Southern Connecticut State University has officially established the Center for Police Social Work, transforming what began as a pilot initiative into a permanent academic and community-based hub for training, research, and workforce development.
The center builds upon the success of the Social Work and Law Enforcement (SWLE) Project, co-founded in 2020 by Isabel Logan, associate professor of social work, in response to Connecticut’s Public Act 20-1 — sweeping police accountability legislation passed following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Originally launched as a feasibility study to explore how social workers could partner with police departments, the project has grown into a nationally recognized model. With the formal establishment of the center, Southern becomes home to one of the few, if not the first, university-based initiatives in the country dedicated specifically to advancing the field of police social work.
From Pilot to Practice
When Logan began this work, she identified a critical gap in both education and professional training.
“There was no formal training when it came to social work and law enforcement and their collaborative efforts to work together. There was no practice framework,” Logan said.
While collaborations between social workers and police departments have existed in various forms across the country, Logan and her team recognized that the field lacked formalized standards — particularly for what she describes as the integrative model, in which social workers are hired directly within police departments.
Her team distinguishes between integrative police social workers, who are employed within police departments, and collaborative police social workers, who are contracted through outside agencies. The center will support both models, but places special emphasis on the integrative approach, which has historically lacked standardized training pathways and support structures.
Addressing Mental Health and Crisis Response
One of the most pressing challenges facing law enforcement today involves responding to mental health crises and non-criminal calls for service.
“Police departments are the only ones that respond within 24 hours when there is a crisis,” said Logan. “Police are not there to be social workers, and social workers are not there to be police officers.”
Police social workers serve as a bridge — helping individuals experiencing mental health challenges, substance use disorders, housing instability, or other vulnerabilities connect with appropriate services rather than unnecessarily entering the justice system.
“It’s about prevention. It’s about connecting people to the services they need so police can focus on keeping the community safe,” said Logan.
Data collected through the project underscores the scope of need. Students embedded within departments track the types of cases they encounter, with the majority involving adult mental health concerns, followed by housing issues and substance use cases.
The center will expand this applied data collection into more formal research initiatives, aligning with Southern’s Carnegie-designated R2 mission.
“Research is the driving force behind best practices. It drives policy. It drives funding. It drives need,” said Logan.
A Student-Centered Training Hub
Since 2020, the project has grown steadily — from just two students in its first year to more than 30 students trained across multiple states. This year alone, 11 students are participating, including several from Southern.
The new center will expand opportunities beyond internships. Planned initiatives include a Police Social Work Clinic, a wellness and self-care component to address vicarious trauma in the field, continued expansion of the Police Social Work Academy, applied research and policy development, and potential development of a formal certificate program.
“We want to advance the field,” said Logan. “Police social work finally has a home.”
The Academy brings social workers and law enforcement officers together for joint training, simulations, safety instruction, and role clarity — helping both professions understand where their responsibilities begin and end.
“People need to learn how to stay in their lanes so communities are safer,” Logan said.
Building Trust Through Partnership
Beyond crisis response, the center’s work is focused on strengthening relationships between public safety professionals and the communities they serve.
“There’s been a lot of trust broken between officers and communities. The police social worker can help unify that,” said Logan.
For the Norwich Police Department, the partnership began with a phone call in 2020, shortly after Connecticut’s police accountability legislation called for departments to explore integrating social workers into their response models.
Lt. Nicholas Rankin recalls being approached by Logan during the early feasibility phase of what would become the SWLE Project.
“She said there was a mandate to explore pairing social workers with police and asked if we’d consider taking on an intern,” Rankin said.
At a time of heightened national tension around policing, Rankin admits he might have been cautious — but Logan’s approach stood out.
“She walked in with credibility,” he said. “The idea of pairing with another profession wasn’t new to us. We’ve ridden with clinicians before and seen the benefits.”
Those benefits, he says, are both immediate and long-term.
“A lot of the calls we respond to don’t really have much of a criminal element,” Rankin explained. “They’re flare-ups of underlying issues. We’re not always equipped to address those root causes.”
That’s where a social worker makes a difference — providing follow-up, navigating service systems, and offering consistency to residents who might otherwise feel lost in a volume-heavy public service structure.
“When you get a social worker involved, you’ve got the same person following up with someone time and again,” Rankin said. “It keeps it personal.”
He also sees the partnership as transformative for officers themselves.
“Social workers hear about the underlying factors in a person’s life. We deal with the manifest bad behavior,” he said. “The problems touch each other. The bad behavior isn’t there for no reason.”
Responding together, he added, allows both professions to leave a scene with a broader understanding.
“You put on an extra set of perspective goggles and ask, ‘How else can I look at this?’” Rankin said. “And that carries forward for the rest of your career.”
That perspective is something Rankin sees firsthand in his current intern, Elaney Ortiz, a student at the University of Connecticut who is embedded with Norwich PD through the program.
Ortiz spends evening shifts riding with officers and assisting with follow-up cases — an experience she says has reshaped how she views both social work and policing.
“It’s not just crisis management,” Ortiz said. “There’s long-term case management, community outreach, and connecting people to services. Sometimes it’s helping someone navigate housing resources or following up with someone who needs continued support.”
The experience has also offered a new perspective on how the two professions intersect.
“I see law enforcement completely differently now,” she said. “And I see the role of social workers and community clinicians differently, too. You realize how much stronger the response can be when those two perspectives work together.”
Ortiz discovered the program while searching for an internship that would push her beyond traditional social work settings. Already working with Hartford Public Schools as a behavioral technician, she wanted exposure to a new environment.
“I wanted something a little more novel — something I couldn’t easily experience elsewhere,” she said. “When I found the Social Work and Law Enforcement Project, I knew right away that this was exactly what I was supposed to be doing.”
She believes the new center at Southern will play a key role in expanding the field.
“Police social work has been around for decades, but it hasn’t received the attention it deserves,” Ortiz said. “Creating a center devoted to this work is revolutionary. It’s going to bring attention to the field and help train the next generation of police social workers.”
Looking Ahead
Logan describes the center as the next step in a journey that began with Connecticut’s accountability legislation, CT House Bill #6004 on police accountability. Later in 2025, State Representative Jillian Gilchrest, MSW, supported the SWLE project by proposing a bill that would help expand the reach of the project into a formalized center through legislative funds.
“The partnership between social workers and law enforcement is so important to our state,” said State Representative Jillian Gilchrest, MSW. “We are fortunate to have the Social Work Law Enforcement Project at Southern Connecticut State University that is training professionals throughout our state, country, and the world on the importance of this partnership and the best practices for ensuring better outcomes for individuals and safer communities.”
Over the next five years, the center aims to publish additional research, establish best practice standards, expand workforce training statewide, and strengthen national partnerships — reinforcing Southern’s role as a community-engaged, research-driven institution addressing complex public safety challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration, while serving both students and professionals across the state of Connecticut.
