The Proactive Alliance policing approach integrates policing methods with adapted concepts from counseling psychology created by a licensed professional counselor and a police officer. This collaborative approach is a prevention model based on building relationships with the community in a variety of settings and using the humanity of the individual police officer as his or her most valuable instrument.
Although forging collaborative relationships has been suggested and encouraged to most police departments, exactly how to develop and improve existing skills to achieve this goal has been uncertain. The ability to create lasting, purposeful relationships with stakeholders is not an innate skill but can be taught. While some police officers have a natural talent for social interaction, all personality types are capable of learning how to build productive relationships with the appropriate training. Building a productive relationship requires effective communication and empathy, but must also incorporate collaboration. Proactive Alliance recognizes the value of the transactional de-escalation techniques that police use to defuse adversarial conflict and empowers officers to actively engage with the public before a conflict occurs. When a crisis does occur, the relationship acts as a problem-solving medium, giving the officer more options than enforcement alone, including the ability to draw from the community for the most effective solution.
The concept of Proactive Alliance, developed by Molly Mastoras, LPC, is a method of collaboration among police, businesses, and community members fostered by active listening techniques, effective communication, and empathy to develop purposeful and productive relationships. This approach draws from and adapts counseling psychology concepts including Family Systems Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Person-Centered techniques, the Stages of Change, Trauma-informed techniques, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Northern Virginia Criminal justice academy
austin police department training academy
What Officers are Saying About Proactive Alliance
“Both instructors were very clear and informative, they kept me intrigued throughout the entire course.”
“Jim and Molly did a great job presenting the content. Proactive Alliance offers new techniques and methods to deal with daily interactions. Law enforcement is changing rapidly and we need to grow with the change.”
“I will use what I’ve learned from Proactive Alliance to help me better deal with citizens and other officers.”
“Much of what I learned in Proactive Alliance will be applied as a supervisor with my subordinates.”
“I love the concept of bringing policing and psychology together.”
“This class needs to be offered to both officers and supervisors!”
Proactive alliance presentations
2020 American Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference
2020 American Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference
2020 American Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference
In June 2020, Molly Mastoras, MA, LPC, presented Proactive Alliance Relationship-Based Policing at the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing (ASEBP) with Dr. Charlotte Gill from George Mason University Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy.
2021 Law Enforcement and Public Health Conference
2020 American Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference
2020 American Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference
On March 23, 2021, Molly Mastoras, MA, LPC presented Proactive Alliance relationship-based policing with Dr. Charlotte Gill from the George Mason University Center for Evidence-Based Policing at the 6th International Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health (LEPH).