Horizons Fall 2014

6 HORIZONS The study recommended night training, since most armed encounters happened after dark. Officers from across the county now do night training on the Broward College central campus, across the street from NSU’s main campus in Davie. The partnership also identified the need to address the issue of mentally ill people held in the county jail for rela- tively minor offenses. Working together with the BSO and the Henderson Mental Health Center in Fort Lauderdale, NSU created a diversion program for the mentally ill. In the first year, the program diverted 400 individuals off the street and into safe houses. And when Taylor needed programming expertise to request a federal grant, he convened a meeting with the Broward Sheriff’s Office grants manager, information tech- nology manager, and geographic information systems manager, and Eric S. Ackerman, Ph.D., the dean of NSU’s Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences. “That’s how we collaborate. That’s how we partner with NSU,” Taylor said. “We get as many people as possible who are interested in the problem, collaborate, and get it done through the board.” The close working relationship between the two institu- tions contributes to the partnership’s success, said Durham. “If you’ve got a big project, like armed encounters or diversion of the mentally ill, it’s not the norm for a researcher to do the work and break through the adminis- trative hurdles. But, if you have a board that has paved the way and is blessed by the sheriff and the NSU president, then you’ve pretty much got a green light,” said Durham. “We have faculty members coming to us now and say- ing, ‘We’ve got an idea. We want to do this, do you think it’s worthwhile, and can you make it happen?’ ” she added. Taylor of the Broward Sheriff’s Office agrees. “If there’s an issue within BSO that I cannot help with immediately, I will go through the partnership board. The board helps filter out who can help solve the problem. Any- body within the university can come up with ideas to help.” And there are trickle-down benefits of the partnership as well. Various NSU schools and centers have their stu- dents do projects at the county detention center or in dis- patch. BSO offers student internships in law enforcement, detention, community control, and administration. But more important, according to Durham, is the schol- arship money provided by individual deans to help educate BSO personnel and the time associated with researchers who are involved in partnership projects. Through changes in NSU presidents and Broward County sheriffs, the institutions’ commitment to the part- nership remains constant, as does its mission, Durham said. “The cornerstone of all this is research, and that’s going to go on because they value it, they’ve embraced it, and they benefit from it. How do we best get the positive word out so it impacts the community? That’s what we’re about, and that’s what we like doing,” she said, using the armed- encounters study as a prime example. And NSU is part of the solution. “There may be differ- ent ways of addressing those community issues through research,” Durham said, “and those are going to be a prior- ity for us: What are new and innovative ways for us to impact Broward County?’ That’s a huge thing, and that will go on.” n The NSU-BSO partnership resulted in a study that examined how and why shootings occur as well as how to keep officers safe.