The Cleveland Division of Police is going to work with Kent State University on a project meant to improve relations between law enforcement and the community.
The project will involve a group of researchers, including students, to work on community and problem-oriented policing, according to Elias Nader, an associate professor in the university's Sociology and Criminology department.
“Part of the city's goal in terms of this process is to build out their CPOP model of a community and problem-oriented policing model. That model requires the community and the police department to work together to identify these persistent problems that cause crime in the city, build an intervention to address those and then assess that effectiveness,” Nader said.
The team from Kent State will spend the summer gathering data, holding listening sessions and gathering feedback, according to Nader. After that, researchers and Cleveland Police will begin to apply changes to training based on their findings, followed by another review with community members in the summer of 2027.
“We're going to both run a survey in Cleveland of residents and listening sessions that are aimed at trying to understand where people are at in terms of their perceptions of the police and identify some of those things that need to be worked on,” Nader said.
Nader previously worked on a similar program with the Baltimore Police Department. The experience he gained channeling residents’ concerns into action, he said, would help him guide the project in Cleveland.
“I've definitely learned a lot about what it takes to partner with community members in an effort to try and build a bridge with police and build a bridge with city government and those infrastructures,” Nader said.
The initiative is being funded by a $20,000 grant from Kent State’s Community Engaged Research Institute, according to a press release from the university. Nader said the grant will be used to fund operations, including hiring Kent State students to participate in the project. Nader said he hopes they’ll be able to find additional funding to continue the work beyond next year.
“Our intention is to try and build out something that's a bit more long-term because that lends itself to sustainability within the city,” Nader said. “ ... a lot of the problems that the community and the police are going to try and tackle are problems that are, you know, ones that have existed in the long-term, and so short-term solutions are likely not going to cut it.”
