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
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
1986 1987 1990 1992 1993 1996 1997 2000 2000 2003 2004 2007 2008
State and Local General Purpose
Law Enforcement Agencies, 1986–2008
ThousandsofAgencies
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 Officers in State & Local
General Purpose Law Enforcement Agencies, 1986–2008
ThousandsofSwornOfficers
Figure 2 - Full-Time Equivalent Sworn Oﬃcers in State and Local General Purpose Agencies
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Part-Time
Full Time
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, 1986–2008
CSLLEA
1986
LEMAS
1987
LEMAS
1990
CSLLEA
1992
LEMAS
1993
CSLLEA
1996
LEMAS
1997
CSLLEA
2000
LEMAS
2000
LEMAS
2003
CSLLEA
2004
LEMAS
2007
CSLLEA
2008
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 Trends
Matthew 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 stakeholders
One 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 enforcement
Whether 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 to
respondent/no insurance gain
Police could not
or would not help
Afraid of reprisal/did not want
to get offender in trouble/
advised not to report
Other or not one
most important reason
2003−2006
35
23
20
18
14
9
15
22
20
24
Reason
Percent
2007−2011
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
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 Justice
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
145 N Street NE
Washington, 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 Town
P.O. Box 70232
Oakland, CA 94612
Partial funding provided by the
Public Broadcasting Service
A joint project of:
Partners in
stopping hate
Not In Our
Town: Light in
the Darkness
A 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 Community
http://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 Manual
www.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
Photocredit:JacksonHillPhotography
Other Resources 19
Not In Our Town: Working Together for Safe, Inclusive Communities
www.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 Enforcement
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 Communities
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 Professionals
www.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.
Photocredit:JacksonHillPhotography
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 ProtectionTeams 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 InterventionTeam (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 andTraining,
the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement
Administrators, the American Psychiatric Association,
the National Association of SocialWorkers, 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.
©2013,byBenTownsend.Allrightsreserved.Usedwithpermission.
Strategic Approaches
to Information Sharing
A 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 Traffic-Related Fatalities
42 auto crashes
11 struck by vehicle
5 motorcycle crashes
2 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.
Source: National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF 2011)
“Officer collisions
have received
little attention from
policing scholars.”
– Jeff Rojek,
University of
South Carolina
42 auto crashes
11 struck by vehicle
5 motorcycle crashes
2 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 Stephens
Mora L. Fiedler
Steven M. Edwards
l e a r n i n g f r o m t h e p a s t
a wa 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.

CourtesyofRespectABull,LeslieHallberg&MichelleGodecke
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 InitiativesA 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 Regional
Communications Plan
By John F. Walker
SEARCH
Number 3 May 2007
Introduction
Why 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.
Background
The 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 Foundation
The 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.
Page 1
I S S U E
9
July 2012
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 Projects
By Benjamin R. Krauss, PMP
SEARCH
I S S U E
12
Issue 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
Page 2
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.
I S S U E
Page 2
I S S U E
Page 4
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.
I S S U E
Page 4
8Free Project Management Tools
Page 3 July 2012
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.
12
July 2012
Free Project Management Tools
Page 3
8Free Project Management Tools
Page 5 July 2012
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.
12
July 2012
Free Project Management Tools
Page 5
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 Crime
The 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 Justice
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
A Policymaker’s Guide to
The Transformative Power of
Police-Community Developer Partnerships
Bill Geller | Lisa Belsky
BUILDING OUR WAY
OUT 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
Introduction
The 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 jcopple@sai-dc.com 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.
Geography
Indian 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
Jurisdiction
Tribal 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

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