Mission Statement
The Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project builds safer, healthier communities by disrupting mass incarceration at its source: police policies and procedures. We organize black and brown people, legal experts, and policy analysts to achieve policing practices that reduce physical, economic, and emotional trauma on the most policed neighborhoods in the city.
Core Agreements
Core Values of The Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project
The Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project (RTAP) was formed by policy analysts, legal experts, and directly impacted community members working together to build safer, healthier communities by increasing the transparency and accountability of the Richmond Police Department.
RTAP will fulfill this mission by;
- Addressing the needs identified by the community and encouraging political involvement by the community, while respecting the decisions made by the community.
- Acknowledge the human dignity of all Richmond residents without regard for their race, color, sex or gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, income derived from a public assistance program, religion, nationality, ancestry, or status of their citizenship.
- Increase the transparency and accountability of the Richmond Police Department
- Hold the Police Department accountable to the communities and individuals directly impacted by the police.
- Transform current police culture and practices in the city, through a radical shift of policies, procedures and general practices to reduce disparate treatment of people throughout the city and ending mass incarceration.
- Working to create a civilian oversight board for the Richmond Police Department
RTAP members commit to upholding the following principles;
- Cultivate an empathetic and open climate to foster relationships of integrity between all members by deeply listening to one another and collaborating to advance our mission through various strategies.
- Respect all members. Hate speech is not tolerated. Hate speech is a direct attack on people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, serious disease or disability, and immigration status. An attack is violent or dehumanizing speech, statements of inferiority, or calls for exclusion or segregation.
- Work through consensus whenever possible. If members cannot unanimously agree, we will cheerfully recognize the right of the majority to determine the group’s position on an issue.
- Be transparent, accountable, cooperative, and delegating duties throughout the membership.
- Core Group Member agree to keep all information shared with the Core Group group confidential, until the group decides otherwise. Membership in the Core Group is open to all, subject to acceptance by the standing Core Group Members.
All members of RTAP are committed to these core values of our mission.