PROJECT 80

Indri S, Ahlaam I, America P, Kahlil D

INFO 102 AD
SUMMARY (Project 80)
The goal of Project 80 is to reduce police brutality by training police
officers to be better prepared in communities with high violence and crime.
Our product does this by producing a virtual reality simulation that places
officers in various low income communities, the same neighborhoods that
the frequently appear in the news. The simulation will help to build a better
understanding of why citizens react the way they do in the situations that
they are in. In the beginning our intended goal for this project was to be the
medium between low income people and police officers. We want to create a
product which helps police officers understand the low income minority
community. And also helps change the perception of police officers to the low
income community.
To begin, Ahlaam interviewed someone who actually lives in low
income Seattle area whom is also a minority. She is a community leader so,
although she cant speak on behalf of the entire community she can bring in
the concerns she hears from her community members. Ahlaam learned that
actions speak louder than words- her interviewee stated that if police
officers actions started matching up with their words, the perception would
have changed a long time ago. Overall, community outreach is a huge factor
for many communities and feel like they dont get enough of it. Thanks to the
interview, Ahlaam wants to add a seminar proportion to the stimulation. A
seminar where police officers learn local community members and hear
stories of the people they will be protecting.
Next, America interviewed a Police Officer to get a policeman's
perspective. Officer Diaz gave us an overview of all the training officers must
go through before becoming a policeman. This included 850 hours of
academy training, then a 3-month job shadow with a police officer who has
years of experience, and then an entire year of being part of a squad which
reports to the same crisis calls. When asked about Police brutality he
mentioned it's hard to speak up in the institutions and that there needs to be
mental care for these officers. Because after three years of dealing with
these situations on a day to day basis- the person will not be the same. And
therefore, America wants to add a mental health factor to the project. Where
policemen can be taught and trained to remain compassionate and be
resilient even when dealing these situations on a day to day basis.
Kahlils interview with two college students, both involved in the Greek
community on campus, aimed to push forward the drastic difference
diversity can have versus, homogeneity. Both students, majoring in different
subjects but part of the same fraternity, each had a unique way to solve the
problem at hand. With this information we were able to adapt our sales pitch
to highlight just how important diversity is for a project like this one. Without
the help of different minds working at different angles, society will always
run into the same problems, so with the help of a team as diverse as ours,
we will be able to manufacture the best product for the job. Though it will

PROJECT 80
Indri S, Ahlaam I, America P, Kahlil D
INFO 102 AD
take more interviews than the ones conducted for the sake of this project;
the thorough research will allow for a more well-rounded product.
Lastly, Indri interviewed the president of Black Student Union, Olivia
Smith, who is also active in the Black Lives Matter movement. Smith talked
about the importance of reducing police brutality by putting new recruits in a
more hands on training and a course that talks about race and bias.
Systematic racism was also discussed and how it contributes to police
brutality and the creation of a vindictive image of the police enforcement.
Many people of color in the low income communities are inevitably afraid of
police officers, which invalidates the purpose of the polices service for the
community. This means that our product and a fund to add more intensive
training are really needed in order to educate police officers and diminish the
disparage between the police and the community.
All in all, our product acts as a supplement to improving the
relationship between the police and the community. In presenting our final
project deliverables, we will highlight a subsequent additional programs,
alongside our product, but still emphasizes on the importance of acquiring
our virtual reality simulation. This is not our set plan, but we will continue to
do more discussions and researches in order to meet the plan we are
satisfied with.

PROJECT 80
Indri S, Ahlaam I, America P, Kahlil D
INFO 102 AD

Indri Saskiaputri
Olivia Smith, President of Black Student Union
October 25th, 2016
5pm-5:40pm
For Project 80, we seek a goal in making a virtual reality simulation
that can be used in order to educate police officers on better handling of
violence in communities with high crimes, such as the low income
communities. According to Population Reference Bureau, theres a greater
percentage of ethnics in low income communities (47%) compared to
Caucasians (23%), which is why I intended to pursue an activist as my
interviewee. I decided to interview the president of Black Student Union,
Olivia Smith, discussing about minoritys perception towards police officers.
Smith is also an activist, participating in various Black Lives Matter protests.
I firstly asked her regarding the connotation of the word police and
she regarded it as negative because of the largely portrayed image of police
officers on the media that translates badly to the low income minority
communities. There are too many incidents that make up their image, which
makes it inevitable that people of color are scared when they hear or see
police officers. In turn, Smith thinks that it is difficult for police officers to
gain trust of the low income minority communities because it is just not the
police officers that they are afraid of, but it is more of the big system police
officers are confined in. It would be hard to gain trust of the low income
minority citizens if the police are also having a hard time serving and trusting
them. Stopping police officers from being racist is hard because the big
system controls them. If the police system acts upon the racism, then police
officers are going to try to stop themselves from being racist. This way, there
would be a simultaneous ways of trust between the police and the
community.
To change things up, I asked her what her reaction would be if the
police officers who committed the brutality were black, and she said that she
would react the same. The police enforcement doesnt constitute of one
race, but it also constitutes of many races, so she would not be surprised if
black officers would be a part of police brutality. To Smith, regardless of their

PROJECT 80
Indri S, Ahlaam I, America P, Kahlil D
INFO 102 AD
race, police officers will forever be engrained in her brain as something
terrifying and brutal.
Lastly, I asked Smith if there could be ways of reducing police brutality,
such as the installment of cameras on police officers bodies or enforcing gun
restrictions, and she said that the only way is to directly educate the new
recruits by putting them in a more hands-on training and courses that talk
about race and bias. She claimed that there would be no difference even
with the installment of cameras on police officers bodies because even with
the numerous evidence of brutality in the media nowadays, the police refuse
to redeem themselves. There is still an ongoing brutality despite the images
on televisions that tarnishes the reputation of police officers. Regarding the
gun restrictions, Smith said more people will be arrested than killed, which is
better. But right now, it is hard to enforce gun restrictions on police because
they are militarized.
With the ongoing issue between the police officers and people of color,
this interview reinforces the fact that the police enforcement should focus on
educating its recruits on improving polices image in order to properly serve
the community. Turns out, it is not just systematic racism that plays into
police brutality, but also the fact that they are militarized and are deemed as
authoritative. This calls for the release of our product because I believe that
if police officers were to be exposed to the perspective of low income
minorities, they could learn how to reduce their authoritative nature and
become more engaged in helping the vulnerable.
Works Cited
http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2015/working-poor-families.aspx

PROJECT 80
Indri S, Ahlaam I, America P, Kahlil D
INFO 102 AD

Ahlaam Ibraahim
Aisha Burka, low income community activist
October 27th, 2016
6pm
The purpose of this interview was to understand how low-income
minorities perceived police officers. The objective of this interview was to
learn more about how police officers are perceived in the low-income
minority community and ways the officers could change. Also how Project 80
could help assist and solve some of these issues. I had the honor to interview
Aisha Burka, a community activist in South Seattle, on Thursday evening.
She lived in the New Holly Public Housing and neighborhood for over 10
years. Burka comes from the Oromo community and is involved greatly in
her community. She tutors kids at the local East African community center
and hosts an educational workshop for East African adults.
As a black millennial, Aisha understands and sees the value of social
justice and this new wave of youth activism.She believes the reason for the
rise of activism is inspired by social media. Living in the era of social media
and seeing the negative side of society leads to many people being
passionate about change. Police brutality is a huge issue and has been
spoken about greatly this past couple of years, including this year as well.
Burkas neighborhood has been greatly affected by this issue specifically.
New Holly housing was first built to be homes for veterans and defense
workers. In the 1950s it was converted to low-income housing. In the late
90s and early 2000s, A wave of East African refugees joined the large Asian
community that had already been present. As the years went by and
Seattle gentrification became clearer, we saw a new wave of caucasian
people buying out condos by the housing areas. Burka said. She also

PROJECT 80
Indri S, Ahlaam I, America P, Kahlil D
INFO 102 AD
pointed out that as the demographics changed, more construction and
policing came about. Crime rates also went up which led to a rise of fear in
the community. At the time, many East African community members were
not used to dealing with police brutality or understanding the definition of it
they thought it was part of life and the American way of living. As Aishas
generation grew up in this environment and joined the social media hype,
they realized how wrong this was and educated their community about it.
Aisha explains how the education and understanding the dangers of police
brutality led to huge fear and an increase of hatred towards the police. When
asked about the solution to the problem, Aisha responded with, there needs
to be more outreach to communities like New Holly. She explained that
actions speak louder than a word to hercommunity. If the police officers truly
started showing that they cared and werent racist in their actions, maybe
her community will start trusting them. If you want people to not fear you,
come to our community and treat us like family, Burka concluded.
Im a member of the Black community and I also live in an area with
high low-income rates and a large minority communityRainier Beach. Going
into this interview, I thought Aisha was going to say things I already knew
and heard of. I was surprised by her answers and view on the Policing
system. I didnt know some communities wanted to see a dramatic change
from officers to trust them again. The idea of not trusting the police officers
was also surprising. I was astonished by how the people who are here to
protect us aren't even trusted to a large extent by some communities. This
interview inspired me to add the seminar proportion to our stimulation for
officers to learn from. Having youth like Aisha share their stories and fear of
officers, can hopefully inspire upcoming officers to change their views.

PROJECT 80
Indri S, Ahlaam I, America P, Kahlil D
INFO 102 AD

America Perez
Adrian Diaz, UWPD Officer
October 27th, 2016
12pm
To begin with Officer Diaz informed me that there was a similar project
to ours except military based called DARPA. It was meant to help train
teenagers- they brought MIT & engineers it was federally funded.
Seeing that our project centers around police brutality and a way to
better the training police men go through I chose to interview a police officer
of the Seattle Police Department. My goals when conducting this interview
were to get information regarding the training officers go through, what the
police brutality means to a police officer, and if he had any suggestions in
improving the system himself.
First Officer Diaz gave me an over view of all the training police men
must go through before being off on their own in the field. All the information
he gave me for training was Washington based, so training can change
depending on the state and town/city. He first told me everyone goes
through 850 hours of academy training. Here they cover just about every
subject from law to first aid. Then after graduating from the academy, there
is a 4-5 week post blea training. This is basic law enforcement training which
is very specific to which ever company the police man decides to enter.

PROJECT 80
Indri S, Ahlaam I, America P, Kahlil D
INFO 102 AD
Afterwards (this is called phase 2) they will go into the field except with an
older officer with experience as a partner. The police man in training will
shadow the officer for about 3 to four months it could be longer depending
on the results. The first month the officer with experience will handle 90% of
the situations, month 2 the officer will handle 60% of the situations, and by
month three the officer in training will handle about 90% of the situations.
Then at Phase 3, it is a yearlong process. The officer in training will
work in a squad. He will be with an older officer with more experience except
they will drive and different cars, regardless they will respond to the same
calls. Apart from this the agency at which Officer Diaz works at, everyone
goes through training every year (60-80 hours) regardless of experience.
I also asked Diaz what were his thoughts on police brutality. He then went on
to tell me that it is difficult for officers to talk about this in institutions. He
said that officers are faced with intense situations every day and that
although they may have all the technical skills, the emotional support is not
there at times. He said that specifically in his agency they were analyzed
about four years ago by a company. At the time 60% of the time they were in
crisis situations they would use force, over the course of four years they were
able to bring that down to 1.4% force.
We also talked about how if you take a 23 year and put them directly into the
police field over time they wont laugh at the same things, their personalities
will change. And there needs to be training and support in how to remain
compassionate, open minded, and warm. We talked about how theres
multiple studies on police men and one study showed that officers who are in
a shooting are more likely to be in a shooting again in the future. Why?
Because their minds now associate shooting someone with being a
reasonable solution because it saved them once before, their brain now
associates shooting a gun with surviving.
I then asked him what he thinks can be improved in police training. He
said there should be a program which deals with officers after being in the
field for years. He also told me in the videos you see where a car is chasing
down a criminal and four officers pop out all running towards the criminalthats called code black. This is when a cops mind can no longer take a step
back and analyze the problem. Which usually results in a bad outcome.

PROJECT 80
Indri S, Ahlaam I, America P, Kahlil D
INFO 102 AD

Kahlil Derouen
Kiril Palaveev, college student
October 27, 2016, 7:30 pm
Biniam Tesfaghaber, college student
October 28, 2016, 9:00 pm
The purpose of my individual interview was to prove why our diverse
team, is the perfect team for this product, in hopes that it would lead us to
devising a better sales pitch for our product. Before the interview began I
briefly described our product and asked each student to try to keep our
proposed solution, emotional sympathy, in mind when they formulated their
responses. I interviewed two college students, one caucasian and one African
American, in hopes that there would be a visible difference in their solutions
to the police brutality problem that society is currently facing.
Both interviews were started with the same question, when you hear
the term police brutality, what kind of emotional response does it trigger?.

PROJECT 80
Indri S, Ahlaam I, America P, Kahlil D
INFO 102 AD
Anger, sadness and fear were the consensus answers, all natural feelings of
sympathy for the issue. Biniam highlighted his pain for the families affected
with each incident, saying that communities should unite and change their
views of police so when they are pulled over, they are not defensive or
skittish. This answer was driven by his attempt at seeing things from the
perspective of the police. The reason it has gotten so out of hand at this
point because of the amount of fear present in these high pressure
situations. Police are always scared for their lives when in unfamiliar
territory, and often times the minority citizens who are hearing the other
instances in the news are also scared. Kiril on the other hand, although
having the same emotional response, chose to highlight the problem he had
with the gun control laws. He argued that the reason the officers are in such
great fear is because of the guns that the citizens may or may not have. He
expressed his wish for stricter gun control laws, hoping that it would lower
the amount of violence being used in situations of stress. Kiril argued that
when there is no threat of being shot at, it is easier to remain composed and
make rational decisions. One thing that stood out about my interview with
Kiril was his insistence that the officers are undertrained, which adds to the
fear that they have in these situations.
To further dive into my point, The New York Times, wrote an article
about how fear affects the brain, stating that while fear is a deep-seated
and adaptive evolutionary drive for self-preservation, it makes it impossible
to concentrate on anything but saving our skin (Berns). With that being said
who should be taking the blame for this frightening reoccurrence of violence?
The point of our product is to eliminate any blame being assigned, and work
to fix the problem as quickly and efficiently as possible. If no-one is blamed,
then both sides can work towards a new beginning of peace and
understanding.
At first glance, the results of my interviews seem to balance out, the
answers of each interviewee were divided between a structural problem, per
Student A, and a human problem, per Student B. What I elected to say at the
end were the backgrounds of the two individuals that I interviewed; Student
A grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood, the same neighborhood that
his parents were raised, and Student B grew up under the roof of a financial
advisor and marketer and is a first generation American. Each student
reached out and looked for a solution to help the group that they were not
usually known to support, and all it took was a general wish by me to attain
these answers. Out of context, this information does not mean much, but
coupled with the message my group and I are trying to get across, it moves
mountains. Two different people, with two different backgrounds, offer two
very insightful solutions to the same problem. Only through diversity can we
progress not only socially but intellectually. Although working in a
homogenous environment may be easier, it is often better to have to battle
out disagreements for a better end result.

PROJECT 80
Indri S, Ahlaam I, America P, Kahlil D
INFO 102 AD
Now to the reason why my team is the best for the job; simply put, we
have assembled an extremely diverse team, the Avengers of the business
world. Each interview, was chosen by the individual conducting the
interview, as they saw fit to help progress the project. Although it was my
original idea, I wanted it to take after my team, because I knew that it was
the best way for it to grow into a marketable project. Each member of my
team saw a different piece of the puzzle to be important, whether it was the
sales pitch, background for the actual simulation or how to connect the
emotions of the officers with the residents of these neighborhoods, each
interview added to the ability of Project 80 to evolve its next for, not only a
business proposition, but also a step to fixing the fear that these people are
unintentionally holding towards each other.
Works Cited
Berns, Gregory. "In Hard Times, Fear Can Impair Decision-Making." The New
York Times. The New York Times, 06 Dec. 2008. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.