Restorative Circles for Police-Community Dialogue

A facilitation script from the UBUNTU project in Dublin, Ireland

Abstract

Few have used restorative practices to structure police-community engagement. Fewer, still, have published their script after doing so, enabling others to use or learn from it. This paper presents and explains a script that the authors devised and used to facilitate a two-day dialogue process between six Gardaí (Irish police officers) and six young Black adults in Blanchardstown, Dublin, Ireland.

Drawing on literature from the fields of restorative practices and dialogue, the paper recounts the four stages of the process delivered. It started by 1) establishing relationships, common intentions and norms, before the participants shared and explored their experiences and perceptions of 2) Blanchardstown and belonging, 3) policing, and 4) the future.

The article explains the context in which the project and dialogue process took place, before providing an annotated script to outline the questions asked and activities undertaken, and explain their rationale. The dialogue process was co- designed by the project lead (Marder), project researcher (Kurz) and young Black adults and police who received restorative practices training, including one person from each who, with Marder, co-facilitated the dialogue (Ibeanu, O’Neill).