This week we had a team from the police department come in and talk to us about homelessness. Their division was made up of 3 men, who call themselves H.O.P.E. They were talking to us about how they would go and look for homeless people, sending them information on local shelters, preventing more incarceration of the homeless, and give resources to the homeless. While they were talking, I couldn’t help but notice some similarities between the H.O.P.E. task force, and therapeutic policing. While the two rely on different methods to their policing style, they both came down to one thing; pushing the homeless into resource centers to “rehabilitate”. The only difference with this group is that they strive to better the chances for helping these people get back onto their feet, and start a new life, whereas the police in Down Out and Under Arrest: Policing on Skid Row, really just kept incarcerating, arresting, and citing these people living on the streets for almost anything and everything. While I feel the three gentlemen really did have the best interests in heart, and understanding how difficult it is to give an entire presentation on an organization as complex as H.O.P.E., I still felt uneasy with how they would describe some of the interactions with the homeless. Nonetheless, I found the information shared with us from this group was very insightful to many issues that still need to be addressed with policies, and how people look at homelessness as a problem rather than something which can be managed.