Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2021, $300,000)
Santa Rosa, as the urban center of Sonoma County and the densest municipality between San Francisco and the Oregon border, is the most impactful place for a comprehensive anti-hate crimes outreach program to be implemented in the Redwood Empire. Santa Rosa Police Department (SRPD) is a largely diverse and professional organization and aims to both internally reflect and externally empathize with the community they serve in ways that are progressive and transparent.
Now more than ever, SRPD sees instances of imminent need in populations who may be afraid to report instances of hate crimes or hate incidents due to lack of trust towards law enforcement, deep rooted beliefs about the criminal justice system and how it works for people of color, or possibly a lack of information and education about how victims should proceed with reporting hate crimes.
Given the prevalence of hate crimes nationawide, especially in urban cities, the public interest in police-led anti-hate crime programming, specifically for communities of color, suggests a need for critical services and outreach, as it is expected of agencies to proactive and informed when policing communities more likely to experience instances of hate crimes.
Through the BJA Shepard & Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Grant Program, SRPD will collaborate with community stakeholders and draw on staff expertise to provide a 36-month program aimed towards engaging each of the 7 police beats in Santa Rosa; specifically those in violent and historically marginalized areas; with the vision of eradicating hate crimes in the community and a goal of significantly increasing the information, education and outreach that these communities receive which would empower them to trust law enforcement by reporting hate crimes to Santa Rosa Police Department.