News

Emergency Alert, Warning and Notification (AWN) systems protect lives and property by identifying information about an impending threat, communicating that information to those who need it, and facilitating timely protective actions.  To enhance this critical information sharing across all AWN systems, SAFECOM and the National Council of Statewide Interoperability Coordinators, in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, developed the Ten Keys to Improving Emergency Alerts, Warnings, and Notifications. Download a copy of this report…

Nearly all law enforcement officers have had an interaction with an individual who is mentally ill or experiencing a mental health crisis and 60% of officers say mentally ill individuals make up at least 11% of their contacts. The statistics come from a recently released report from Lexipol, the nation’s leading source of mission-critical training and state-specific policy solutions for law enforcement agencies. People experiencing a mental crisis have a higher chance of an interaction with law enforcement officers. Some…

Investigating and responding to sexual assault crimes is a priority for law enforcement and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has tools to help agencies as they continue to evaluate and examine their responses to sexual assault crimes. These tools are designed to help law enforcement agencies enhance their support of survivors of sexual assault crimes and agencies’ ability to hold offenders accountable. One aspect of supporting survivors is ensuring that the law enforcement agency they report to…

The Vera Institute of Justice’s Policing Program develops the quarterly digest Emerging Issues in American Policing to deliver information on innovations in the field of policing to police practitioners and community members. Vera’s Policing Program gathers the material presented in the digest from leading academic journals and research publications, compiling them for easy access and analysis by justice professionals. The latest edition of the digest, Emerging Issues in American Policing, Volume 7, focuses on topics including the following: Reviewing mental health calls in a…

The Police Foundation has implemented the Averted School Violence (ASV) database to provide a platform for sharing information about averted incidents of violence in institutions of elementary, secondary and higher education. The ASV project defines an incident of averted school violence as a violent attack planned with or without the use of a firearm which was prevented before any injury or loss of life occurred. This preliminary report analyzes 51 averted incidents of school violence selected from the ASV database…

The VALOR Program, with support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, has launched a new video series on Social Media Officer Safety. The series is intended to help officers protect their digital footprints. • Part One covers foundational information on how Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is discovered on the Internet. • Part Two explores relevant law enforcement examples of how PII has been found and used against law enforcement officers. • Part Three looks at best practices for sanitizing your…

In 2018, North Carolina, like other states, found itself in the position of responding to school shootings with statewide actions. As a result, the Governor’s Crime Commission established the Special Committee on School Shootings (SCSS) to develop recommendations to strengthen school safety. The SCSS recently released a report which includes 33 recommendations to enhance school safety and prevent school shootings, 22 of which are categorized under five broad themes: training, physical security, threat intelligence and assessment, school and law enforcement…

LEO Near Miss is a reporting system for law enforcement officers initiated by the Police Foundation in 2013. A near miss, or close call, is any incident which could have resulted in a law enforcement officer’s serious injury or death. The LEO Near Miss Reporting System and Database is a platform which enables sworn law enforcement officers from across the country to share the details of incidents in which an officer was almost seriously injured or killed, providing valuable takeaways…

The U.S. Department of Justice has released updated guidelines to help states and regional offices recover abducted children through America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) Alerts. This guide provides a “what works” approach, based on the input of those who lead and oversee AMBER Alerts, as part of larger missing persons and child protection programs at the state and regional levels. Copies of this guide are available at: https://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/252759.pdf

The U.S. Department of Justice has released two reports which focus on the mental health and safety of the nation’s federal, state, local, and tribal police officers. The first report, Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act: Report to Congress, includes 22 recommendations to Congress ranging from supporting programs to embed mental health professionals in law enforcement agencies to supporting the development of model policies and implementation guidance, enabling law enforcement agencies to make substantial efforts to reduce suicide. The…