News

Funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and published by the Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS) in partnership with the National Police Foundation, Conversations with Rural Law Enforcement Leaders: Volume 2 discusses how rural law enforcement agencies face increasing rates of crime and disorder, often with dwindling resources to combat them. To discuss critical issues in rural policing, this report has convened a listening session series with rural law enforcement stakeholders to discuss rural law enforcement’s common concerns, challenges…

The Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS) published a report based on a daylong forum held on December 10, 2019, to discuss the challenges of law enforcement recruitment and retention, specifically focused on these issues in relation to smaller, more rural law enforcement agencies. The 32 participants included police chiefs, captains, lieutenants, academic experts, researchers, and agency directors of state police standards. The forum’s small size allowed for a wide-ranging discussion which focused on the qualities which make an effective…

Hosted by the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), “Searching Without a Warrant” provides legal information on situations involving digital evidence in which the Fourth Amendment may not apply. Topics include the reasonable expectation of privacy in a digital context; private searches; “reasonable” government searches; and searches with consent. This is the third module in the training series, “Legal Concerns for Digital…

This report, Contacts Between Police and the Public, 2018 – Statistical Tables, examines the nature and frequency of US residents’ contact with police by residents’ demographic characteristics, types of contact, perceptions of police behaviors, and police threats or use of nonfatal force. It is the twelfth release in a series which began in 1996. The findings are based on data from the BJS’s 2018 Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS), a supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). To read the…

Sponsored by the Office of Community Oriented Policing, and in partnership with the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, “Targeted Violence Averted – College and University Case Studies” examines eight case studies of incidents in which planned violence targeting institutions of higher education was averted by the potential attackers’ peers, school administrators and other campus safety stakeholders including law enforcement. Each case includes a discussion of lessons learned by examining the potential attackers’ intentions and the actions of those…

This brief, published by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the CNA Corporation, provides an accessible resource for law enforcement agencies and their stakeholders (e.g., crime analysts, policymakers and researchers) who are interested in learning more about the role of predictive analytics in police operations. Specifically, the brief summarizes the use of predictive analytics to inform policing operations; distinguishes between approaches to predictive analytics (person-based and place-based); highlights the emergence of machine learning algorithms as a preferred predictive analytics technique;…

Published by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the article “What Police Officers Need to Know About Palm Prints,” discusses advancements in technologies to identify palm prints and how agencies can ensure that they capture palm prints correctly during booking. The author discusses the National Palm Print System; the cost of incomplete palm prints; how to capture a quality palm print; and resources to improve palm print capture.  The article can be read at https://tinyurl.com/yaglqdhh

The Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP) published an article, “The Opioid Crisis and Children: The Critical Role of Law Enforcement,” which discusses law enforcement agencies’ role in mitigating the effects of the nation’s opioid crisis on its youngest victims. The article discusses how law enforcement can leverage deflection strategies to identify and protect drug endangered children and how to connect them to community-based treatment which is critical to reducing their exposure to substance use at home. To…

Sponsored by the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC), the virtual and self-paced training course, “Telecommunications Best Practices for Missing and Abducted Children,” provides law enforcement telecommunications personnel with information and resources to promote swift and effective responses to incidents of endangered missing and abducted children. Learn about the scope, scale, and nature of the problem; best practices; and protocols for telecommunications responses. Participants will also review important National Crime Information Center (NCIC) record entry and data management considerations for the communications…

Why Law Enforcement Needs to Take a Science-based Approach to Training and Education,a new report published by the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) and the IADLEST Partner Advisory Committee (IPAC), serves as a reference point for chiefs, sheriffs, mayors, risk managers, Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) directors, training academy directors, and all those who have an investment in police training and education. Topics covered in the report include evidence-based training; the science of…