UC Riverside

Despite the increasing concerns regarding police shootings nationally, the victimization of Latinos has been historically and largely ignored compared to the more publicized cases involving African-Americans. This paper explores a police initiative, the Adelante Project, aimed at improving trust after three unrelated fatal shootings involving white police officers and Latino residents that occurred within five days of one another in 2005, in Southern California. The two years of community protests that ensued, and the police responses as a result of these shootings. The 10-Point Project was designed to develop positive police relationships between the police department and the Latino/a community. The data, collected between 2005 and 2008, included participant’s observation, ethnographic field work, and archival materials. In the first year of the Adelante Project’s inception, the FBI violent crime index declined, community trust and relationships in police officers increased, and the community protests dissipated. Regardless of the success of the project, police administrators and leadership abruptly ended the project for reasons apparently related to strategic funding. Since departments receive increased funding when crime rates are high. The analyses of this research is aimed to bring awareness to the current racial (Latino-European American) disparity in police responses to police violence in Latino/a communities, best practices used and the lessons learned from the Adelante Project.