City of Madison Police and Fire Commission
In 2020 Community members in Madison shared lived experiences of public safety and policing through small-group conversations, and those insights directly shaped the questions and priorities used to select the city’s next Police Chief.
Jerome shared his perspective on how the criminal justice system lacks just that — justice.
Explore emergent themes from across conversations and the real voices that speak to them.
Read on to learn more about how Cortico worked with the City of Madison Police and Fire Commission.
“Working with Cortico taught us that anecdotes and stories have information in them that is community input. It’s real and it’s valid.”
– Jacquelyn Boggess, Chairperson of Police and Fire Commission
Challenge
In early 2020, the unexpected retirement of Madison’s long-serving Chief of Police created a high-stakes moment for the city’s Police and Fire Commission. With long-standing distrust of law enforcement, especially among residents from marginalized communities, the Commission needed a hiring process that could surface public priorities and lived experience in a credible way. That urgency only increased during the Black Lives Matter protests that summer, when pressure on city leaders to respond to community concerns was heightened.
Solution
Alongside community listening sessions and online surveys, the Commission partnered with Cortico to bring community voices directly into the selection process. Cortico supported small-group conversations with 48 residents about the relationship between law enforcement and the community. The conversations were recorded and then analyzed through Cortico’s sensemaking process to identify themes tied to public safety, policing, trust, and inequity.
Results
Themes from the conversations were systematically summarized and translated into suggested interview questions for finalists. Several of those questions were used in public interviews with the final four Police Chief candidates, helping ensure that community experience influenced what leaders asked, listened for, and prioritized. The project offered city officials access to perspectives they might not otherwise hear and demonstrated a more inclusive and transparent approach to leadership selection grounded in real stories.
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