This document proposes Project Fort Defiance, which would foster fruitful relationships between local populations, police, and other outside actors. Small teams of veterans, social scientists, and community builders would conduct rapid area assessments to build local rapport and broker information channels. Participatory mapping would engage communities and look at current and historical perceptions of police across demographic groups. An "Atmospherics" tool would take the pulse of areas to visualize concerns through data analytics in a rapid, cost-effective way. The $5,000 proposal would fund initial community mapping and assessments by a team over 2-3 months. The process is meant to empower communities and police while mitigating risks.

1. Project Fort Defiance
Bridging the Divide
How Veterans, Social Science, and Community Builders can foster fruitful relationships between local
populations and local police, as well as other outside actors
John Kirbow Bill Knight William Keltie

2. How Veterans, Social Science, and Community Builders can foster fruitful relationships between local
populations and local police, as well as other outside actors
From the inner city to the country side, to the condo and high-rise, all of us have more to lose by a continuance of
the staggering failure of conversation we have seen over the years.
 We also have far more to gain through a shared understanding. Issues of genuine social concern – including volatile unrest
within many American communities through decades of misunderstanding – are part of a Zero Sum Game. Worse, in fact, it is
usually a no-win situation. It is in everyone’s interest to get to a NonZero point – that is, a place where everyone is better off.*
 This is where we can map the Human Terrain and help negotiate the nuances of the cultural and social landscape, in a way that
mitigates misunderstanding - and by extension, risk and cost. Cost to lives, property, public relations, community rapport,
greater trust, and human relationships.

3. Navigating the Human Terrain: Small but effective Ground Teams, working with and alongside residents
across the Community
Nonlethal Defense Toolkit: This is an umbrella for the non-lethal ‘best practices and lessons learned’ from our elite Special Operations and
Civil Affairs personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.* Key traits include:
Nonlethal Defense Toolkit: This is an umbrella term used in this proposal and
includes best practices and lessons learned 4,5 within the domains of information
operations and human terrain analysis.* Key traits include:
•Small teams (veterans, social science experts, and community builders) to conduct rapid ‘area
assessment’, * build a local rapport as well as broker local support and information channels
(using cultural expertise, a knowledge of psychological engagement, and research into the
area).
•Assessment framework aimed at attaining a relevant and intimate understanding of
behavioral realities, to include how communication and cooperation specifically occurs.
•‘Human and cultural layers’ as well as the ‘civil terrain’ can be assessed with existing toolkits
used by our veterans, as well as by many community builders

4. Navigating the Human Terrain, between local populations and outside actors – Participatory Mapping
Participatory Mapping has a solid tack record, is very effective and well-received by local populations, and works
across a wide range of cultures and levels of literacy (https://commdev.org/files/1539_file_H2.pdf ). It was effectively demonstrated in the
Niger Delta’s Akassa region (http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2014/05/community-driven-development-nigeria-niger-delta) and assessed by a Brookings
study and report, with amazing results
Its methods of ‘local participation in mapping’ by local residents of a village, town or urban city have been used across various locations in
the US, Latin America, Asia, and other places(https://www.ifad.org/documents/10180/d1383979-4976-4c8e-ba5d-53419e37cbcc ). Despite its inclusive and empowering
nature, it is rarely replicated in a truly local, community-driven way.
Participatory Mapping is an inclusive, bottom-up, locally driven approach to engaging
communities
It can look at how residents view outside entities / actors, including local police forces
• Current and historical perceptions, across groups (age, race, demographic location, etc.)
• When present, the underlying reasons for the negative sentiment or posture toward
police - for example, the intangible, often 'hidden' layer of grievance

5. Useful Information Gathered:
Any the relevant psychological,
social, cultural or economic factors
at play among the local population
Includes any
historical grievances and perceived s
tigmas that should be discussed
 Common example - being excluded
from the process of development
& gentrification by outsiders with
'little regard for the people within the
community'
 History of relations with police, and
perceptions of different groups
(historical, social) across age and
other demographics)
Shared databases (community-owned) for
data, as we build this community map
together

6. Atmospherics – An unrivaled, cost-effective and rapid way to get real-time data on population concerns
Atmospherics was a tool developed by elite members of the Special Operations and Defense community in Afghanistan, for rapidly
assessing the true concerns and sentiments of local areas and populations. It is a peaceful, friendly, and often life-saving toolkit ( )
which enables us to visualize – through density / heat maps, data regression tables, and charts -what people are truly concerned
about. It helps take the ‘pulse’ of an area very quickly.
 It showed us why certain areas were unfriendly to coalition forces
 When we assumed (as outsiders looking in) that a certain population segment was concerned about water, they were actually more
concerned with healthcare
Atmospherics would enable us to visualize the sentiment of a local population, including the areas, frequencies and concentrations
of certain concerns and priorities in a rapid, cost-effective way.
 It aggregates hundreds of small reports together, using regressive data analytics.
 The output is a visualization of densities of population attitudes and discernable patterns.
 This often yields insights into the local area in ways that traditional polling cannot.
This allows us incorporate what is known as Zero-Base Design – in other words, it allows us to engage problems with an open
mind and minimal assumptions, using social science and an immersion with the population to discover the reality around us, from
the bottom-up.

7. Project Costs
We are asking for $5,000 for 2-3 months of community mapping.
I will volunteer as much of my time as I can
Stipend can subsidize team members as needed
Can fund 2 week initial Atmospherics Assessment
Team – myself, 1-2 Atmospherics managers, and 1-2 seasoned community builders, and a senior social science advisor. We
will work alongside the community

8. Clients and Stakeholders
This process is sustainable, by way of our veterans – and the social science used in the process – adapting to different neighborhoods and communities. It is a
bottom-up, replicable process!
Local governments, Nonprofit funds, and Venture philanthropists are the official clients. However, those served – the true clients – are the communities, the
police forces, and our returned veterans who want to find new pathways to serve.
 Local communities flourish from the bottom up, when properly given a dignifying voice to theri problms and made part of the process of finding a solution
 Police are people, like us - Most have families, want to do their job, and want the tools to better understand the populations they are working with
 Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan come home and want to stay in the fight, serving their communities in a meaningful way. Because of their unique skillset
working in small units in complex, challenging and culturally diverse environments, they can make a difference. Working with seasoned
community builders, lifetime residents, local leaders, and social science experts, they can help be the bridge between the community and the police.
This project mitigates risk, it fosters trust and relationships. It facilitates respectable business sentry, and dialogues with the local population, in an inclusive
and dignified manner. This is true empowerment for everyone involved. this is how we get to a NonZero Point - a Win for communities, residents,
local governments, businesses, and police forces.