, 2023
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Jestin D. Johnson FROM: Darren Allison
City Administrator Interim Chief of Police
SUBJECT: Byrne Discretionary Community
Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary
Grants Program
DATE: August 22, 2023
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council A dopt A Resolution Authoriz ing The City Administrator To Accept and Appropriate The F iscal Year (FY) 2023-2025 Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program Allocation In The Amount Of Six H undred Forty-Six Thousand Dollars ($646,000) To Fund The Oakland Police Department’s Procedural Justice /Community Police Trust Project.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Oakland Police Department (OPD) has been awarded $646,000 for the FY 2023-2025 Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). The proposed resolution would authorize the City Administrator to enter into a two-year grant agreement from September 1, 2023, to August 31, 2025. The BJA is authorized to distribute funds to support projects designated for funding in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Public Law 117–328) to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system.
OPD is seeking approval to develop a community police trust project using Procedural Justice Reconciliation, which focuses on how candid conversations about law enforcement’s complicity in historic and present-day racial tensions and harms can repair relationships and foster trust between OPD and the communities it serves. The purpose is to design a community/OPD workshop that begins to repair and strengthen police-community relationships by addressing the deep historical roots of distrust in the police among people of color and other marginalized populations.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
In 2022, the City of Oakland applied for federal earmarked funding through Congress Representative Barbara Lee’s office for the OPD Ceasefire program. The funding was approved in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Public Law 117–328). On behalf of Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), OPD was invited to apply to the BJA FY 2023 Byrne Discretionary Community Project Grants/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program. The BJA was authorized to distribute funds to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system. The Consolidated Sep 7, 2023
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program Date: August 22, 2023 Page 2
City Council
September 19, 2023
Appropriations Act stated funding shall be used for the projects, and in the amounts, specified under the heading ‘‘Byrne Discretionary Community Project Grants/Byrne Discretionary Grants” in the Joint Explanatory Statement – Division B, which is incorporated by reference into Public Law No. 117–328. A list of the projects designated for funding in FY23 can be found here: FY23 Appropriations1. The funding appropriation for the City of Oakland Police Department is $646,000 to be used for a project in the subject of Procedural Justice/Community Police Trust.
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is committed to advancing work that promotes civil rights and racial equity, increases access to justice, supports crime victims and individuals impacted by the justice system, strengthens community safety and protects the public from crime and evolving threats and builds trust between law enforcement and the community.
Research has shown that communities that face high levels of crime and concentrated disadvantage, particularly communities of color, also struggle with high levels of mistrust in the police and strained police-community relations. They are less likely to report crimes and partner on crime prevention and violence reduction efforts. In the grant application, OPD proposed to implement the Procedural Justice/Community Police Trust project. As part of its violence reduction strategy, Ceasefire Oakland, OPD implemented a series of Procedural Justice (PJ) trainings over the last 8 years designed to improve police officer behavior, public safety, and community police trust. PJ I - Introduction to Procedural Justice and Police Legitimacy, focused on how interactions between police officers and members of the public impact community members’ views of the police and their willingness to comply with the law and partner on crime prevention practices. PJ II - Implicit Bias, focused on how unconscious biases may shape OPD’s interactions with members of the public and result in racially disparate outcomes even when those interactions are not overtly racist. With the grant funding OPD wants to develop PJ III - Reconciliation, that focuses on how candid conversations about law enforcement’s complicity in historic and present-day racial tensions and harms can repair relationships and foster trust between OPD and the communities it serves.
OPD will follow the same method used in Part I Procedural Justice: In 2014, with assistance from the Chicago PD, the Ceasefire Partnership and the California Partnership for Safe Communities developed the Introduction to Procedural Justice training; an 8-hr mandatory training for all OPD personnel. By July of 2015, OPD, with support from the Ceasefire Partnership, held a total of 52 classes and trained 803 people from 40 jurisdictions. 720 of the participants were OPD Sworn staff representing all ranks and departments. This training was unique in that it was the first training of this type to be POST-certified in the state of California and the first Law Enforcement Procedural Justice Training in the country to partner with community members as developers and presenters.
The Citywide priorities of holistic community safety and responsive, trustworthy government are advanced by the approval of this grant’s funds. The purpose of the funding is to design a community/OPD workshop that begins to repair and strengthen police-community relationships by addressing the deep historical roots of distrust in the police among people of color and other
1 https://bja.ojp.gov/funding/fy23-byrne-discretionary-projects.pdf
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program Date: August 22, 2023 Page 3
City Council
September 19, 2023
marginalized populations. Project activities will consist of lead facilitators from the community and police who shall work with the Ceasefire Partnership to create trust building workshops as outlined in the National Initiative for Building Community-Police Trust. The facilitators will execute the principles of reconciliation including Fact-Finding, which will inform the reconciliation process, Acknowledgement of Harm, Sustained Listening: Reconciliation Listening Sessions, and Narrative Collection and Dissemination. These improved relationships should manifest into more positive police-community interactions that lead to a reduction in crime. The project is expected to improve interactions between police and the public. The goal is to start to change the communities’ views of police, increase their willingness to comply with the law and partner on crime prevention practices, crime rates and improve community/public safety in Oakland. Each focused listening session is designed to establish trust between law enforcement and communities to enable them to work together to consider policies, practices, and norms— both within law enforcement and within communities—to reduce violence and harm and improve public safety outcomes.
This program supports projects designated for funding in the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2022 (Public Law 117-103) that improve the functioning of the criminal justice system.
OPD is seeking City Council approval to accept and appropriate Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program funds per the spending plan below in Tables 1 and 2. The funding allocation will be used to fund personnel and pay wages for individuals to work as a lead facilitator, community facilitator, and contract employee to collect and track data. This will be a project under the direction of the Ceasefire Director, and they will be the hiring authority for the community facilitator and contract employee.
The facilitators shall lead the trust building (reconciliation)/listening sessions workshops. The facilitators assisted by support staff shall document surfaced important narratives during the listening sessions. They will collect data organize the space and recruit law enforcement personnel participants. Duties may also include collecting these narratives and disseminating them to people who could not attend a listening session.
Travel includes all costs associated with the facilitators receiving the necessary training to execute their duties, including but not limited to implicit bias training and/or advanced facilitation training, expenses for lodging, meals, mileage, and other transportation costs. All trainings will occur inside of California. Equipment expenses include funds for laptops, printers, AV equipment, ink cartridges, and other needs as approved to carry out job duties. Other supplies include funds for site rentals, printing, food, and other supplies approved to carry out their job duties. Indirect costs include overhead (desk, rent, telephone, etc.).
FISCAL IMPACT
Tables 1 and 2 below outlines the spending plan that OPD for the $646,000 of funding over the 2023-2025 fiscal years for the Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program. There is no match requirement for this grant. The appropriation is solely an addition to City funds and cannot be used to supplant City funding from any other fund.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program Date: August 22, 2023 Page 4
City Council
September 19, 2023
Table 1 Spending Plan for Byrne Grant FY 2023-2024
Item Amount
Personnel Salary & Benefits $230,000
Travel $20,000
Equipment $10,133
Supplies $24,100
Indirect Cost $53,833.50
Total $338,066.50
Table 2 Spending Plan for Byrne Grant FY 2024-2025
Item Amount
Personnel Salary & Benefits $230,000
Supplies $24,100
Indirect Cost $53,833.50
Total $307,933.50
Funding will be allocated in the Department of Justice Grant Fund (2112); Ceasefire Division Org (108630), Program, Project and Accounts to be determined.
Fund Source Organization Project Program Amount
2112 108630 TBD TBD $646,000
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
There was no public outreach for the preparation of this report. There is public interest as funds will be used to improve interactions between police, community, and the public.
COORDINATION
This report and resolution were reviewed by the Office of the City Attorney and the Budget Bureau.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: Whenever possible, equipment used for this project will be purchased locally.
Environmental: There are no environmental issues associated with this report.
Race and Social Equity: The services provided through this grant funding will begin to repair and strengthen police-community relationships by addressing the deep historical roots of distrust in the police among people of color and other marginalized populations. These Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program Date: August 22, 2023 Page 5
City Council
September 19, 2023
improved relationships should manifest into more positive police-community interactions that lead to a reduction in crime.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Administrator To Accept and Appropriate The Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 -2025 Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program Allocation In The Amount Of Six Hundred Forty-Six Thousand Dollars ($646,000) To Fund The Oakland Police Department’s Procedural Justice /Community Police Trust Project.
For questions regarding this report, please contact LaRajia Marshall, OPD, Fiscal Services Manager at (510) 238-4767.
Reviewed by:
Damita Davis-Howard, Ceasefire Director
OPD, Ceasefire Division
LaRajia Marshall, Fiscal Services Manager
OPD, Fiscal Services Division
Tracey Jones, Police Services Manager
OPD, Research and Planning Section
Prepared by:
Amber Fuller, Grants Coordinator
OPD, Fiscal Services Division