TAPS Academy Evaluation Summary Findings
Background Houston Health Department (HHD) piloted an 11-week long Teens and Police Service (TAPS) program. The aim of the program is to reduce the social distance between at-risk youth and law enforcement. This is accomplished through learning, interaction, and discussion between at-risk youth and the law enforcement personnel who serve their communities.
Method HHD collected data (66 items) (pre and post intervention) from the TAPS academy participants on following domains using Likert-type scale (Strongly disagree, Disagree, Agree and Strongly agree & Very often, Often, Sometime and Never) Youth perceptions towards law enforcement (e.g. The police treat people fairly.) Behavioral beliefs (e.g. If I lied to someone, that’s my business) Behaviors that are unfavorable (e.g. In the past 30 days, I have carried a hidden weapon)
Method Paired t-tests were conducted to examine changes in perceptions (Item 1-18), beliefs (Item 19-37) and behaviors (Item 38-66), before and after the intervention.
Findings From two cohorts (Fall of 2016 and spring 2017), a total of 35 youth participated in the program Only 27 provided the complete data thus the findings are based on those 27 participants
Findings Perceptions of youths towards the law enforcement increased significantly post intervention in the desired direction
Findings Beliefs about the youth themselves as well as others around them remained unchanged post intervention
Findings Behaviors of the youth became more positive and desirable post intervention (Significant decrease in reported unfavorable behaviors)
Conclusions The program was able to change the perceptions of the youth participants towards law enforcement Reported behaviors of the participants also changed in the desired direction Perception change may be key to change in behaviors Further exploration is needed to examine why beliefs did not change in the desired direction
Recommendation These changes in perceptions and behaviors are based on short term measurements Follow-up is needed to examine the long term retention of those perceptions as well as the behaviors among the participants The sample size is an issue so more samples are needed to be able to accurately claim the impact Ensuring the completeness of data on both pre and post assessment would be helpful