June 2023

Tools for States to Address Crime

Published by The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, these tools help provide state leaders with a plan to advance safety and justice. To equip state leaders, the CSG Justice Center has analyzed the most recent 50-state data on crime, arrests, and prison populations and has developed a list of ten ways states can lower crime.  View these tools.


Why Your Shoulder Weapon Needs a Light

Mike Boyle The concept of mounting a light to a firearm is nothing new and this practice has been around since World War I. However, lights which were designed for pistols may not work as well when attached to patrol rifles. In the 1960s, High Standard marketed the Model 10 shotgun to law enforcement agencies, a self-loading bullpup design which came complete with an integral light. Fast-forward 30 years and there was considerable interest from the police community on tactical…


Understanding How GPT Is Changing Law Enforcement

Published by Europol, this report analyzes a number of workshops held by subject matter experts on the positive and negative potential of ChatGPT. The report emphasizes that law enforcement must be prepared for the negative impacts of this artificial intelligence system. Although OpenAI has included many safeguards on ChatGPT to prevent malicious use, they can be easily bypassed through prompt engineering. An unprecedented amount of available data is used by criminals to learn about topics such as potential crime areas,…


Prevention Resource Finder Tool

Published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), this online tool provides stakeholders with information on the resources needed to help prepare for and prevent targeted violence and terrorism across our country. Within each of the categories, users can search keywords for relevant resources and filter the results based on Department/Agency/Organization and Key Audience. This online tool can be found here.


THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE May/June 2023

Sergeant James Post Unplugging the Controversy about EVs We’ve talked about EVs several times before in these pages, but the discussions (pro and con) continue unabated. Here are the latest developments in this debate, as well as vehicle news from around the country – new vehicles purchased, recalls and more.  But, first, here’s a real-world EV experience from a Midwestern state trooper who has requested to remain anonymous. “I was sent to a motorist assist at the start of a…


Internet Crime Report 2022

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released its new report on Internet crime in 2022. The growth of cybercrime is a threat to networks, critical infrastructure and financial institutions in the United States and around the world. These threats produce major economic and national security effects. The FBI commits to assisting the victims of cybercrimes and working to combat these crimes. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), established in May 2000, serves as a public resource to report…


Global Terrorism Index (GTI) Report 2023

The Institute for Economics and Peace has released the tenth edition of the GTI report. The GTI represents a comprehensive study analyzing the impact of terrorism on 163 countries which covers 99.7 percent of the world’s population. For its analysis, the GTI uses the TerrorismTracker database which records “every terrorist incident reported in open sources since January 2007.” Using this data, the GTI creates a terrorism impact score on a scale of 0 to 10 for every country in the…


Implementing Red Dot Sights for Your Agency

Ron LaPedis Red dot sights place the target and the reticle roughly on the same optical plane, allowing a single point of focus. This enables fast acquisition and allows the officer to keep his/her attention on the field of view in front of him/her. The results of a four year handgun Red Dot Sight (RDS) study by Aaron Cowan of Sage Dynamics show substantially increased hit accuracy using an RDS over iron sights. Multiple agencies which have issued an RDS…


Funding Opportunity to Support Small and Rural Agencies in Reducing Violent Crime

With this solicitation, the Bureau of Justice Assistance seeks to support small and rural agencies in their efforts to combat violent crime. This program will provide funding to small and/or rural agencies and/or to prosecutors who are interested in implementing or improving the capacity of their organization around one or more critical elements found in the Violent Crime Reductions Operations Guide (PDF) or the Prosecutors’ Guide to Reducing Violence and Building Safer Communities (PDF). Eligible Applicants: City or township governments;…