An Evaluation of Project SCOPE: The Next Generation of Co-Response

• In Event: Policing Co-Response and Collaboration: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

While U.S. cities have experienced increased violence throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic, underground transit systems within cities have been hit especially hard. The subway systems of America’s urban centers have become refuge hubs for people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and mental health crises as paid ridership has plummeted. Such concentrations of vulnerable individuals in subway stations presents unique challenges to the police departments that provide public safety services to urban transit systems, as officers have been increasingly required to use their law enforcement tools (e.g., arrest) to respond, in effect, to a public health crisis. Project SCOPE (Safety, Cleaning, Ownership, Partnership, Engagement) implemented by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA), is Philadelphia’s response to the vulnerable population crisis its subway system has experienced for the past two years. Under SCOPE, teams of outreach specialists are deployed to the most challenged subway stations in Philadelphia whose role is to (1) divert vulnerable population members away from the criminal justice system and (2) increase public safety by engaging with vulnerable individuals to offer referrals and transportation to social services. This presentation reports some early results of an evaluation of Project SCOPE.

Authors

• Matthew Teti, Drexel University

• Robert Kane, Drexel University

• Jordan Hyatt, Drexel University