Send in undercover officers and confidential informants regularly to try and buy drugs. Enlist the services of researchers and/or crime analysts to evaluate the impact of the DMI. Jim Summey, Executive Director of the High Point Community Against Violence, talks about a circle of accountability whereby local neighborhood residents hold the police and themselves accountable for maintaining the quality of life within the neighborhood.

You might consider partnering with a local researcher from the very beginning. He or she could help with data issues, the incident review, and most importantly, evaluations are much easier to complete when they are included from the beginning of an initiative. Trust is important though. Inviting a researcher to the table that is not trusted by the team members is a waste of time on everyone's part. If your team is unable to find someone locally, you might contact the BJA technical assistance team or other DMI sites who have partnered with researchers and get their suggestions.

Once the call-in is complete and some time has passed, it would be extremely beneficial to all involved for your group to sit back and examine how things went. Were you able to meet the four overall DMI goals 1) eliminate open-air drug markets; 2) return the neighborhood to the residents; 3) reduce crime and disorder; and 4) improve public's safety as well as their quality of life? Was everything implemented according to plan? What would you do differently next time? What would you leave the same? Another SWOT inventory might be a good idea. Here again, an outside researcher can help with this summarization and self assessment.