NPI staff works in partnership with subject matter experts to address key areas identified for BPD Technical Assistance for Consent Decree Compliance. In collaboration with BPD, NPI develops unique strategies tailored to Baltimore and to the requested compliance area. Generally, the technical assistance includes:

• gathering relevant information on-site to include interviews and focus groups with BPD staff members, the Baltimore community, and stakeholders;
• direct observation of BPD practices and needs; and, development of surveys to identify additional needs and perceptions;
• gathering information off-site through materials requests, follow-up interviews, and open source research;
• selecting teams of subject matter experts with relevant knowledge to analyze department information, documentation, materials, and data to assess existing strengths and needs going forward, particularly in comparison to national promising practices; and,
• developing reports and other products—as requested by BPD—that compile, organize, and describe BPD strengths and needs in the assessment areas, as well as strategies and plans for moving the department toward full compliance.

For the EPIC Evaluation, NPI has:

• Created a logic model for active bystandership (AB) training that includes inputs, outputs, and metrics for assessing success of the training using administrative data
• Designed a rigorous evaluation plan that includes a field randomized controlled trial of AB training
• Implemented the field experiment in BPD
• Designed and programed survey instrumentation for officer surveys
• Ongoing data collection has already received over 900 survey responses