Community by MovementForward Aims to Connect Community Members with the Law Enforcement Agencies that Serve Them

MovementForward, Inc., a modern, inclusive social change organization working to protect, promote, and advance the civil and human rights of all people, announced the launch of its mobile application, Community by MovementForward, Inc. This groundbreaking application aims to connect community members with the law enforcement agencies that serve them by providing users with ways to interact, discover local resources and engage with law enforcement. Community serves as a way to bridge gaps, bring understanding and reinforce a cooperative atmosphere. 

“National violent and property crime data suggests a relatively positive picture but national trends can be deceiving and do not always reflect what many neighborhoods experience, where crime is persistent,” said Reverend Markel Hutchins, president & CEO, MovementForward, Inc. “Challenges remain including ongoing gang and drug-related violence, incidents of nonfatal and fatal shootings, other aggravated assaults, property crime and related and quality of life issues.” 

In October 2019, MovementForward, Inc. sought to create an innovative piece of technology to help address rising crime in the Near West Collaborative neighborhood of Indianapolis. This community, located in southwest Indianapolis, continues to grapple with quality of life concerns that serve as a central driving force for criminal activity in the area. A cohort of community leaders and law enforcement began meeting to address this challenge, and from it came the Community app. 

Community provides multiple ways to interact with law enforcement to greater serve communities, with new features being developed and added as community requests come in, that include: 

● Law Enforcement Identification 

Based on location, users can find their local law enforcement agencies. Community will display agency leaders, contact information, and officer information. 

● Agency Services 

Users gain access to a list of available online agency services such as: requests for more patrols, community appearances and ride-alongs. 

● Resource Map 

Community is not just about law enforcement. It also provides opportunities to discover neighborhood resources that provide public services to communities. 

● Video Content 

Capturing the expertise and knowledge of law enforcement agencies, Community offers informative videos on-demand for learning and awareness. 

● Social Media Updates 

Users can stay up to date with a built-in real-time social media feed and discover ways to interact with law enforcement. 

The app is now available on iOS App Store and Google Play for free download.

This application was developed through a project of the One Congregation One Precinct (OneCOP) initiative of MovementForward, Inc in partnership with the National Police Foundation (PF), the City of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD), the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, the US Attorney, local houses of worship, local businesses, and community-based organizations. The objective of the project is to build a cross-sector partnership to reduce violent crime by developing and implementing evidence-based crime reduction strategies in the Near West Collaborative. 

The OneCOP program is a national crime reduction, education, and police-community engagement initiative that focuses on reducing violent crime through community policing partnerships. OneCOP was developed by the Atlanta-based nonprofit MovementForward, Inc., which was founded by faith leaders to develop and implement collaborative community policing programs focused on social justice, economic parity, educational equity and racial reconciliation. OneCOP will implement its proven model to build community and establish police-community partnership in the Near West Collaborative community to reduce violent crime. 

OneCOP is a proactive rather than reactive approach to addressing tensions around police-involved incidents as well as ongoing crime and violence in local communities. OneCOP has several objectives that incorporate the six pillars outlined by the former Task Force on 21st Century Policing of the U.S. Department of Justice – Office of Community Oriented Policing Services: 

● Improve public safety through collaboration and information sharing to prevent, combat and solve crimes by tapping into the varied resources of faith-based institutions 

● Increase community engagement with patrol-level police officers, via congregations, resulting in decreased bias and increased familiarity, mutual respect and trust 

● Proactively create a direct link between law enforcement executives and community leaders in an effort to give voice to growing public concerns relative to policing. 

ABOUT MOVEMENTFORWARD, INC. 

MovementForward, Inc. is a modern, inclusive social change organization working to protect, promote and advance the civil and human rights of all people. We are building a multiracial, multifaceted and intergenerational movement for social justice, economic parity, educational equity, racial reconciliation and global peace by bringing diverse people together to solve problems. Founded in 2015 by emerging faith leaders in Atlanta, MFI provides this generation of Americans a conciliatory voice to offer programs, projects, activism, empowerment opportunities, and targeted issue campaigns to advocate for one standard of justice regardless of race, class, gender, religion, orientation or immigration status. 

Visit MovementForward, Inc at www.movementforward.org or follow us on Twitter at @MovementFWD.

ABOUT ONE CONGREGATION ONE PRECINCT (OneCOP) One Congregation One Precinct (OneCOP) initiative is MovementForward, Inc.’s signature program that facilitates positive, ongoing partnerships between local law enforcement agencies and diverse congregations of every faith tradition. OneCOP partnerships allow for program-participating officers to personally know the people in their assigned communities by building relationships with congregations in the respective, local area by organizing various crime and violence prevention/solving efforts, hosting public safety briefings, providing cultural and sensitivity training, conducting officer appreciation events, holding community safety workshops, and hosting forums focused on bettering the relationship between cops and residents. Today, OneCOP is established in four cities in the United States.

Editorial Disclaimer: All blog posts are contributed by a member of the MovementForward, Inc. team in their personal capacity. The opinions expressed in the posts are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of MovementForward, Inc. or any other partnership associated with the organization.