Policing reform is crucial to the permanent stabilization of Northern Ireland and to the increase in co-operation and trust between communities, as well as between citizens and the institutions that serve them. The Irish Institute at Boston College is pleased to announce the 2004 Northern Ireland Community Policing Program, to take place in Boston and Chicago, IL from June 19 to June 29, 2004. Participants will study examples of Community Policing in the United States and talk to police, local government, and citizens groups about the challenges and obstacles they have individually and jointly overcome in implementing a community policing partnerships, as well as their successes and triumphs in improving their communities through community policing strategies.

The program aims to broaden participants' knowledge of the theoretical base and strategic implementation of community policing in a diverse society; develop common understandings regarding the challenges of community policing partnerships; and, hopefully, broaden participants' knowledge of the role that community partnerships can play in successful community policing in a diverse society. Seminars with Boston College Faculty will focus on conflict resolution, problem-solving and negotiation with Professors from the Communications Department and the Carroll School of Management.

In Boston, participants will meet with representatives of the coalition which was behind the "Boston Miracle"; where clergy, community and police collaborated to reduce violence in Boston. Participants will see how police officers are trained in the state of Massachusetts and in the city of Boston and will have the opportunity to engage with Boston Housing Authority Police. In Chicago, the group will meet with police and citizens groups involved in what has been recognized as one of the most ambitious community policing initiatives in the United States.