Child Development Policing Program (CDPP)

The Child Development Policing Program (CDPP) is a police-mental health-domestic violence partnership that was first implemented in Minneapolis in 2003. This program is modeled after the Child Development Community Policing Program at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut; the CDPP’s program developer and founding Project Director, Dr. Abigail Gewirtz, had been on the faculty of Yale and key leadership for the New Haven program. A strength of our CDPP program is that it incorporates the diverse expertise of a wide range of community partners, including the Minneapolis Police Department and several community-based agencies: Tubman Family Alliance, African-American Family Services, Centro, Washburn Child Guidance Center, and Women of Nations. The University of Minnestoa maintains fiscal responsibility for the program. The CDPP clinical team lead is Dr. Mary Jo Avendaño; the Minneapolis Police Department CDPP lead is John Baumann.

Objectives:

The primary objective of the Child Development Policing Program (CDPP) is to provide direct acute intervention for children and families exposed to violence through a partnership with the police. The CDPP intervention team responds to domestic violence cases—the vast majority of which are misdemeanor cases, as well as other cases in which children are traumatized by violence, including community violence and high-risk warrant cases.

In these cases, the team provides:

1. Acute intervention, stabilization and advocacy for traumatized children and their caregivers,

2. Information about the impact on children of exposure to violence, and

3. Referrals for needed services and continuing follow-up with families in order to facilitate these referrals.

Since its inception the CDPP team has partnered with the Minneapolis Police Department in two ways: 1) by providing a squad comprising a mental health clinician, advocate, and police supervisor (Squad 1480), available to provide acute response and follow-up support to traumatized families 2-3 nights per week; and 2) through a 24-hour, 7-day a week on-call service, where clinicians are available to respond directly to the scene or another safe place when families want emotional and concrete support in the immediate aftermath of traumatic incidents.

Squad 1480:

Beginning in April 2003 and continuing through December of 2004, mental health professionals and advocates responded with Minneapolis police supervisors and reported directly to the scene following an incident of family or community violence where children were present. This team was called to the scene by first responders (patrol officers) who had secured the scene and concluded their investigations. The funding for Squad 1480 ceased December 31, 2004.

On-Call Services:

Currently there is a clinician available by pager on a 24/7 basis throughout the city of Minneapolis to respond to calls where children have been exposed to domestic violence. Depending on the wishes of the family, the clinician will go out to the scene (or another safe place) immediately or follow up with the family as soon as possible to provide assessment and stabilization support. The clinician also connects families to resources by referring them to partner agencies for advocacy needs as well as ongoing follow up mental health support.

Procedures for CDPP Intervention Team:

The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) procedure with regard to the CDPP intervention team is as follows. The presence of clinicians on-scene is recorded in several ways:

• On a log indicating who responded to the scene with names of clinicians, advocates and officers.
• On the police report of the incident.
• When responding with officers, and further investigation is conducted, officers prepare a supplementary report with any pertinent details to report regarding the original incident or the visit.

The clinicians and advocates who partner with MPD officers are licensed mental health professionals and experienced family violence professionals. As clinical and advocacy professionals they do not conduct child interviews and are not involved with police or child protection investigations.

MPD policy developed by the MPD in partnership with the intervention team and partners dictates that the team does not respond to:

1. Incidents of child abuse.
2. Incidents where children may require a forensic (CornerHouse) interview, as determined by MPD officers.

Between April 2003 and April 2005, CDPP responded to nearly 600 families. Over 60 percent of these families had never received social services or counseling before, despite the fact that 80 percent had a history of prior 911 calls for domestic violence incidents.

Training:

Clinicians and advocates all pass rigorous background checks by the MPD and are trained by Minneapolis police officers regarding law enforcement crime scene functions, how to access and interpret incident reports, and collaborating with law enforcement.

CDPP clinicians have developed training curricula on trauma and children’s development for police personnel and other professionals. Training sessions have ranged from 18 hours in a retreat setting for a CDPP police leadership group to required one hour sessions as part of the standard Department training at the Lieutenant, Sergeant, and Officer levels.

• Research Component

  Goal: to improve the knowledge and understanding of the effects of exposure to violence and trauma on children over time, and inform the design of effective intervention and prevention programs for children at high risk.

More information about the current collaborators of MnCRC can be found here.

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