- COPS Office Photo Contest – May Winner
        - Stop Hate: Action Steps for Local Communities
        - Social Media and Neighborhood-Based Policing Officers: A Path Forward
        - The OK Program: A Collaborative Partnership between Law Enforcement and the African-American Community
        - Co-Producing Public Safety: Communities, Law Enforcement, and Public Health Researchers Work to Prevent Crime Together
        - 2016 COPS Office Solicitations

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### Stop Hate: Action Steps for Local Communities

**What can we do in our local communities to stop hate and make everyone feel safe? Action steps for community leaders and schools.**

*The core message of Not In Our Town is that each of us has a role  to play in stopping hate and creating safe, inclusive communities and schools  for everyone. Read through the brief action steps listed below, find the  actions you can take, and share them with others in your city or school.*

**Community members and concerned residents**
        - Find your voice. When you  speak up, others will, too. Suggest ideas about how to counter hate at civic,  neighborhood and community meetings. 
        - Identify community allies,  neighbors, and organizational partners. 
        - Bring your neighbors  together. Reach out to people you don’t know and who have been targeted. Ask  your local leaders, law enforcement, educators, and youth to participate. 

Ideas: Host  a screening of a NIOT  film. Convene a community potluck to share backgrounds and history.  Set up a video camera at a community event to ask residents what we can do to  address hate and intolerance. After their ideas are recorded, ask local  students, cable station staff members, or others to edit them and screen  the edited video in a community meeting. 

**Elected officials and civic leaders**
        - Make a public statement,  released to media, that places diversity, acceptance, and inclusion as a core  value in your town. 
        - Urge people who have been  targeted to come forward, and encourage all residents to stand with their  neighbors. 
        - Meet with local media:  Invite community members and leaders who may be vulnerable to hate to join you  in a meeting with media outlets to expose current tensions, and suggest  solutions that emerge from these conversations. 
        - Hold town hall meetings  and community dialogues that allow all voices to be heard. 

When  leaders are brave, others will follow. Ignoring the problem of hate and  intolerance may lead to escalating violence and mistrust. Work with diverse  community members to convene a town hall meeting to launch long range plans to  build a safe, inclusive community for all residents. 

**Students**
        - Speak up when you witness  bias, hate, and bullying. 
        - Go to a trusted teacher or  campus leader for guidance and support. 
        - Reach out and stand with  one another and all who are targets of hate and bias. 
        - Work with campus or school  leaders to show support for student actions to prevent hate. 

Young people can galvanize the entire  community to stand up to hate. Teach-ins and student actions can not only  educate and inspire fellow students but they can also motivate adults and  community leaders to act.      Find out more atNot In Our School. 

**Educators**
        - Acknowledge hate speech,  hate crimes, or bias incidents when they occur and make it clear to the  community that this type of behavior is unacceptable. Engage community. 
        - Create a forum for  dialogue about differences and diversity. 
        - Involve students in  finding solutions and leading their peers to stop hate and bullying. 
        - Inform parents of the  issues and the actions you are taking to find solutions. 

Find out more atNot On Our Campus. ****

**Law enforcement**
        - Make sure responding  officers are trained to investigate and report the hate crime or incident. When  an incident occurs, connect with community and faith-based groups to  demonstrate how community members and law enforcement can work together to  provide security, and make sure everyone knows that hate incidents will be  taken seriously. 
        - Be transparent and open  about the investigation into hate incidents; if the preliminary investigation  reveals that a hate incident occurred, report this back to the community. 
        - Be vocal in the  condemnation of hate in your community. Law enforcement leaders can and will  set the tone that hate, intolerance, and bigotry have no place in the  community. 

Find out more atNot In Our Town + COPS. 

**Faith leaders**
        - Discuss the role of  compassion and kindness in overcoming hate and intolerance with your  congregation. 
        - Ask religious school  students to reflect on the teachings of your faith as an antidote to hate. 
        - Convene a discussion on  Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous quote about the need to stand up to hate no  matter who is targeted. 
        - Reach out to other  congregations in your community, especially those who have been targeted. 
        - Create opportunities for  interfaith gatherings and collaboration on community service projects. 

Find out more  at Faith Resources. 

     If we **FACE FEAR**and **FIND COURAGE**,  we can **STOP HATE TOGETHER.**

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COPS Office Photo Contest – May Winner | Stop Hate: Action Steps for Local Communities| Social Media and Neighborhood-Based Policing Officers: A Path Forward | The OK Program: A Collaborative Partnership between Law Enforcement and the African-American Community | Co-Producing Public Safety: Communities, Law Enforcement, and Public Health Researchers Work to Prevent Crime Together | 2016 COPS Office Solicitations

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