August 2023

The purpose of this guide is to help law enforcement agency leaders and strategic communications advisors develop the necessary knowledge and skill to create strategic communications plans to help build and maintain community trust. This guide is a revision and expansion of the Strategic Communications Practices Toolkit published by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and the Major Cities Chiefs Association in 2012. It expands upon the tenets of best practice communications planning to provide law enforcement executives guidance…

Published by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, this article discusses an event held earlier this year in which representatives from a select group of law enforcement agencies came together from across the country in Tampa, Florida. This event was a peer-to-peer learning opportunity cosponsored by the Tampa Police Department, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the US Secret Service. The meeting’s purpose was to provide practitioners with an opportunity to learn from one another regarding the responsible use of technology,…

The COPS Office recently released this publication summarizing a leadership meeting between local government and law enforcement.  In March 2022, 50 mayors, police chiefs and other representatives of law enforcement executive organizations met at the Winter Leadership Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors to discuss the cooperation necessary between local government and law enforcement to keep cities safe. Topics included ordinances, technology options, and community interventions and other initiatives to respond to and reduce gun violence; officer recruitment and…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released a report on law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, including data on felonious deaths from 2022. The FBI continuously releases this data through the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) Program. The program’s statistics provide information which law enforcement can use to protect officers and prevent future incidents. LEOKA adheres to a general set of law enforcement officer criteria when gathering data. According to the report, the number…