cops office pubs 2011_2014

COPS Office, U.S. Department of Justice—Senior Publications Designer/Art Director (Contractor with Lockheed Martin) 2011–2014

8 the impact of the economic Downturn on american poLice agencies

Figure

1

–

General Purpose State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies Identified by BJS Census

0

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1986 1987 1990 1992 1993 1996 1997 2000 2000 2003 2004 2007 2008

State and Local General Purpose Law Enforcement Agencies, 1986–2008

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Figure 2. General purpose state and local law enforcement agencies identified by BJS Census

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics

1986 1987 1990 1992 1993 1996 1997 2000 2000 2003 2004 2007 2008

Full-Time Equivalent Sworn Of�cers in State & Local General Purpose Law Enforcement Agencies, 1986–2008

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Figure 2 - Full-Time Equivalent Sworn Officers in State and Local General Purpose Agencies

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Figure 3. Full-Time Equivalent sworn officers in state and local general purpose agencies


the worLD of poLicing prior to the great recession 7

The World of Policing Prior to the Great Recession

To properly assess the changes that have occurred among police agencies as a result of the economic downturn, it is important to get an idea of what police agencies looked like before .

Law Enforcement Trends Prior to the Economic Downturn Periodically, BJS conducts two major data collection efforts . One is a census of state, local, county, and tribal law enforcement agencies (CSLLEA) and the other is a more detailed survey of approximately 3,000 state and local law enforcement agencies, including all those that employ 100 or more sworn officers and a nationally representative sample of smaller agencies (LEMAS) . The most recent data are from 2008, prior to the current economic downturn (see Figure 1) . The data provide an overview of the staffing numbers police agencies nationwide have maintained in the years prior to the economic downturn

Full-Time, Part-Time, and Full-Time Equivalent Sworn Officers, LEMAS and LE Census, 1986–2008CSLLEA

1986LEMAS1987

LEMAS1990

CSLLEA1992

LEMAS1993

CSLLEA1996

LEMAS1997

CSLLEA2000

LEMAS2000

LEMAS2003

CSLLEA2004

LEMAS2007

CSLLEA2008

FT Sworn 496,845 510,422 547,740 562,583 581,216 618,465 648,688 661,979 656,645 683,599 680,182 700,259 704,814

PT Sworn 35,298 25,306 32,978 35,934 39,427 41,953 41,779 37,718 38,511 35,152 40,533 34,132 39,198

1/2 PT Sworn 17,649 12,653 16,489 17,967 19,714 20,977 20,889 18,859 19,256 17,576 20,267 17,066 19,599

FTE Sworn 514,494 523,075 564,229 580,550 600,930 639,441 669,577 680,838 675,901 701,175 700,449 717,325 724,413

Agencies 15,641 14,081 15,148 15,637 15,494 16,715 16,700 15,785 15,798 15,766 15,882 15,636 15,614

Figure 1. Full-Time, Part-Time, and Full-Time Equivalent sworn officers data from 1986–2008


Figure 2 (on page 8) indicates that since 1986 the number of general purpose law enforcement agencies (publicly funded law enforcement agencies with the full-time equivalent of at least one sworn officer with arrest powers) fluctuated between about 14,000 and 17,000 . (This graph excludes special purpose police agencies that are included in the analysis of the BJS census, e .g ., the 17,985 total agencies in 2008 .)

Note: Most of the fluctuation in agencies is accounted for by smaller agencies that tend to come in and out of existence, but some may be reflective of newly formed agencies or consolidations . There is no systematic effort to track newly formed or consolidated agencies .

The Number of Law Enforcement Officers Was on a Steady Upward Climb Through 2008 As indicated in Figure 3 (on page 8), there was a steady increase in the number of full-time equivalent sworn officers employed by general purpose state and local law enforcement agencies between 1986 (N= 514,494) and 2008 (N= 724,413) . This represents a 41 percent increase in sworn personnel over the entire period, although the growth was slower from 1997 on .

The Impact of the Economic Downturn on American Police Agencies

COPS Office statistical report on how a downturn economy had affected law enforcement and other police agencies in the United States—cover and spread.


The Relationship between Economic Conditions and Crime Is Complex 5

sibility of theoretically informed conditional effects (Baumer, Rosenfeld, and Wolff forthcoming, 21).

Another consideration that must be taken into account is the different “timing types” associated with economic change. Researchers typically identify three timing types associated with changes in economic indica-tors; leading, lagging, or coincident—depending on how they relate to changes within the economy as a whole. These timing types are defined as follows:

◾ Leading: Leading economic indicators are those that change prior to changes in the overall economy. Stock market returns are an exam-ple of a leading indicator, because the stock market tends to exhibit signs of decline before the economy declines, and it improves before the economy begins to move out of a recession into a more stable cli-mate. Such leading indicators are important, insomuch as they help to predict what the economy will look like in the future.

◾ Lagged: A lagged economic indicator is one that does not change immediately alongside the overall economy, but instead will experi-ence changes months and sometimes years after the economy does. City budgets for example, tend to lag economic conditions anywhere between 18 months to several years. Similarly, unemployment rates are a form of a lagged economic indicator in that unemployment generally increases 2 or 3 quarters after a faltering economy begins to improve.

◾ Coincident: A coincident economic indicator is one that moves alongside the economy. The Gross Domestic Product is an example of a coincident indicator because it changes with the economy in-stead of before or after.2

It is difficult to determine the amount of time it takes before the eco-nomic changes can be said to have an effect on criminality. While some assume that crime rates should change at the same time as the economy (coincidentally), others believe that there is a lag before crime rates would be affected. Further complicating matters, the length of the lag may vary by any number of factors, such as the type of crime, location (density of population), extent of downturn, etc. This poses problems for many law enforcement agencies when trying to justify why, in light of recent lay-offs, crime has not sky rocketed. One reason for this may be due in part to the lagged effects of such conditions. Laying-off officers today does not mean that crime immediately goes up tomorrow. How-ever, over time, it is possible that the effects of such lay-offs on crime and social disorder, depending on their magnitude, will become evident as more time passes without the same staffing levels and mechanisms of social control in place.

Another problematic issue in examining the relationship between crime and the economy is the use of aggregate crime data to develop conclusions about the nature and causes of crime overall. Just because a particular category of crime is on average down across the nation does not mean it is universally declining; it can still be up in particular

2. http://economics.about.com/cs/businesscycles/a/economic_ind.htm?p=1

Increases in unemployment are much more likely to yield elevated property crime rates when inflation levels are particularly high.…but [right now] the rate of inflation remains at historic lows.

4 The Relationship between Economic Conditions, Policing, and Crime Trends

necessarily that there is direct causation (Koinis and Yearwood, 2009), as it is difficult to identify and account for all of the possible intervening factors. For these reasons, it is understandable that research has yielded such inconsistent and contradictory results.

Without reliable evidence to support how or why the economy has an effect on crime rates, many researchers have written off such claims as a function of poor measurement and model misspecification (Green-berg 2001; Raphael and Winter-Ebmer 2001). Others have argued that adverse economic conditions may yield increases in crime rates, but only under certain conditions. For example, rather than simply associ-ating increases in crime rates to declining economic conditions, Can-tor and Land (1985)1 argue that “increases in some adverse economic conditions, such as unemployment rates, may yield higher crime rates only to the extent that significant simultaneous or subsequent shifts in routine activities do not limit criminal opportunities.” Other research has mirrored this belief, providing evidence to support the idea that simply attributing a linear connection between an economic decline and increases in crime rates will fail to capture the range of behavioral reali-ties that shape the broader economic and social contexts within which crimes will take place (Baumer, Rosenfeld, and Wolff forthcoming).

In their recent work, Baumer, Rosenfeld, and Wolff (forthcoming) evalu-ate the influence on crime rates of four indicators of economic adver-sity—namely, rising unemployment, consumer pessimism, declining wages, and GDP. In an attempt to take their analysis a step further than previous studies, these researchers also examined “both the additive effects of these conditions and the degree to which their effects are moderated by inflation levels, unemployment insurance, illicit drug involvement, incarceration rates, and police force size.”(1)

This study also examines these variables of economic adversity and their effects on rates of property crime (robberies and burglaries), total homicide, and rates of homicide disaggregated by age. Evidence from this study implies that several commonly considered indicators of eco-nomic adversity do have effects on crime rates; however, these effects differ depending on the rate of inflation and levels of objective risk. Most notably, increases in unemployment are much more likely to yield elevated property crime rates when inflation levels are particularly high and, in fact it was pointed out that unemployment is not significantly associated with property crime at below-average levels of inflation. These findings emphasize the need to consider conditional relationships when assessing the role of economic conditions on crime, particularly in our current economic environment when unemployment is high but the rate of inflation remains at historic lows (Baumer et al. forthcoming, 19). Overall, while this study provides greater examination into the interactive effects of many economic indicators typically associated with fluctuations in crime rates, the general conclusion emphasizes the need for future empirical research linking the economy and crime to move beyond examination of simple main effects and consider the pos-

1. As cited in Baumer, Eric P., Richard Rosenfeld, and Kevin T. Wolff. (Forthcoming). “Are the Criminogenic Consequences of Economic Downturns Conditional? Assessing Potential Moderators of the Link between Adverse Economic Conditions and Crime Rates.” In Youth Violence and Economic Conditions, ed. Richard Rosenfeld, Mark Edberg, Xiangming Fang, and Curtis Florence. New York: NYU Press.

While many assume that

crime will flourish in times of

economic strife, little empirical evidence has

supported this notion.

The Relationship Between Economic Conditions, Policing, and Crime TrendsMatthew C. Scheider Ph.D., Deborah L. Spence, and Jessica Mansourian

An Addendum to The Impact of the Economic Downturn on American Police Agencies

This addendum, released one year later, further explained the effect of economic conditions surrounding law enforcement’s ability to cope with increasing crime with even less resources—cover and spread.


15

What the community and law enforcement can do

A hate crime is reported nearly every hour in this country,17 but nearly 25 times more are estimated to occur . Many communities have developed creative ways to support victims, improve reporting of incidents, and work more effectively with law enforcement .

Identify all stakeholdersOne tenet of community policing is creating and fostering partnerships within the community . The responsibility of crime, public safety, and disorder go beyond law enforcement; every stakeholder in the community needs to be involved in the solution . Including diverse stakeholders whose communities may be targets of hate is important . Possible stakeholders to reach out to include:

◾ Law enforcement – the local police department, sheriff ’s office, or campus or school resources officers

◾ Civic leaders – the local mayor, city manager, city council members, or other city officials

◾ Justice – courts, pre-trial services, probation, or corrections ◾ Federal agencies – law enforcement, prosecutors, analysts, victim advocates,

or other federal representatives ◾ Schools and universities – school administrators, counselors, teachers, campus

clubs, or school nurses ◾ Victim advocates – nonprofits or social services ◾ Community organizations/institutions – the public library, unity coalition,

human relations commission, social justice organization, neighborhood crime prevention association, or groups working to eliminate discrimination

◾ Faith-based organizations – religious institutions or interfaith groups ◾ Industry or business associations – individual businesses, the Chamber of

Commerce, professional associations, or labor unions ◾ Media – the local newspaper, alternative weekly news, radio shows, television

news or public affairs programs, or popular community blogs

Create a partnership with law enforcementWhether you are just beginning a community partnership or already working together with various stakeholders, to have law enforcement at the table is critical . The following are some useful ways to begin a partnership:

◾ Do your homework – Research your local agency and learn about the police chief/sheriff/law enforcement executive . Understand how involved your local agency is with community policing and find out if there is a liaison officer or deputy who might serve as your point of contact .

◾ Reach out – To have the support of the law enforcement executive is essential, so you should always reach out to the chief of police or sheriff as well as any other key personnel you would like to bring on board .

◾ Network – There is nothing wrong with reaching out to other stakeholders and inquiring about whom they would recommend or bring into the partnership .

◾ Be specific and positive – Once a meeting with your local chief of police or sheriff is set up, come prepared with specific, productive suggestions and steps to ensure a good working partnership . Focus on solutions instead of just problems .

For more information on partnerships, refer to the lists of resources beginning on page 21 .

17 “Executive Summary—Confronting the New Faces of Hate: Hate Crimes in America 2009,” The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights/The Leadership Conference Education Fund, 2013, www.civilrights.org/publications/hatecrimes/executive-summary.html.

14 Building Stronger, Safer Communities

Furthermore, this gap is increasing with time . Based on a 2013 BJS report, 36 percent of violent hate crimes were reported to police from 2007–11, which is 10 percent less than those reported from 2003–06 .14 Of the 36 percent hate crimes reported, 4 percent led to an arrest, which is 6 percent less than the number of arrests from 2003–06 .15 Among the 64 percent of 2007–11 non-reporting victims, 24 percent stated they did not do so because they did not believe police could or would help them . This is up from 14 percent in 2003–06 . Despite the decrease in reporting, violent hate crime victimizations increased in 2007–11 from 2003–06, although the percentage of all violent non-hate crimes declined .16

14 Nathan Sandholtz, Lynn Langston, and Michael Planty, Hate Crime Victimization, 2003–2011, (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2013), http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hcv0311.pdf.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

0 10 20 30 40 50

Dealt with another way/private or personal matter

Figure 1. Most important reason why violent hate crime victimization was not reported to police, 2003–2006 and 2007–2011

Not important enough torespondent/no insurance gain

Police could notor would not help

Afraid of reprisal/did not wantto get offender in trouble/

advised not to report

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2003−2006

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Percent2007−2011

Note: Hate crime includes incidents confirmed by police as bias-motivated and incidents perceived by victims to be bias-motivated because the offender used hate language or left behind hate symbols. Based on violent hate crime victimizations not reported to police.

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, 2003–2011

Partners in stopping hate


Building Stronger, Safer CommunitiesA guide for law enforcement and community partners to prevent and respond to hate crimes

by Kelly Whalen, Nazmia Alqadi, and Libby McInerny

Not In Our Town: Light in the Darkness was a PBS film documentary focusing on how communities and law enforcement effectively worked together to put down hate crimes toward immigrants and were sponsors of this guide. The COPS Office, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, issued numerous publications on the effectiveness of community policing such as these.


This guide identifies discussion questions and community policing best practices for law enforcement representatives organizing internal agency screenings or community screenings of the PBS documentary film Not In Our Town: Light in the Darkness, which profiles a town taking action after anti-immigrant violence devastates the community. The film focuses on lessons learned from the tragedy and the commitments town leadership and everyday residents make to address the underlying causes of the violence, heal divisions, and begin taking steps to ensure everyone will be safe and respected. The guide also addresses challenges to hate crime reporting and outlines additional resources available to law enforcement for screenings. Used together, the film and guide can help agencies initiate important conversations and develop proactive community policing strategies that promote mutual trust, improve hate crime reporting, and address tensions before they erupt into violence.

ISBN: 978-1-932582-83-3 e071331593 Published 2013

U.S. Department of JusticeOffice of Community Oriented Policing Services145 N Street NEWashington, DC 20530

To obtain details on COPS Office programs, call the COPS Office Response Center at 800-421-6770.

Visit COPS Online at www.cops.usdoj.gov.

The Working Group/ Not In Our TownP.O. Box 70232Oakland, CA 94612

Partial funding provided by the Public Broadcasting Service

A joint project of:


Not In Our Town: Light in the DarknessA guide for law enforcement

by Libby McInerny, Nazmia Alqadi, and Lindsay Friedman

18 Building Stronger, Safer Communities

The Collaboration Toolkit for Law Enforcement: Effective Strategies to Partner with the Communityhttp://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.php?page=detail&id=COPS-P221

Community leaders, researchers, and police officials know the police cannot substantially impact crime by themselves. Community involvement and collaboration is an integral part of any long-term, problem-solving strategy. At the most basic level, the community provides law enforcement agencies with invaluable information on both the problems that concern them and the nature of those problems. This toolkit helps law enforcement initiate partnerships within their communities to collaborate on solving crime problems at the neighborhood level.

Hate Crime Data Collection Guidelines and Training Manualwww.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/data-collection-manual

This publication, a merger of two earlier publications (Hate Crime Data Collection Guidelines and the Training Guide for Hate Crime Data Collection), reflects the changes in the Hate Crime Act and is intended to assist law enforcement agencies with collecting and submitting hate crime data to the FBI UCR Program, as well as with establishing an updated hate crime training program for their personnel. In addition to providing suggested model reporting procedures and training aids for capturing the new bias motivations, the manual is written to raise law enforcement officers’ awareness of the hate crime problem.

Joselo Lucero speaking to students at South Ocean Middle School about his brother’s death

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Other Resources 19

Not In Our Town: Working Together for Safe, Inclusive Communitieswww.niot.org/cops

The COPS Office and Not In Our Town have joined forces to create vital new tools to help law enforcement professionals and community partner’s work together to prevent hate crimes, improve hate crime reporting, and address underlying tensions that can lead to violence. Project resources include an online hub at NIOT.org/COPS, a series of new films and action guides highlighting successful practices, and a network of law enforcement leaders committed to spreading community policing strategies that promote safety and inclusion for all.

Overcoming Language Barriers: Solutions for Law Enforcementhttp://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.php?page=detail&id=COPS-P138

This publication provides law enforcement agencies with strategies to best ensure language access to the limited English proficient (LEP) populations in their jurisdiction. It discusses how law enforcement agencies of different sizes, capacities, and circumstances can begin to address language barriers they encounter through promising practices such as developing a language access policy and plan, cultivating bilingual personnel, and pooling and leveraging resources. Limited hard copies are available from the Vera Institute of Justice.

Policing in New Immigrant Communitieshttp://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.php?page=detail&id=COPS-P162

The common challenges that law enforcement agencies face when working with immigrant communities include language barriers, fear of police, and cultural differences, among others. To address these challenges and discuss promising practices for cultivating, maintaining, and restoring partnerships to keep communities safe, the COPS Office, in partnership with the Vera Institute of Justice, sponsored a focus group comprising leading law enforcement leaders, experts, and community leaders from five jurisdictions in the United States. This report is based on that discussion.

Responding to Hate Crime: A Multidisciplinary Curriculum for Law Enforcement and Victim Assistance Professionalswww.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/reports/responding/welcome.html

This six-session training program is intended for an integrated audience of law enforcement and victim assistance professionals to address a range of issues relevant to bias crime.

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A companion piece to the Not In Our Town: Light in the Darkness publication, this was a pocket guide for law enforcement personnel to utilize best practice methods when serving communities throughout the United States. It was produced cooperatively by the COPS Office, NIOT, and the Public Broadcasting Service. Presented here are front and back covers and an interior spread.


16 Strategic Approaches to Information Sharing ▪ A report on the 2013 National Summit on Preventing Multiple Casualty Violence

Participants overwhelmingly supported developing a national campaign that individual regions, cities, and communities could tailor to their needs. A national campaign would ensure the message not only reaches the broad national audience in a consistent manner but also makes sense to people at local levels. Specifically, participants observed that a 30-second PSA could consist of 20 seconds of the “national message” featuring a national spokesperson, and the final 10 seconds could contain the local message that could include information about where to go in a local community for assistance. Participants suggested both the COPS Office and DHS as entities that could oversee a campaign but noted the need to involve marketing or public relations experts in developing its content. In addition, participants observed that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) might be helpful in implementing the workplace component because it is in a position to make disseminating the message mandatory.

Last, each summits’ participants largely supported developing a public campaign to raise awareness about how citizens can help prevent multiple casualty violence. The multidisciplinary dialogue that occurred during the summits elicited valuable ideas for both campaign content and ownership. The next step in furthering this recommendation is for an appropriate national entity to take ownership of the initiative and begin taking the steps necessary to implement it.

Identifying and cataloging successful prevention models

At the 2012 summit, participants articulated the need to identify existing multidisciplinary models for preventing multiple casualty violence and to share them with various communities of interest. Building upon this key outcome, the 2013 summit revealed some existing best practices and generated healthy discussions about how they can be shared.49

49 See Appendix E for a summary of the 2013 summit presentations.

The presentation on the Student Protection Teams in Kennewick, Washington, demonstrated the successes to be found when law enforcement, education, mental health, and parents come together to comprehensively examine what has occurred in a student’s life in an effort to uncover indicators of potential violence. To be more specific, if these teams take any kind of action, they share the information throughout the school district so others can learn from past issues and have knowledge about students who may move on to another school. Summit participants discussed expanding this kind of school-based model into a community safety model to help eliminate the gaps that exist when students leave high school.

The presentation on the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model revealed the criticality of involving the mental health community and diverting people exhibiting troubling behavior from the law enforcement sphere so they can receive mental health treatment as quickly as possible. Similar to how school resource officers in high schools build trust with students through relationship building, the CIT model calls for law enforcement to provide resources and support to families. As a result, one of this model’s major successes has been reducing the hesitance on the part of family members to call police when they have information to share about their loved ones who may pose threats to themselves or others. Summit participants noted the promise in broadening the CIT model to include the elements of early prevention.

2013 Summit Outcomes 15

To help facilitate the third goal, summit participants recommended various modalities for people to report information, such as via the telephone, the Internet, and texting. They observed that DHS already has a tip line, noting the potential value of such a tool for capturing information from a broad audience. If the public could call such a hotline, similar to a suicide hotline, the staff could direct individuals to various resources depending on the particular situation at hand.

In terms of the overall tone and audience for a public awareness campaign, participants observed the benefit of using not only “negative” messaging to create shock value but also “positive” messaging to catalyze a cultural shift toward shared community responsibility for reporting information and working together to prevent multiple casualty violence. In addition, participants noted that the campaign should promote the “peace officer” role of law enforcement. To be more specific, it should convey that officers do more than just to react to crimes, that they serve as a valuable resource in preventing escalation toward violence.

To help capture the public’s attention, several participants recommended identifying a national figure to represent the campaign, and some suggested featuring parents of victims or perpetrators as a powerful means of impressing upon the public the urgency to act to prevent future tragedies. These individuals could appear in a public service announcement

(PSA) and would become national representatives of the overall message. Summit attendees acknowledged the importance of keeping the campaign apolitical, reaching all age brackets, and addressing a widespread audience, including professional communities specifically positioned to interact with potential subjects and the general public.

Disseminating public awareness campaign materials would best be accomplished through multiple avenues because people receive information through so many different means. Participants suggested various electronic outlets, such as social media, websites, and smart phone applications, and print media, such as newsletters and billboards. In-person messaging during professional association meetings and orientations would also be effective channels for dispersing information, with groups individualizing the overall message for their particular audiences and tying it to their particular codes of ethics. Examples of these professional associations include the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the American Medical Association, the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training, the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, the American Psychiatric Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the National Governors Association, and the American Bar Association. Furthermore, there may be opportunities to insert PSA-related information into products these organizations already disseminate.

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to Information SharingA report on the 2013 National Summit on Preventing Multiple Casualty Violence

FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING CENTERS

ARTESIA, NM ★ CHARLESTON, SC ★ CHELTENHAM, MD ★ GLYNCO, GA GABORONE, BOTSWANA ★ BANGKOK, THAILAND







This was a high-level report produced by the Department of Homeland Security, Johns Hopkins University and the COPS Office informing the public of their findings on the prevention of multiple casualty violence.


Vehicle Operation, Risk Management and Problem-Based Learning 9

Alpert concluded the presentation with some recommendations resulting from his work in the field and safety research covering a wide range of professions that can have an impact on reducing officer-involved vehicle collisions. These recommendations include having supervisors and agency personnel:1. Train officers on an ongoing basis to emphasize driver safety.2. Include communication and feedback to patrol officers regarding their

driving performance and safety practices.3. Ensure quality of equipment to minimize equipment failures during

critical times.4. Implement quality investigations of incidents to ensure officer safety in

the future from lessons learned.5. Develop and implement a safety incentive program.

The OSW Group participants were asked by the meeting facilitator, Bascom “Dit” Talley, if the strategies their departments have used to address crime could be applied to the problem of officer-involved crashes. Nola Joyce, Philadelphia (PA) police deputy commissioner and chief administrative officer, described how her department set up a CompStat on vehicle operations: the department brought together the districts with the highest and lowest crash rates to engage in problem solving, not just to compare statistics. They established a strict policy around vehicle chases, but a recent pursuit ended with an officer striking another vehicle in an intersection, killing a father, and injuring the mother and 4-year-old son. There was a helicopter following the pursuit and, according to policy, the chase should have been called off, but not one supervisor intervened. She argued that high-quality supervision would contribute to crash reduction.

The value of automated vehicle locater systems in crash reduction was also a point of discussion. Some participants said they use these systems as a tool to monitor officers’ driving behavior while others do not because some officers view this tool as “big brother watching them.”

Crash reduction policy and training

Deputy Chief Marc Joseph presented the Las Vegas Metropolitan (NV) Police Department (LVMPD) approach to reduce crashes. The department experienced a tragic loss of three officers due to vehicle crashes within a six-month period. Two officers were not wearing safety belts—one of whom was thrown from the car. In two cases, lights and sirens were not in operation despite the vehicles traveling well above the speed limit. One officer was responding to a call; however, LVMPD’s investigators do not know what the other officers were doing when the collision occurred. The officers were 28, 30, and 45 years old with 2, 6, and 25 years of experience, respectively. It was a terrible wake up call for the department, which recognized it had a problem that needed to be addressed and corrected.

Figure 2. 2011 Traf�c-Related Fatalities

42 auto crashes11 struck by vehicle5 motorcycle crashes2 train incidents

Number of Incidents

70%

18%

8.5%

3.5%

8 Officer Safety & Wellness (OSW) Group Annual Summary, 2011–2012

The NIJ funded Alpert and Rojek to partner with California POST to study traffic- and crash-related incidents that occurred from 1998 to 2009. The study examined more than 600 law enforcement agencies in California to determine: ◾ The prevalence of officer-involved vehicle collisions ◾ The number of injuries and fatalities of officers and citizens in officer-involved

incidents ◾ The types of incidents, officer demographics, and jurisdictional factors associ-

ated with the rates of injuries and fatalities of those officers involved in vehicle collisions

◾ Factors that explain the differences found in collision rates between agencies

The results showed that 43,000 crashes involved officers and of those collisions 30 percent involved injuries and 98 officers were killed. The professors and California POST also found that whether officers engage in safety practices, such as wearing a seat belt, depended upon the organization’s cultural safety standard.

Alpert and Rojek, in partnership with the NIJ and BJA, California POST, are currently conducting further research to identify the dimensions of a safety culture in relation to officer-involved traffic collisions and to determine: ◾ Factors influencing high and low collision rates in law enforcement agencies ◾ Model policies and procedures for safer vehicle operations ◾ Training that increases driver awareness and encourages the implementation of

best driving practices ◾ Accountability practices for officers once they are involved in traffic collisions ◾ Components that create or enhance a cultural organizational value towards

driver safety practices

Thus far, they have determined that most agencies have good driver safety policies, but there are accountability and supervision issues in ensuring these policies are effectively implemented and followed.

Figure 2. 2011 Traffic-Related Fatalities

Source: National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF 2011)

“Officer collisions have received little attention from policing scholars.”

– Jeff Rojek, University of South Carolina

Figure 2. 2011 Traffic-Related Fatalities

42 auto crashes11 struck by vehicle5 motorcycle crashes2 train incidents

Number of Incidents

70%

18%

8.5%

3.5%

Officer Safety & Wellness Vehicle operation, risk management, and problem-based learning

Group Meeting Summary April 2012

Darrel StephensMora L. FiedlerSteven M. Edwards

l e a r n i n g f r o m t h e p a s t

awa r e n e s s f o r t h e f u t u r e

This publication presented statistical findings and studies as they were presented by leaders from all avenues of law enforcement leader-ship on the matter of officer safety and wellness spanning from accidental death, suicides, attacks and other violent crimes. These reports were compiled yearly and presented by the COPS Office, Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Major Cities Chiefs Association.


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DogfightingtooLKit for Law EnforcEmEnt

Addressing Dogfighting in Your Community

Randall Lockwood, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Forensic Sciences

and Anti-Cruelty Projects ASPCA®

Successful Tribal Community Policing Initiatives A resource for communities developing public safety programs and strategies Campus Threat

Assessment Case Studies

A training tool for investigation, evaluation, and intervention

Chapter a

Social Media and Tactical Considerations For Law Enforcement

Designing the covers for COPS Office publications was always a challenge. It was the only element of the publication where we could use four-color process printing. We used this to our advantage by painting a canvas for the cover that was contemporary, revelvant to its content, but was also designed with the COPS Office brand in mind.

Our brand recognition efforts paid off. We received high praise from the academic community, as well as other justice peer groups and foundations for raising the COPS Office brand. In fact, we were sought after by other agencies of the U.S. Department of Justice and Homeland Security to create their publications as well.


Building a RegionalCommunications Plan

By John F. WalkerSEARCH

Number 3 May 2007

IntroductionWhy do many local, regional, and state communications efforts continue to struggle with interoperable communi-cations? Do these struggles to achieve interoperability involve the way we approach relationships of technology and operational planning? How do these relationships work together in a success-ful interoperable communications effort?

A key step in integrating technology and operational requirements is building a regional communications plan. This Issue Brief presents the basic steps in building such a plan to improve interop-erability and, ultimately, joint response to emergencies.

BackgroundThe national post-9/11 focus on na-tional preparedness and communications among first responders has driven and defined numerous federal initiatives.

Broadly, establishment of a comprehen-sive, all-hazards approach to respond to incidents of national significance has greatly shaped current needs for regional communications. The National Inci-

dent Management System1 (NIMS) and its core element, the Incident Command System (ICS), are the key drivers. Their relationship to and impact on first re-sponder communications is addressed in a separate Issue Brief in this series.2

On the specific issue of first responder communications, federal grant programs in both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Securi-ty have been closely aligned with SAFE-COM, a presidential initiative to improve communications interoperability.3

In 2004, SAFECOM released its first state-ment of requirements for public safety wireless communications. Subsequently, SAFECOM’s RapidCom initiative, under-taken to ensure that the nation’s 10 high-est risk urban areas had at least a minimal

1 The National Incident Management System was established by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 (HSPD-5), “Management of Domestic Incidents.” See http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030228-9.html.

2 Hawkins, Dan, Communications in the Incident Command System, SEARCH, 2007. Available at http://www.search.org/programs/safety/.

3 See http://www.safecomprogram.gov/SAFECOM/about/default.htm.

level of communications interoperability, yielded the first comprehensive depiction of critical success factors and progress: the Interoperability Continuum.4

These initiatives and the dramatic effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 have driven the need for regional approaches to ensuring communications among public safety agencies during incidents small and large.

Build a FoundationThe effort involved in building a founda-tion for a communications plan at the local, regional, or state level is funda-mentally a political one. Why should this be, when the more obvious focus would appear to be funding, technology, and documents of agreement and support?

The need for agreement, cooperation, and participation at many levels is at the heart of any plan. Obstacles to this cooperative spirit may likely occur as changes in responsibility, authority, and operational processes within participat-ing communities and organizations occur

4 See http://www.safecomprogram.gov/SAFECOM/tools/continuum/default.htm.

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Social media is the use of websites and other online means of communication by groups of people to share informa-tion and to develop social and professional contacts, as defined by Dictionary.com. Social media sites allow users to become content providers and publishers, rather than just content consumers as in the past.

The ability to publish content and participate in interactive dialogue online affords project managers a new, innovative channel for providing certain kinds of project information to their stakeholders, such as public safety first responders, governmental representatives at all levels, and the public. These practical, user-friendly social media tools are cost ef-fective and provide broad-based communication to internal and external audiences.

This Issue Brief will describe at a high level:

◾ Free social media tools

◾ How social media can be used to market and promote public safety projects

◾ How these tools can increase communication and decrease risk

◾ Benefits and limitations of these tools

The goal of this Issue Brief is to provide an overview of several free social media tools and summarize how they can be used to market and promote public safety proj-ects. The target audience for this Issue Brief is public safety personnel (e.g., police, fire, emergency medical services [EMS], and emergency communications) who may have a project management role.

Using Social Media to Market and Promote Public Safety ProjectsBy Benjamin R. Krauss, PMPSEARCH

I S S U E 12Issue Briefs are designed for practitioners with limited time and

a need to know about the latest industry-based knowledge.

July 2012

I S S U E

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Consider this scenario:

Dozens of small and rural law enforcement, fire, and EMS agencies decide to pool their resources to plan, manage, and implement a regional records management system (RMS). A primary objective of this regional RMS effort is to increase information sharing using interoperable communications methods while balancing limited funding and other resources.

Significant budgetary constraints result in personnel reduc-tions, increased workloads for existing staff, and limited funding for ongoing operations and projects such as a regional RMS. Budgets have been cut, and the law enforcement, fire, and EMS agencies cannot afford to travel to meetings to market and promote this regional system. At the same time, the public is demanding increased transparency and accountabil-ity with the resources that are used.

Luckily, these agencies can take advantage of free social media tools to support effective project marketing, promotion, and timely communication, as well as reduce the risk of inaccurate and delayed information dissemination.

Free Social Media Tools

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website with more than 845 million monthly active users.1 The site allows users to post messages, photographs, and other files for other users to consume, and it supports user-defined controls over the

visibility of these items. Central to Facebook is the concept of “friends”—once two users are friends, they have much greater access to one another’s information and a direct method of exchanging messages. Facebook also supports a “groups” feature2 that allows several users to come together in a private area to discuss common issues or events.

A project manager can develop a project-specific Facebook page for marketing purposes, highlighting activities, possibly offering a “Tip of the Week,” and providing status updates, all of which could be posted to the site to keep interested parties informed. Other Facebook users can “like” this page; and any updates posted to the page will appear on the users’ Facebook news feeds.

Given the sometimes sensitive nature of project information, it is useful to have tools for controlling access—and Face-book provides such tools, using privacy settings that restrict access to only the administrator’s “friends” or specifically invited friends. Despite the presence of privacy and access-control features, it is prudent to exercise caution when creat-ing pages in case the information gets out to an unintended audience.

The COPS Office uses this tool for timely information dissemination,3 and the City of Cottage Grove (Minnesota) Police Department used Facebook to post Public Safety/City Hall Project Update information.4

Referring back to the RMS interoperability scenario, there are several free marketing tools that enhance project com-munication. Facebook could be used to highlight major project milestones, such as end users’ completing an onsite product demonstration assessment: e.g. “The selected RMS vendor’s system offered all the functionality we needed in the field, and it was easy to use.”

1. “Fact Sheet,” http://newsroom.fb.com/content/default.aspx?NewsAreaId=22.

2. See “Groups,” www.facebook.com/about/groups.

3. See “COPS,” Facebook, www.facebook.com/DOJCOPS.

4. See “Public Safety/City Hall Project Update,” Cottage Grove Minnesota Police Department, Facebook, August 29, 2011, www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=267276553301717.

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LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business-related social net-working site with more than 120 million registered users9 in more than 200 coun-tries.10 On LinkedIn, users invite other us-ers to “connect,” based on some common interest or professional relationship. Once a user accepts an invitation, the two users are connected, which allows them to re-ceive information about one another, send one another messages, and recommend one another to other users.

LinkedIn also supports a concept of “groups” that can form around issues, projects, or other associations among us-ers. Once a user is a member of a group, the user can send and receive messages to and from the group, allowing the focused, efficient exchange of information among users with a common purpose.

If the target stakeholders are all members of (or are willing to join) LinkedIn, the project manager can form a group for the project, allowing dissemination of status updates, discussions about features, and other conversations among stakeholders. LinkedIn allows the group owner to control who joins the group, by explicitly inviting other users and approving outside requests to join. This helps ensure that information goes out only to the users who are authorized to receive it.

9. “What is LinkedIn?” http://learn.linkedin.com/what-is-linkedin/.

10. “LinkedIn,” Wikipedia, last modified April 19, 2012, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn.

Several national initiatives in the justice and public safety community use LinkedIn for stakeholder communications. For example, the U.S. Department of Justice, Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) maintains a group for its advisory committee.11 Similarly, the National Informa-tion Exchange Model initiative maintains a group that has frequent, active discussions about features and projects using NIEM.12 SEARCH13 also uses LinkedIn as an important tool to inform members of the justice community about current technical assistance, training offerings, and publications.14

Members of an RMS project team could post their profes-sional profiles to LinkedIn, noting their professional experience and abilities so that other team members could see how their skillsets fit within their assigned project roles and responsibili-ties. The project manager could start a private (“members only”) group for the project, invite all the stakeholders to join, and then use the group for discussions and dissemination of project news.

11. See “U.S. DOJ’s Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative…,” Linked in, www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2304837. (This web page is viewable only to group members.)

12. See “National Information Exchange Model (NIEM),” Linked in, www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1903175. (This web page is viewable only to group members.)

13. See “SEARCH,” www.search.org.

14. See “SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and...,” Linked in, www.linkedin.com/groups/SEARCH-National-Consortium-Justice-Information-3251705.

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8Free Project Management Tools

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YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can up-load, view, and share videos.5 YouTube makes it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to post a video that a worldwide audience could watch within a few minutes. According to YouTube, the site receives more than 3 billion views per day.6

A project manager can use YouTube to post brief informa-tional videos that announce significant project milestones, highlight important features, promote overall project objectives, seek user feedback, and even provide training. For example, the Georgia Interoperability Network (GIN) developed a video7 and posted it to YouTube to promote the operation and benefits of their public safety radio net-work. Tennessee uses YouTube to share information about its interoperability projects,8 and several other public safety product vendors use YouTube to market their products.

5. “YouTube,” Wikipedia, last modified April 27, 2012, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube.

6. “Press Room,” accessed April 26, 2012, www.youtube.com/t/press.

7. See “GIN Awareness Video,” updated June 19, 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdR6pDgO6xQ.

8. See “The Interoperability Continuum Official Movie Trailer,” uploaded December 8, 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dE2fuxBTbg.

As a communication format, video often has a greater potential to attract a stakeholder’s attention than more tra-ditional formats, such as e-mail or posting a status report to a project website. In situations where a stakeholder would benefit more from seeing how something would work than reading a description about it, a brief demonstration video can be very effective. Videos delivered via YouTube can also assist in delivering presentations or messages where visual delivery is important but budgetary or logistical concerns preclude stakeholder travel.

As with Facebook, it is important to understand YouTube’s access controls. The site allows users to make videos “pub-lic” (viewable to anyone on the Internet), “unlisted” (view-able to anyone on the Internet with a link—basically, an access code), or “private” (viewable only to users explicitly authorized by the video’s owner). The prudent YouTube user will not post sensitive or potentially embarrassing con-tent to the site, regardless of the access setting.

Continuing with the RMS scenario, YouTube could be used to post just-in-time training. For example, several new software features like the ability to illustrate geographic mapping of crime could be recorded, narrated, and posted to YouTube in support of in-service training.

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8Free Project Management Tools

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Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as “tweets.” As of 2012, Twitter has more than 300 million users, generating more than 300 million tweets and handling more than 1.6 billion search queries per day.15

It is important to note that Twitter is not private. Any Twitter user can follow the tweets of any other user. It is also important to note that Twitter posts are not private by default. All of a user’s tweets are available on the Twitter website for anyone on the Internet to see—whether a Twitter user or not.

Twitter also supports the concept of “hash tags,” which are simply key words or terms preceded by a hash sign (#). When hash tags appear in a Twitter post, Twitter applica-tions will hyperlink the hash tag to other posts that use the same tag. This is a very effective way of linking disparate tweets into a single list.

A project manager can use Twitter to share short bursts of information, such as meeting highlights or project mile-stones. Hash tags, used consistently by stakeholders, can support a simple form of threaded discussion and can make finding posts on a topic much easier. Tweets can also include embedded links to a project website or Facebook page. Similar to other social media resources already dis-cussed, users can choose to make pages private so that only those following an account can see the tweets. The same privacy risks also exist, but the option is there.

Several federal information-sharing initiatives and agen-cies use Twitter to communicate about project objectives, relevant news items, and events; these include the Office of the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE),16 the U.S. Department of Justice,17 and the NIEM Program. 18

Once an RMS implementation has been completed, Twitter messages could be sent out to operational personnel to remind them of key user functions. This tool can be used to market the ongoing value and utility of the RMS to operational users.

15. “Twitter,” Wikipedia, last modified April 27, 2012, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter.

16. See “ISE (@shareandprotect),” Twitter, https://twitter.com/#!/shareandprotect.

17. See “The Justice Dept (@TheJusticeDept),” Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/TheJusticeDept.

18. See “Donna Roy (@NIEMExecDir),” Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/niemexecdir.

Blogs and RSS

A “blog” (short for “web log”) is a topic-focused website in which a content pro-vider posts articles for subscribed users to consume. Subscribers receive notification of articles via RSS (really simple syndica-tion) feeds, either via software installed on a computer or device, or via an aggregator website such as Google Reader. Many news

sites and organizational public affairs offices use blog-ging technology and RSS to stream news items and press releases to stakeholders and the general public. Blogging capabilities are freely available via Internet services such as BlogSpot or occasionally available on internal government websites.

Project managers can maintain blogs for their projects, us-ing articles to communicate more involved or in-depth top-ics than are appropriate for Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. For example, if a new agency joins a multiagency initiative, an article profiling the agency or its executive champion can help integrate the new agency into the project. Or if the project steering committee approves a set of new fea-tures for the next version of a critical shared system, a blog post by the project manager can describe the new features in some detail.

In addition to RSS, many blog authors use cross-posting to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to publicize the new article. As these new channels grow in popularity, older technologies such as RSS are less likely to reach the full intended audience, so a combination of social media chan-nels is generally the most effective approach.

Several federal agencies use blogs to communicate with their stakeholders about national initiatives. The U.S. Department of Justice19 and PM-ISE20 are two examples.

19. See “The Justice Blog,” http://blogs.justice.gov/.

20. See “ISE Blog,” http://ise.gov/blog.

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At left is the original Issue Brief as it was designed in 2007. While well-written, it was hard to get past the almost primitive design of the publication so I decided it was time for a refresh. At right is the redesigned Issue Brief I designed in 2013. This is a prime example of what most of the COPS Office publications looked like upon my arrival there in 2011.

Above, the original Issue Brief. Above and right, the refresh. Shown here are the cover and inside spreads.


A Policymaker’s Guide to

Building Our Way Out of CrimeThe Transformative Power of Police-Community Developer Partnerships

Bill Geller Lisa Belsky Foreword by Bill Bratton and Paul Grogan

A Policymaker’s Guide to Building Our Way Out of Crime: The Transformative Power of Police-Community Developer Partnerships describes and analyzes innovative efforts in communities across the United States to reduce crime in and improve the economic vitality of blighted neighborhoods. By working together, local police, nonprofit community developers, elected and appointed officials, financial strategists, and community leaders can do more with less, converting crime hot spots that ruin entire neighborhoods and consume considerable police services into safety-generating community assets. Case studies, photographs, charts, and lessons learned demonstrate the power these partnerships have for transforming troubled neighborhoods in cost-effective ways into stable, healthy, and sustainable communities.

U.S Department of JusticeOffice of Community Oriented Policing Services

A Policymaker’s Guide to

The Transformative Power of Police-Community Developer Partnerships

Bill Geller | Lisa Belsky

BUILDING OUR WAYOUT OF CRIME

Foreword by Bill Bratton and Paul Grogan

An ongoing executive series providing overviews of critical community policing issues

6

“Dr. King said change never rolls in

on the wheels of inevitability. It must

be carried in on the backs of soldiers

of our democracy willing to do the

difficult work in the trenches, make the

necessary sacrifices, to advance our

nation. Community organizers, police

officers, teachers—these are all people

who are dealing with the everyday

problems of our country and trying to

find real, tangible solutions.”

— Newark, New Jersey Mayor

Cory Booker, when asked by an

interviewer about the contributions

of community organizers to their

neighborhoods.1

IntroductionThe old saying goes, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail .” But what if the right tool for the job is a hammer, and the only tools you have are a badge and a gun?

Police departments around the nation have been discovering they can build their way out of crime problems that they have been unable to arrest their way out of . They have been doing that by working with nonprofit community developers—local builders and organizations whose goal is to transform their own blighted neighborhoods into more livable, healthy communities . As problem-oriented policing designer Herman Goldstein would put it, police in these instances have been wisely shifting to, and sharing with, other community institutions and organizations the responsibility, cost, and work of addressing crime problems and neighborhood conditions that fuel crime .2

Why Should Police Embrace the Power of Community Development?They should do so because it sustainably reduces crime and fosters livable communities . Figure 1 on page 7 (whose data are discussed later in more detail) highlights the crime-reduction piece of the answer: As the police discovered in our three case study sites—Charlotte, Minneapolis, and Providence—they can knock crime down and keep it down in a way they had not been able to do before they attacked the problems using the full power of high-capacity community developers . In a battle metaphor, police can take ground against durable crime but rarely can they alone hold that ground for very long . Developers, however, can physically alter that ground—change a place where crime has persisted and make it highly resistant to crime without necessitating heavy police deployment .

The reason community developers—and not just bulldozers—are needed is that merely eliminating a hot spot (a crack house, problem tavern, etc .) may reduce crime in the short run, but vacant lots are not a good long-term strategy for safer, thriving neighborhoods . The value of community-rooted developers is that they replace problem properties (including vacant lots) with community-friendly land uses that generate neighborhood well-being, just as the old ones produced problems .

7

The Policymaker’s Imperative: Foster Police-Community Developer Collaboration Police leader Bill Bratton and community development leader Paul Grogan argue in their Foreword that crime is one of the greatest obstacles to community development and that community deterioration is one of the greatest attractors and generators of crime . A generation earlier, Justice Department official James “Chips” Stewart observed that “poverty causes crime, and crime causes poverty .” Not surprisingly, therefore, in many places where crime has declined substantially, revitalization has become easier, and where revitalization has flourished, crime has declined . For the most part, cops and developers know this and are grateful beneficiaries when a breakthrough by either party occurs in a problem part of a neighborhood . The question is not if police and developers welcome each others’ accomplishments, but whether they—and the mayors, city managers, and others who oversee and guide public-private collaboration—are content to leave to chance whether police and developers will decide independently to work on the same problems at the same time . Leaving things to chance risks not only reduced levels of accomplishment but even developers and police unintentionally undermining each other’s efforts to improve the neighborhood .

Figure 1: Percentage Declines in Crime, Calls for Service or Arrests in Focus Areas in Three Cities After Developer-Police Interventions

Large, multiyear improvements in public safety indicators followed community developer–police joint action to replace crime-generating commercial and residential properties with high-quality affordable housing and safety- and commerce-generating businesses. In Charlotte, North Carolina’s Druid Hills neighborhood, crime and calls for service fell between 1998 and 2006 in three focus areas (the Park, Kohler Avenue, and Olando Street)—considerably outpacing a comparison neighborhood and Mecklenburg County overall. In the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis between 2002 and 2007, reported crime, calls for service, and arrests related to a previously out-of-control street drug market declined in a 16-square-block area (with annual calls to police about narcotics problems in this zone dropping from 291 to 5). Progress in this focus zone substantially exceeded that in the entire Minneapolis police precinct serving Phillips. In two focus areas in Providence, Rhode Island’s Olneyville neighborhood (the “hot spots” and “revitalization” areas) double-digit reductions occurred in levels of crime and calls for service between 2002 and 2007—as in the other studies, far surpassing the improvements in public safety indicators for the police district and neighborhood overall.

Orlando CFS

Orlando Crime

Kohler CFS

Kohler Crime

Park CFS

Park Crime

0 -20% -40% -60% -80% -100%

Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Minneapolis

Providence

-83.7%-84.9%

-56.1%-58.1%

-55.8%-41.6%

-25.0%-98.2%

-92.4%

-59.7%-86.6%

-57.4%-80.6%

CFS= Calls for Service

Revit. Area CFS

Revit Area Crime

Hot Spots CFS

Hot Spots Crime

Arrests

CFS

Rep. Crime

The Essentials for Leaders series were the equivalent of “Cliffs Notes” for the larger COPS Office publications, usually numbering in the hundreds of pages. The Essentials series were designed to give busy directors, chiefs and other department leaders an overview of our large publications to understand their content before acquiring them from the COPS Office. Presented here are a front cover and spread.


Be on the Lookout A continuing publication highlighting COPS Office community policing development projects

3

Preface

Since October 2010, Strategic Applications International (SAI) has been working with 40 American Indian Tribes to address methamphetamine use in Indian country. With a grant from the Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), we facilitate summits and provide technical assistance to these tribes. Through this process SAI has learned the scope and depth of the barriers faced by tribal police in combating the scourge of meth in their communities. This BOLO will:

1. Highlight tribal policing challenges and barriers to implementing community oriented policing

2. Present information on what has emerged from the Breaking the Cycle Summit on how to address meth in Indian country

3. Describe a community oriented action planning process

4. Share one community’s efforts to focus their planning for maximum impact

About this BOLO

The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) present the BOLO series, supporting the publication and dissemination of experiences and implications discovered during ongoing research in the field, with the goal of regularly communicating these resources to the law enforcement community at large. “Be on the lookout” for these field-driven, evidence-based resources that will help illuminate the nature, function, context, costs, and benefits of community policing innovations. For questions about this specific report and technical assistance activities underway, contact: James E. Copple, Principal, at [email protected] or 202-457-7771.

November 2013

Strategic efforts to address meth-amphetamine in Indian Country

3 2

Background

Methamphetamine has a disproportionate impact on tribal communities; the percent of methamphetamine use among American Indian/Alaskan Native/Native Hawaiians is double that of white, non-American Indians. Seventy-four percent of Indian country law enforcement agencies identified methamphetamine as their greatest drug threat. The FBI estimates that up to 40 percent of violent crime on reservations involves methamphetamine.1 These numbers place a burden on tribal institutions (criminal justice, public health, treatment, child protection), and overwhelms their capacity to respond.

1. FY2010 Tribal Methamphetamine Initiative (Tribal Meth) Fact Sheet. (Washington, D.C.: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, July 2010). www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/fact_sheets/e06107285-TribalMeth-FactSheet_093010.pdf

Policing Barriers

Methamphetamine use in Indian country is a pervasive problem. Meth use leads to an increase in crime and violence, the abuse of women and children, and degrades the quality of life for those that live within tribal communities. Controlling the methamphetamine problem is of the utmost importance for maintaining healthy and safe communities in Indian country. This is a difficult task due to several factors, including geography, legislation that limits criminal jurisdiction in Indian country, and issues with the current state of law enforcement.

GeographyIndian country in the United States is composed of approximately 56 million acres of land owned by over 560 independent sovereign tribal governments and communities. Tribal reservations vary in size from the largest encompassing 16 million acres of land, to many reservations that are less than 1,000 acres. The checkerboard nature of reservations (non-contiguous reservations) has resulted in the further division and separation of Indian country, making it more difficult for law enforcement to maintain safe and healthy communities.2

2. BIA. “Who We Are.” U.S. Department of the Interior, www.bia.gov/WhoWeAre/BIA/index.htm.

74% of Indian

country law enforcement

agencies identified

methamphetamine

as their greatest

drug threat.

3

Law Enforcement Personnel According to the 2007 report by The National Congress of American Indians, there is a 42 percent deficit in the number of law enforcement officers needed to properly serve Indian country. Some reservations, which can be the size of a small state, have only two to three officers that rotate shifts every 12 hours. The sheer size of Indian country, as well as the significant lack of officers, is a barrier to effective tribal law enforcement.3

Recruiting and retaining qualified candidates from tribal populations is difficult. Some tribal police departments employ both tribal and nontribal sworn officers to address staffing issues. Nevertheless, high turnover rates exacerbate the problem, as agencies constantly need to train new recruits. High turnover rates also make it difficult to cultivate a community oriented policing experience.4 In addition, according to a survey conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Office of Law Enforcement Services, “90 percent of tribal police needed additional drug investigation training.”5

JurisdictionTribal authority is an issue on tribal lands and constitutes a barrier to effective public safety. Indian nations have a government-to-government relationship with the federal government. However, there are limits to tribal authority, and legal authorities have referred to tribes as semi-sovereign, “domestic

3. The National Congress of American Indians, “Meth-amphetamine in Indian country: An American problem uniquely affecting Indian country,” Native American Law Digest 16, no. 12 (2006): 1–7.

4. George Gibmeyer, “Helping Tribal Law Enforcement Implement Community Policing,” Community Policing Dispatch, (August 2012). Page 1.

5. Ibid.

dependent nations.”6 A series of federal laws over the past 200 years has slowly stripped tribal jurisdiction and made it increasingly difficult to ensure public safety in Indian country:

◾ In 1817, the General Crimes Act (also referred to as the Federal Enclaves Act or Indian Country Crimes Act), as amended, extended the criminal laws of the federal government into Indian country and generally established federal criminal jurisdiction where either, but not both, the alleged offender or the victim is Indian.7

◾ In the 1883 Crow Dog8 case, the Supreme Court upheld that the Lakota had reserved the right to hand out its own justice. However, the murder of Spotted Tail (Lakota) by Crow Dog (Lakota) and subsequent community-determined punishment left the U.S. judicial system wanting further prosecution of Crow Dog. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, and U.S. concerns over how Native traditions determine justice, led to the Major Crimes Act.9

◾ The 1885 Major Crimes Act (MCA) gave the federal government jurisdiction over specific crimes committed in Indian country. Originally, MCA provided federal criminal jurisdiction over seven major crimes even when committed by Indians in Indian country; over time other offenses have been added and the number now stands at 16 offenses.

6. Fred Foldvary, “Sovereignty for the Native American Indians,” Editorial posted October 28, 2013. www.progress.org/2013/10/28/sovereignty-native-american-indians/.

7. United States Government Accountability Office, Report to Congressional Requesters, Indian Country Criminal Justice: Departments of the Interior and Jus-tice Should Strengthen Coordination to Support Tribal Courts, GAO-11-252, (Washington, D.C.: Government Accountability Office, 2011).

8. See Ex parte Crow Dog, 109 U.S. 556 (1883).9. Major Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1153.

◾ In 1953 Public Law 280 initially eliminated most BIA criminal jurisdiction in Indian country in five states, later increasing to six.10 Because of confusion concerning jurisdiction, and because many states and counties with jurisdiction over tribal nations also do not have adequate capacity to address public safety issues on tribal lands, many criminal cases that occur on Indian country are never tried. Amendments to Public Law 280 in 1968 allowed for tribal nations to retrocede Public Law 280 with consent of the state. The amendments also allowed states to return jurisdiction to tribal nations.

◾ The 1968 Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) set the statute that tribes may only sentence a defendant to one year in prison, or impose a fine of $5,000, for any crime. The ICRA created an incentive for tribes to focus on minor crimes due to their limited sentencing ability, and a need to rely on the federal government to handle more serious offenses, as listed in the MCA.

◾ In 1978 the Supreme Court ruling of Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe set the statute that tribal courts do not have criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians, even if a crime is committed on Indian country.

10. Carole Goldberg, Heather Valdez Singleton, “Final Report Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Under Public Law 280,” no. 222585, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice). (States: California, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Wisconsin, and later Alaska. Additional states assumed some jurisdiction in Indian country.)

Bolo (Be on the Lookout) was a newsletter-like publication aimed at far-reaching law enforcement communities in places one might suspect crimes may not be visible on the surface. This, like most COPS Office publications like these, were limited to two-color printing for budgetary purposes.

cops office pubs 2011_2014

Documents