Lien Tran was invited and presented at the international Gender Justice and Human Rights Symposium organized by and held at University of Miami School of Law on April 21-22, 2022, with financial travel support from UN Women.
Tran joined a seasoned panel of international retired and active members of law enforcement from International Association of Women Police (IAWP, International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and UN Women on the “Rethinking Training for Law Enforcement” panel to talk about the significance of working on gender-based violence (GBV), the need to change not only policy but also perception of GBV work internally within agencies as challenging yet critical work, and improve not only training but the education of officers and making use of technology advancement.
Tran shared her perspective, as a designer of interactive and transformational experiences, for how timely it is to innovate and take advantage of technological advances to enhance the education of law enforcement for the essential skills like communicating with and interviewing sexual assault victims, and investigating serious crimes like GBV using trauma-informed, victim-centered best practice.
Tran was joined by team member Brighten Jelke in providing demonstrations of the prototype to interested symposium attendees during the Friday afternoon break out sessions.
The project builds upon Tran’s previous course collaboration with University of Miami’s School of Law’s Human Right’s Clinic (UMHRC) on its COURAGE in Policing Project employing human-centered design methods to research and propose possible solutions for reducing bias in policing of GBV.
DePaul University’s Matters at Play lab and PUSH Studio have joined together to explore how technology and social innovation could enhance law enforcement response to GBV. Through design research including stakeholder interviews, our team has identified the opportunity to improve interview techniques for law enforcement so that through simulated interviewing of a victim they learn best practices that are trauma-informed and victim-centered.
About the Panel
Title: Rethinking Training for Law Enforcement
Moderator: Bianca Joseph, International Association of Women Police (IAWP) Region 5 Coordinator Senior Police Officer, Member of the IAWP Board of Directors
Speakers:
Deborah Friedl, IAWP President
David Thomas, Program Manager, International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)
Mirko Fernandez, Project Coordinator, UN Women Consultant & Jane Townsley, Senior Police Advisor, UN Women Consultant
Novelette Grant, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Retired), Jamaica Constabulary Force/UN Women Consultant, Spotlight Initiative
Lien Tran, Assistant Professor, DePaul University School of Design