One-line solution summary:
A nationwide fellowship that funds police officer and community member partnerships with $5000 to reform problematic policies and practices.
What specific problem are you solving?
New Blue recognizes that tensions between police and BIPOC communities are as old as the law enforcement system itself. The law enforcement system was created in an era characterized by racial injustice and many problems were inherited into modern-day policing including a lack of diverse leadership. Members of marginalized communities have lost faith in the police and deemed the law enforcement system beyond repair which only accelerates the negative community impacts. Our participation in the MIT Solve Incubator has allowed us to take this macro perspective of the problem of inequitable police policies and procedures and helped us to drill down to provide a greater focus on the specific “problems” causing this tension and lack of trust between police and the community. This is significant because the “problem” looks different in every community but can be boiled down to problematic policing policies, procedures, and practices in each community.
Equity minded police policies and procedures are required to end the current, inequitable approach to policing including the brutality of police towards BIPOC individuals. Unfortunately, less than 10% of police leadership are BIPOC and less than 3% are female despite the high level of trust that communities place in these officers.
Pitch your solution.
1. We provide reform minded officers with the networks, funding, and skills to assist them in developing long-term solutions to problematic policing through:
Problem Identification- defining a problem in police procedure or practice that directly harms BIPOC communities.
Co-production- working with the community to develop a systemic solution and utilizing a $5,000 micro-grant to implement the solution.
Impact Measurement- analyzing, amplifying, and ensuring longevity of the solution and sharing effective solutions in a public, national database for widespread implementation.
2. Our program shifts power to the community members through a co-production model that has the community identify police policy or practice that is most harmful, then works with the officer to form solutions.
3. By 2025, we will develop 100 transformative officers and solutions comprising a national network of reform minded leaders impacting over 1.8 million residents with less adverse police interactions while implementing new solutions to redefine police-community relationships.
Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.
New Blue is deploying its program in multiple states throughout the country including North Carolina, New York, and Illinois. New Blue will induct its inaugural Fellowship class of 10 BIPOC and female officers on January 1, 2022. These fellows will have an immediate impact on the residents of these communities through a co-production model that has the community identify the police policy or practice that is most harmful, then works with the officer to form solutions.
Our solution's stage of development:
Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one communityWhere are you based?
Cary, North Carolina, USASolution Team
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Andrew Saunders Co-Founder, New Blue Project
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Solution Name
New Blue Project