Memphis strategic team against rape and sexual assault: One city's struggle to find a new way of doing business, The

University of Memphis Law Review, The, Winter 2002 by Jones, Christopher Leon Jr

[1] How big an impact is the intervention likely to have?

[2] How long will it take before we see the impact?

[3] Do we have the capacity and resources to do it?

[4] Why do we want to use this intervention rather than another?

[5] What are the side benefits or drawbacks?66

I removed myself from any decision-making role on the committees. My role in managing the process required that everyone take ownership of the recommendations and decisions being made at this time. My job was to try and prepare the infrastructure to implement the committees' recommendations. This job turned out to be the challenge for the remaining months of my tenure.

The committee process culminated in a one-day retreat at the University of Memphis.68 The purpose of the retreat was to bring forth a series of intervention strategies that could be implemented immediately. During the retreat, each of the commitees proposed the intervention strategies developed over the previous weeks, and as an entire team, those strategies were prioritized into an initial plan of action, based on the length of time needed for implementation. The result of the retreat was that agencies got moving on fashioning the feasible interventions immediately, and there was a structure for sustaining the process over the long term.69

D. Stage Four: Implement the Intervention

Our data analysis indicated that there were improvements that could be made to our criminal justice system to improve the response to, and processing of, sexual assault complaints. Accordingly, to inspire some confidence in the ability of the criminal justice system to handle this complex issue, we began by implementing strategies to deal with incidents when they occur. These strategies were called our "systemic interventions." The Memphis Police Department's Sex Crimes Bureau established an on-call response to provide investigators who were available to respond to crime scenes at all hours of the day. The District Attorney General's Office developed a charging unit, staffed by six prosecutors, to be consulted during the investigation and make the immediate charging decisions for sexual assault cases. The Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center (MSARC) provided Law Enforcement Liaisons to assist victims both at the crime scene and, if the victim required medical treatment, at the health care facility; the Law Enforcement Liaison would also be assigned to assist the victim through the criminal justice process.

There are at least three real issues that will arise in the implementation stage. First, the intervention plans will need financing. Consistent funding may not be necessary for immediate implementation, but it will be necessary to sustain the intervention plans over a period of time. Whether it is a reallocation of existing budgets or securing new grants, sometimes creativity is required. Nevertheless, recognize that money is always tight and try to anticipate the needs.

Another issue in the implementation stage is organization, including attention to detail. We had a number of interventions operating at one time and it became difficult to keep things straight. The systemic interventions were working as we were putting the prevention interventions into place. I was concerned about our ability to evaluate everything and whether we had taken too much of a "shotgun" approach to implementation. Here again, the strategic plan will help to keep the process on track.