"Community Policing &
Addressing the Needs of Underserved and At-Risk Youth"

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In collaboration with the St. Petersburg Police Department, World Partnerships has developed a number of programs for the IVLP focused on "community policing" over the past few years, and 2020-2021 saw a number of innovations to the program series. SPPD, led by Chief Anthony Holloway, first introduced his approach to community policing in 2015, with the initiative known as "Park, Walk and Talk", requiring uniformed officers to spend time out of their cars and on the ground meeting with the community they serve. Since then, community policing in St. Petersburg has evolved into one of constant engagement with the city's 130 different "communities". Listening and communicating have been the key elements to the successful evolution of the programs. Some of these programs are being considered as national models.
​For these IVLP projects, Chief Holloway presents best practices in community policing, with case studies and current data, and the evolution toward new approaches, including the recent creation of community liaison divisions and the incorporation of NGO and medical health services into policing and training efforts. Using funds from the U.S. Department of Justice, SPPD has re-imagined community response and engagement to build trust among the city’s residents: Community Assistance and Life Liaison (CALL) Program.
 
In January 2021, the St. Petersburg City Council approved the contract to launch the CALL program pilot. CALL will improve the response to mental illness, poverty, and addiction; providing assistance while reducing criminalization and stigma. Many of the calls for service the Police Department is asked to respond to during a normal day are better addressed by a human services professional. Through CALL, emergency dispatchers send social workers to certain calls for service including mental health crisis, suicide intervention, truancy, homeless complaints, and neighborhood disputes. Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services & Community Services in partnership with St. Petersburg Police Department leads a team of clinical staff and community navigators who are dispatched to non-violent, non-criminal calls to provide a therapeutic, wrap-around response.
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Reverend Kenny Irby, the first SPPD Community Intervention Director, discusses how the St. Petersburg Police Department has worked with community partners to develop and implement programs for "high-needs youth". A key element of the Department's community policing initiatives, these programs bring together police officers, faith leaders, youth leaders, schools, neighborhood associations, and other civil society organizations to address the needs of underserved and at-risk youth. Programs include "Men and Women in the Making", teaching life skills, the Police Athletic League, mobile community resources, and Feeding Tampa Bay (among others). He will also be prepared to discuss the federal, municipal and NGO efforts and coordination to find successful alternatives to engaging at-risk youth within the community. Rev. Irby uses case studies that focus on youth engagement and demonstrate enhanced safety and well-being for citizens through improved police/community relations, and community activism.

SPPD and the IVLP

The St. Petersburg Police Department has been involved in international exchange programming with us for nearly 10 years. SPPD was our law enforcement partner for the 2019 Global Ties U.S. Police Professionalization Exchange Program for Mexico initiative and provided a comprehensive law enforcement program for the Mexican police officials. In 2020, SPPD provided a 23-minute video interview on Women in Law Enforcement Leadership for the PPEP initiative. SPPD has also been our law enforcement partner for numerous IVLP international security programs, including “Towards a More Safe and Secure World” and “Global Threat Cooperation”. The Department has been very supportive of our virtual exchange programs on community policing, community outreach programs for at-risk youth, and cybersecurity policy and practices. For the latter program, SPPD brought together the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA/DHS), and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) for a two-hour discussion.

World Partnerships has been a recipient of the SPPD Forfeiture Grant Program.