Statement of Need

A recent analysis conducted by the NYCLU revealed that innocent New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street interrogations more than 5 million times since 2002, and that members of the Black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics – especially Black and Latino youth. Youth are one of the most vulnerable populations during police encounters, which often result in negative outcomes. Prior to their retirement, the three co-founders of D&L Expert P.I. developed an innovative interactive workshop called “What to do when stopped by the police” to address this problem. Workshops educate community members about the responsibilities of police officers, citizens’ constitutional rights regarding search and seizure, and how they should respond during these police officers’ interactions. We applied our experience as officers while conducting stops and as civilians who were stopped by police officers to design our workshops. Our unique perspectives gleaned from real-life encounters on both ends of the spectrum enable us to give a balanced explanation of how best to navigate these interactions. In 1999, D&L began to offer sessions to young people in schools, houses of worship, and community-based settings. They have proven to be a successful way to improve outcomes of interactions between youth and law enforcement. We provide critical tools to improve police interaction outcomes and give youth an understanding of what police officers experience when they conduct a stop, teach them how to safely navigate police encounters, teach them their legal rights, inform them of the legal responsibilities of police officers, and provide them with available options following a dissatisfactory police encounter. Interactive workshops use scenarios, role play, props, and discussions to reinforce skills. Supplemental handouts and online resources further enhance skills retention.

Workshop information:

What to do when stopped by the police – Flyer

What to do when stopped by the police -Brochure

For prospective vendors, clients, customers

D & L Workshop Proposal

Our goals of the workshops for youth and members of the community are to:

• Give them an understanding of what police officers experience when they conduct a stop 
• Teach them how to safely navigate police encounters
• Teach them their legal rights
• Inform them of the legal responsibilities of police officers
• Provide them with available options if they are dissatisfied with the police encounter 

Our experience has shown that seminars are most effective when the group size is sixty or fewer students. All seminars are interactive because the lecture format can be difficult for even the most dedicated students to remain attentive and to retain the information they learn. We prefer to conduct the trainings in a classroom, library or gymnasium setting with enough space to allow for interactions between participants and trainers and with each other, scenarios and role play, and reinforcing concepts and skills in breakout groups. Auditoriums are not ideal because they prohibit interaction and students sitting the furthest away from the scenario presentations get distracted. Students sitting in rows of seats find it difficult to ask questions or to share their confusion when a difficult concept is being explained. This can cause them to shut down. When visiting a school, our team is prepared to do one single or multiple workshops to accommodate the group and room size. We have also conducted youth trainings in large spaces – such as school gymnasiums or large spaces in community centers – during which parents or guardians sit in the audience to observe and learn with their children. This can help to reinforce the learning through discussions at home. Regardless of whether an audience is present, our primary trainings are interactive and are with the student participants.

Methods and strategies

Too often, police encounters lead to catastrophic outcomes that could have been avoided had the police officer and/or citizen responded differently. We use interactive scenarios and role play to provide a different perspective to community members. The role play is a powerful tool to improve participants’ understanding of why a police officer may conduct a stop, what the officer may experience during the stop, and how the participants’ own actions affect the encounters. 

Four to five D&L Expert P.I. trainers are present at each workshop. In one scenario, volunteers from the audience are asked to play the role of the police officers. Trainers inform them and the audience of details about the scene, including the location, and the nature of the stop, the types of questions they should ask, and whether a frisk is required. We utilize props for our scenarios (simulated weapons, police vest, police uniform, etc.) to create a more realistic experience. Following the exercise, the volunteers are asked about their experience and feelings in the role of police officers and the audience critiques the volunteers’ actions as police officers. The trainers facilitate a discussion with the audience about the scenario to identify what went well or less well, and how to improve the scenario’s outcomes. We repeat the scenario with new volunteers from the audience after the discussion.

D&L Expert P.I.’s also understands it is critical to arm citizens with information to protect themselves. At the end of the workshop, we supplement the role play with information and handouts about the rights of citizens, the duties, responsibilities, and legal limitations of police officers, and what a civilian can do if they are dissatisfied with an officer’s conduct. We provide a contact number to the workshop sponsor for follow up questions after the training is completed.

Workshop duration is typically 3.5 to 4 hours and are offered in-person. The initial 1.5 to 2 hours are focused on conducting multiple scenarios with debriefs and discussions in between, as well as instructions about rights, expectations, and models for how to respond in an appropriate manner. We conclude with a 30 minute to one hour question and answer period to reinforce or clarify points. The co-founders of D&L believe strongly in the power of the “each one teach one” model to expand our reach and impact. After they are trained, the youth at each school or other sponsoring organization are empowered to influence their peers to create a ripple effect of changed attitude and behaviors that leads to an impact well beyond our capacity with a single workshop. While they are not able to duplicate the training we provide, we make our handouts and additional resources available through an online portal that students can continue to access post-training to help them share their knowledge with family and peers and with other students in their classrooms.

Evaluations

Our program has led to life changing results. We solicit feed-back from the workshop sponsors immediately and one month after each workshop. We ask for both their reactions to the trainings and suggestions to improve our model. We have also developed an online survey for student participants to measure our success at influencing the participants knowledge, attitude and behavior, their satisfaction with the training, and suggestions for improving our format and contents. We encourage students to complete them immediately following the training completion. We use the data we collect from the adult and student feedback to continuously improve our program.

D&L Expert P.I.’s has successfully conducted over 500 workshops in churches, colleges, NYC K-12 public schools, and in collaboration with community-based organizations. We have received numerous testimonials of our positive impact on youth. We have been thanked for giving “valuable tips and lessons,” and were told that the youth found our workshops “informative, inspirational and thought provoking.” The feedback indicates that we “truly made a difference in the lives of young people.” We have been approached numerous times in the street by young people who attended our workshops, who told us that utilizing techniques they learned in our workshops enabled them to have a favorable outcome with a police officer. Most important, workshops are a steppingstone toward improved relationships and interactions between police officers and the community.

 D & L IS A NEW YORK STATE REGISTERED MWBE FIRM