Justice Organizational Culture and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Diverse agencies not only better represent the communities they serve; they also perform more effectively. Yet, most justice organizations lack evidence-based recommendations for improving culture and the recruitment, retention, and support of diverse staff. RTI’s justice researchers and training and technical assistance experts utilize strong practitioner partnerships, rigorous methodology, and creative communication strategies to provide practical solutions for improving workplace culture, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Collaboration with RTI’s Transformative Research Unit for Equity ensures equity is centered in this work and that we are accountable to our vision to move from practice to impact.

Project Highlights

From Research to Reality: Recruiting More Women into the Policing Profession

Women are severely underrepresented in law enforcement. While women account for roughly half of the U.S. population and 58% of the American civilian labor force, only 12% of police officers in America are women. The number of women in law enforcement has only increased 2% since 2000. Increasing the number of women in law enforcement would not just help departments better reflect the communities they serve. More women police can increase police legitimacy and trust within communities. Policewomen can also improve department performance; for example, research has shown that they have higher reporting and clearance rates for rape cases and use less force when policing. RTI’s Recruiting Women in Policing study, funded by the National Institute of Justice, is helping police practitioners and researchers understand 1) reasons behind the lack of female representation, and 2) specific messages and strategies to recruit and retain women police. Throughout the project, the team is: 

• Conducting a review of agencies’ online recruitment materials
• Holding groups with over 70 women in law enforcement
• Conducting online experiments to see what kinds of recruitment materials women prefer
• Implementing and evaluating practices to improve recruitment of women in two law enforcement agencies
• Broadly disseminating actionable findings

Advancing Service-oriented Policing through Inclusion, Relationship-building, & Engagement (ASPIRE)

As a profession, policing struggled to keep pace with the changing needs of communities as well as prospective police professionals. Through this cooperative agreement with the Bureau of Justice Assistance, RTI is developing innovative solutions to modernizing the policing workforce. The objectives of ASPIRE are to conduct outreach, dissemination, and engagement around recruitment and retention program strategies, develop and pilot police mentoring and student engagement programs in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), convene solutions-oriented workshops, and develop resources for local police agencies, aspiring police officers, and other stakeholder groups to improve the recruitment, retention, and support of diverse officers. ASPIRE is a joint effort among RTI; the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators; the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives; and Clark Atlanta, Howard, and Southern Universities.

Real-world Engagement & Turnover Analysis to Inform New Solutions (RETAINS): An Evidence-Based Policing Workforce Study

Maintaining the staffing levels needed to adequately serve communities and protect public safety is one of the biggest challenges facing law enforcement agencies today. Yet, research has not yet identified what agencies can do to address it. Funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the project team is identifying key drivers in turnover and developing concrete strategies to mitigate them through a landscape analysis, officer preference survey, analysis of administrative data, and the development of “stay” and exit interview guides that can be used by any agency to improve retention. RETAINS examines employee support and retention issues overall, as well as issues that differentially affect underrepresented employee groups. This project is a collaboration between RTI and the 30x30 Initiative, which aims for 30% of all police recruits to be women by the year 2030.

Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program Training Program (COSSUP) Equity Toolkit

COSSUP provides direct support to state agencies and subrecipients by promoting evidence-based practices to respond to the opioid epidemic across all government levels. Through their substantive, methodological, and technical assistance (TA) expertise, RTI and its partners foster peer-to-peer learning and cross-site coordination, facilitate program improvements, and promote evidence-based program proliferation by providing TA tailored to the unique needs of jurisdictions. RTI brings together a wide range of experts at the intersection of public health and public safety to foster collaboration to address critical problems impacting the overdose epidemic. As part of COSSUP, RTI is leading the development of an equity toolkit to inform state- and local-level efforts to support equity initiatives among COSSUP grantees. The toolkit includes general and program-specific equity resources, as well as evaluation resources that will support grantees in assessing and addressing equity-related issues.

Improving Officer Wellness Through Family-Supportive Supervisor Training

Work-life conflict is one of the major barriers to entering the policing profession and one of the greatest sources of stress, burnout, and turnover for both men and women police alike. The purpose of this project, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services’ Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act, is to implement and evaluate an evidence-based training, Family-Supportive Supervisor Training, to improve the ability of supervisors in the Denver Police Department to support their officers in managing the demands of work and non-work life. RTI leads the evaluation component of this effort – assessing the effects of training participation on supervisors and the officers and staff they oversee.

Washington State Patrol: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Study

In order to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, it is important for employers in the criminal legal system to collect, analyze, and utilize both quantitative and qualitative data to better understand the current state and measure progress over time. In cooperation with the Washington State Patrol and relevant communities, RTI is conducting a labor force study to determine current workforce composition and the potential workforce in the state of Washington. RTI is developing a dashboard to display up-to-date labor force analytics. RTI is also working in local communities that have been historically underrepresented in policing to identify barriers for potential applicants from within these communities. These conversations will ultimately be used to develop policy and guidelines for creating an inclusive workplace and workforce in the Washington State Patrol.