About

In July 2020, amid a pandemic and a highly contentious political divide, Connecticut passed a statute on police accountability because of the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others at the hands of a police officer. Pressures from the national Black Lives Matter protests and the Defund the Police movement called for acknowledging systemic racism, police brutality, and the historical marginalization and oppression of vulnerable people in the United States. The mandate required state and local police departments to conduct a feasibility study on the potential impact of working with social workers (Connecticut General Assembly, Public Act 20-1).

The Social Work and Law Enforcement (SWLE) was created in August 2020 by Dr. Isabel Logan, when she was an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Eastern Connecticut State University, and Lt. Matthew Solak of the Willimantic Police Department. At that time, Dr. Isabel Logan and her two BSW students, under her supervision, joined forces with Lt. Matthew Solak of The Willimantic Police Department to meet the following goals:

• Conducting research
• Allowing students, the opportunity to apply theory to practice
• Carving out the role of social workers within police departments in CT
• Bridging communities and the professions, and community and police
• Completing the feasibility study to submit to Connecticut legislation
• Preparing students for emerging roles in police social work

The groundbreaking partnership between Dr. Logan, now an Associate Professor of Social Work at Southern Connecticut State University and Lt. Solak of the Willimantic Police Department is known as the Social Work and Law Enforcement (SWLE) Project. Within only three months of the solid partnership between Dr. Logan and Lt. Solak, led to the creation of the first Integrative Police Social Work Practice Model in Connecticut and the US. The SWLE Project is rooted in the SWLE Integrative Police Social Work Practice Model. Our innovative model has evolved from our initial partnership and provides a comprehensive understanding of police social work’s uses, roles, and responsibilities based on the nine social work competencies and law enforcement best practices.

During that time Dr. Logan and the two BSW students under her supervision, began reaching out to others outside of the State of Connecticut. Simultaneously Dr. Tara McClendon from the University of Kentucky connected with Dr. Logan. The two began meeting to discuss police social work and internships. That informal meeting of two began to grow and by the end of 2020 a diverse workgroup of Social Workers, Legislators, Police Executives, and Social Work Interns to discuss social work and law enforcement partnerships and the implementation of the Connecticut House Bill (H.B.) 6004. That informal group is now known as the SWLE Network, and has over 100 members from across the U.S.