Job Shadowing
Matching delegates with hosts who have similar jobs offers the opportunity for in-depth exchange of professional information. It provides a round-the-clock classroom for the delegate. This rang true on Monday, October 8, when Alexander Kovalev, Deputy Chief of Investigations in Novgorod, was enjoying dinner with his host family, that of Captain Lynde Johnston, Commanding Officer of RPD's Central Investigation Division. Just after dinner, Captain Johnston was called to a homicide scene. Alexander had the unique opportunity to accompany his Rochester counterpart on this significant call. While at the scene, Alexander, with the help of PH staff member and interpreter Artyom Kachkovsky, was able to observe how police investigators worked together to manage the crime scene, as well as how they interacted with civilian witnesses, business owners and local residents regarding the crime. It was an excellent example of how the community policing philosophy can be applied to crime response and investigation.

Truancy Program
On October 9, the delegation visited Edgerton Truancy Center, where police officers and employees of the city school district work together to identify truant, at-risk students and to find out why they are not in school. The delegates examined all of the forms used at the center, and noted the different types of information officers collect from truant students. The delegates identified this Truancy Intervention Program as a useful tool for tracking at-risk youth and conducting prevention and intervention work with them before they become serious offenders, causing greater problems for the police.

Neighborhood Empowerment Teams (NET)
On Friday, October 12, the delegation received an introduction to Rochester's nationally-recognized Neighborhood Empowerment Teams, which bring city administration and crime prevention officers together to solve community problems in cooperation with citizens. Each of the six NET offices serves a designated area of the city. The offices are staffed with administrators, customer service representatives, a police lieutenant and crime prevention officers. The delegates were able to ride-along with NET officers and shadow NET administrators and to hear about the various ways in which they help the citizens of the surrounding communities address quality-of-life issues. The NET program was recognized by the Phase I Novgorod delegation as a useful way of building police-community relations. It is clear that the Phase III delegation would also like to discuss the idea of NET with their colleagues in Novgorod.

Restorative Justice Program for Juveniles
The delegates participated in the re-creation of a Juvenile Accountability Conference, like those administered by the Rochester PD. The conferences are designed to rehabilitate first-time youth offenders who have committed minor crimes, so that they will not go on to commit progressively more serious crimes. During each conference, a trained facilitator guides a discussion between the offender, his/her family and friends, the victim and his/her family and friends, as well as a police officer. The delegation was especially interested in the police's participation in the conferences, because in the experimental conferences of this type in Novgorod, the police do not participate. During Phase II in Novgorod in May 2001, RPD Trainer Len Wildman, Director of Family and Victim Services, presented the idea of restorative justice for youth to Russian audiences.

DARE
The delegation was especially engaged by Monroe County Deputy Sheriff Tom Mancarella's presentation of the DARE program. The delegates identified the clear necessity of implementing a drug-prevention curriculum in Novgorod schools. This introduction to DARE came at an opportune time for this delegation. This December 2001, as part of the Juvenile Drug Enforcement and Prevention Initiative (also a sub-component of Project Harmony's Community Policing Training Initiative), seven representatives from Velikiy Novgorod, including police, educators and city administrators, will travel to Petrozavodsk, Karelia to receive training in teaching a Russian-written drug prevention curriculum, DOM (Children, Education and the Police - "I Choose Life"). Many of the representatives who have been chosen to travel to Petrozavodsk are colleagues of the LEEP Phase III delegates. As early as Spring 2002, the DOM curriculum will be implemented in several pilot schools in Novgorod.

Panel on Domestic Violence Response
On October 11, four alumni of Project Harmony programs joined the Novgorod delegation for a discussion on domestic violence response. The panel consisted of Captain Lynde Johnston, a representative of RPD, Cathy Mazzotta, the director of a women's shelter, Margie Lefler, Coordinator of Human Services for the City School District, and Mary Ann Maher, an employee of the Department of Social Services. The panelists provided an excellent view of how these various city and social service agencies cooperate to provide complete support for victims of domestic violence. Though the discussion was intense, the exposure to how the US addresses what is viewed as a serious issue was beneficial and healthy for the delegation.

Chief Duffy
Rochester's Chief of Police, Robert Duffy, met with the delegation October 10 to talk about the value of the two-year exchange program. Chief Duffy is a dynamic and charismatic individual who embodies the community policing philosophy. He commented on some of the ideas that Cpt. Johnston and the other Phase II trainers had brought back to him from Novgorod and asked the Phase III delegation about the things they were observing in Rochester. Chief Duffy clearly recognizes the value of the exchange and even mentioned that he would love to travel on a future phase of the program.