WYRZ.org 98.9 WYRZ – The Voice of Hendricks County
Indianapolis (June 10, 2021) – 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.
To download or learn more about Community by MovementForward, Inc., visit https://community.movementforward.org/.
