Child Development‐Community Policing (CD-CP)

In CD-CP service areas, mental health professionals are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to respond immediately to police calls involving child victims or witnesses to violence or other trauma. Working together, police, mental professionals, child protective service and other providers, coordinate multi-system interventions that re-establish safety, security and well-being in the immediate wake of violent events. CD-CP has served as a model for law enforcement-mental health partnerships around the country.

The goals of the CD-CP program are to:

• Increase officer awareness and identification of children exposed to violence and other trauma, and
• Increase clinical assessment and coordinated services to targeted children and families. 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg CD-CP is a replication of the parent program between the Yale Child Study Center and the New Haven Department of Police Service.​

The U. S. Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention recognizes the program as a successful model for others to follow and has designated Yale University as the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence (NCCEV), with Charlotte-Mecklenburg as the NCCEV Southeast Regional Training Center.

Charlotte and New Haven teams are currently working with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to improve police responses to children exposed to violence.

Following the cross training, officer-clinician teams teach all officers about:

• The effects of violence on child development,
• How to provide helpful intervention, and
• When and how to make appropriate CD-CP and CPS referrals.

All CD-CP staff participate in a weekly program conference to plan follow-up clinical, child protection, and police interventions.

Police officers play a central part in the intervention, capitalizing on their roles as representatives of control and authority in the face of violent and traumatic events. In the CD-CP model, clinicians and officers set the most vulnerable children and families on the path to recovery, interrupting a trajectory that frequently leads to increased risk of psychiatric problems, academic failure, encounters with the criminal justice system, and perpetuation of the cycle of violence.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg CD-CP Program History

• 1996 -Pilot project began in the Metro division
• 1998 – expanded into North Tryon division
• 2001 – expanded into Freedom and Steele Creek divisions
• 2004 – expanded into Westover division
• 2006 – expanded into Eastway division
• 2007 – expanded into Providence division
• 2014 – obtained funding to expand into all thirteen CMPD patrol divisions
• 2014 - expanded into University and Hickory Grove divisions
• 2015 - will be expanding into Independence and North divisions
• 2016 - will be expanding into Central and South divisions

Contacts

• Stacey Butler, LCSW, Trauma and Justice Partnerships Director, 704-591-0061
• Lt. Lucas Veith, CMPD Division Commander, Community Wellness Division, 704-432-5490

Participating Agencies

• Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD)
• Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services Youth & Family Services (DSS/YFS)

Resources

• National Center for Children Exposed to Violence (NCCEV)
• National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)
• US Attorney General’s Defending Childhood Initiative