News

The COPS Office recently released a new publication, Unique Needs and Challenges of Border Law Enforcement and Promising Practices for Establishing a Criminal Interdiction Unit. The US Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) and the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) hosted a series of roundtable and focus groups, supplemented by a needs assessment, to determine the needs, promising practices and challenges of sheriffs’ offices along the northern and southern borders of the United States. The report…

In a new, no-cost book from the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), Chapter 2: How Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Are Finding Meaning in Retirement, retired police chiefs and sheriffs share their stories about what they are doing and give advice for how to plan for life after being on a police force. Chapter 2 is intended for everyone in the policing profession, while recognizing that the concept of retirement is changing in many professions. Four short videos featuring retired police chiefs and…

A new report, Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2019, is the 22nd in a series of annual publications produced jointly by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, in the Department of Education. It provides official estimates of school crime and safety from a variety of data sources, including national surveys of students, teachers, principals, and post-secondary institutions. You can visit https://tinyurl.com/y3bcst4p to download a copy of the new report

Jurisdictions around the country are exploring strategies to improve the outcomes of encounters between law enforcement and people who have mental health needs. In an effort to expand the knowledge base for law enforcement agencies interested in starting or enhancing a comprehensive police/mental health collaboration, the Council of State Governments Justice Center, with assistance from a team of national experts and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, selected ten law enforcement agencies to serve as national law…

Law enforcement agencies across the country are facing the challenge of how to efficiently respond to people their officers frequently encounter and spending an enormous amount of time and resources ineffectively responding to these individuals. Often known as “high utilizers,” these individuals are typically well known to law enforcement agencies and many times have serious mental health concerns, substance use disorders and other significant health and social service needs. Developed with funding support from the US Department of Justice’s Bureau…

Local leaders face plenty of hurdles in funding and sustaining their efforts to reduce the number of people in jails who have mental illnesses or substance use disorders. They might struggle to work across sectors to leverage available resources or encounter difficulties interpreting complex regulations about federal funding eligibility and usage. Meanwhile, the sheer number of available federal funding opportunities can be overwhelming. To respond to this need, The Council of State Governments Justice Center created “Financing the Future of…

It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of P&SN’s Technology Editor, William D. Siuru, Jr. Bill passed away on July 12, 2020, in Banning, California. He was born on January 29, 1938, in Detroit, Michigan, to William B. Siuru and Bertha Siuru. Like most kids who grew up in Detroit during the golden age of the American automobile, Bill loved cars – not just driving them, but taking them apart and putting them back together. His fascination…

Recently, the NRA and the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs filed an amicus brief in support of retired, federal law enforcement officers, who brought suit against the state of New Jersey under the Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act (“LEOSA”). LEOSA allows current and retired qualified officers with identification issued by their agency to carry a concealed firearm nationwide, regardless of state law. The plaintiffs here meet those qualifications. Yet the state of New Jersey, in violation of…

A new publication from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), this guidebook offers a practical framework for understanding Evidence-Based Policing (EBP). The framework is presented in 45 small “bytes” – a number which illustrates the broad function of policing in a society which expects a lot from its police agencies.      The guidebook covers topics such as gauging external and internal conditions; assessing performance; identifying and analyzing problems; and evaluating practices and testing alternatives. The guidebook emphasizes which data, analysis…

The Police Executive Research Forum brought together prosecutors and police executives from 11 jurisdictions in 2019 to look for common ground on criminal justice reform. Leaders from the group recognized that, in the growing national debate over criminal justice reform, police chiefs and prosecutors were often talking past each other instead of to each other. This new report from that forum details the discussions and presents a set of 12 common-ground principles agreed upon by the attendees. To read a…