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**Building Bridges between Police and Academia**
 March 2019 | Volume 12 | Issue 2

Shortly after being appointed to the chairmanship of the  Training and Education Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Chief Dave Kurz of the Durham (New Hampshire) Police  Department began seeking innovate approaches to topical issues in  policing. One discussion with a colleague focused on the concern that there was  a lack of historical interaction between academia and police.

As Durham is home of the University of New Hampshire (UNH), Chief  Kurz met with David Kaye, Professor and former Chair of the Department of  Theatre and Dance and CJ Lewis, Program Manager of UNH PowerPlay, the  department’s professional applied theatre company, to discuss the possibilities  of a collaborative approach to addressing implicit bias within police  organizations by using their PowerPlay program. PowerPlay is a professional training and development  initiative that helps organizations improve their work environment by using specially  designed interactive theatre models created to facilitate difficult dialogues that  focus on interpersonal behavior. PowerPlay uses professional actors to help  start conversations about often-ignored human dynamics that can affect and  diminish performance. The group works closely with various researchers at UNH  and other institutions to build their interactive programs.

PowerPlay  addresses such issues as bias awareness and intervention, equitable hiring  practices, and enhanced leadership communication and collaboration. Applying  this combination of academic research and theatre-based pedagogy to issues related  to the climate and culture of a police department seemed like an innovative and  novel approach. Chief Kurz, Professor Kaye, and Lewis set out to see if they  could design a PowerPlay program that would highlight how language and behavior  impacts the culture and climate of a police department. The goal, based on  their initial research, was to improve police performance in the field by first  improving the culture and climate within the police department. 

 Working with UNH  PowerPlay, Chief Kurz proposed a presentation of this training concept to the  IACP at their annual conference being held in October before 15,000 police  executives from around the United States and the world. The proposal, entitled  “Bias Awareness and Intervention Training: Enhancing a Police  Department's Climate and Culture for Better Outcomes,” was accepted for presentation.

 The  presentation was very well received as an innovative approach to the importance  of language and how it may deliberately or inadvertently have a negative impact  as a result of biased attitudes. In one instance, the actor portraying a shift supervisor  made a statement about a woman officer asking to leave rather than “hang over”  for several hours because she needed to retrieve her children from daycare as  her husband was out of town on business. The supervisor stated, “See, they want  equal hours, pay, and responsibilities but can’t stay over!” When confronted by  the woman officer, the supervisor said, “Come on Jenny, I was only joking!” 

 This scenario—or  many similar to it—plays out in police agencies across the country. But in this  training, the opportunity to observe these dynamics allows for in-depth  conversation among the participants and their impact upon the culture of the  organization. In the absence of correction, these toxic statements become the  norm and are allowed to fester and expand throughout the organization,  negatively impacting morale, the working environment, and ultimately how  services are delivered to the community.

 The initiative  proved to be an outstanding example of the positive attributes of police and  academia interaction working collaboratively in an innovative and creative  manner. The outcome is the development of exciting and interactive training to  police agencies in the United States who may be striving to provide  professional and unbiased services to their community.

 Dave Kurz,  Chief          Durham Police Department

 David Kaye, Professor of Theatre          University of New Hampshire 

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