Month: June 2024

Investing in Sergeants and Supervisors

Agencies nationwide and internationally are reporting challenges in maintaining the staffing of both sworn and professional support staff. There is little, if any, debate among law enforcement executives that recruiting challenges today are a major concern for agencies. As agencies struggle to revise and retool decades-long recruiting strategies to meet demand, their daily expectations only increase. Advancements in technology, such as AI, offer as many threats as opportunities. Policing the dark web is a recognized challenge in the profession, necessitating the evolution of specialists among our ranks (PERF, 2019). In a time where agency leaders need to focus on evolving with the nature of crime and leveraging technology, most are swimming in the quicksand of a seemingly constant recruiting loop.

In the “business” side of policing, the majority of agencies are not getting a good return on investment (ROI) from recruiting. The investment in attracting, selecting, and training personnel is multi-faceted and includes the impact of the media and political coverage of events such as Ferguson and Minneapolis, Defund the Police, the retirement bubble, and the preferences and values of Gen Z, where work-life balance is not historically associated with police work.

Get the report here: www.researchgate.net/profile/Marshall-Jones-4/publication/381547051_Investing_in_Sergeants_and_Supervisors_The_Best_ROI_for_Recruiting_and_Retention_The_Florida_Chief_April_2024/links/66730ffb8408575b83783a4f/Investing-in-Sergeants-and-Supervisors-The-Best-ROI-for-Recruiting-and-Retention-The-Florida-Chief-April-2024.pdf

2023-0286 – IN-HOUSE PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENT FEASIBILITY STUDY – Metro Board

In today’s age it is rare that new police departments are formed. Below is information about the Los Angeles Metro study on forming or returning to a Metro Police Department.
— Read on boardagendas.metro.net/board-report/2023-0286/

Get the report here:

https://metro.legistar1.com/metro/attachments/15194622-102c-45a7-ac52-f58979710bfb.pdf

Reducing Gun Violence Through Integrated Forensic Evidence Collection, Analysis, and Sharing | National Institute of Justice

In 2006, New Jersey initiated a comprehensive gun violence reduction strategy, becoming the first in the country to create a long-term statewide, multi-jurisdictional program that relied upon the integration of data and intelligence from multiple sources. Spanning 15 years, the effort improved over time, transforming the investigative culture of all participating agencies. The key was sharing and analyzing information across forensic, criminal intelligence, and investigative entities at all levels of government — local, state, and federal — to support violent crime suppression.
— Read on nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/reducing-gun-violence-through-integrated-forensic-evidence-collection-analysis-and

City Council considers proposed Minneapolis police union contract, pay raises, with public hearings

The 22% raises are critical to recruitment and retention, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Chief Brian O’Hara say. Opponents say the police department still lacks accountability.
— Read on m.startribune.com/public-to-weigh-in-as-city-council-considers-proposed-minneapolis-police-contract-pay-raises/600376063/

Wasted Resources: The failures of stop-and-frisk in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA – The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania has released Wasted Resources: The failures of stop-and-frisk in Philadelphia, a policy paper examining the illegal use of stop-and-frisk in Philadelphia over the past 15 years. 

Nearly 15 years after the ACLU of Pennsylvania, a professor from Penn Law School, and the law firm Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing, Feinberg & Lin LLP filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia over its police department’s illegal and racist use of stop-and-frisk, the police tactic remains an area of great concern for civil libertarians. 

In 2011, the city and the plaintiffs reached an agreement in Bailey v. City of Philadelphia that resulted in a consent decree that included an independent monitor of the city’s stop-and-frisk data. Last year, the Bailey consent decree led to a citywide program that deprioritized the use of stop-and-frisk for minor offenses. The ACLU of Pennsylvania and other criminal legal reform advocates consider this program a success. 

“What this policy paper tells us is that stop-and-frisk has historically not offered a meaningful solution to violent crime,” said Mary Catherine Roper, civil rights attorney at Langer Grogan & Diver P.C. and former deputy legal director at the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “It also shows that stop-and-frisk has always been associated with racial disparities and racial targeting. There should be no discussion about increasing the use of this tactic until the Philadelphia police show that they can use it both legally and equitably. We urge city leadership to stop invoking this failed police tactic that impacts Black and brown Philadelphians as a political football.”

www.aclupa.org/sites/default/files/bailey_policy_paper.pdf

U.S. Surgeon General declares gun violence a public health crisis : NPR

The nation’s top doctor issued an advisory on Tuesday declaring gun violence a public health crisis and prescribing policy changes to treat it as such. It’s both unprecedented and unenforceable.
— Read on www.npr.org/2024/06/25/nx-s1-5018625/surgeon-general-vivek-murthy-gun-violence-public-health-crisis

Get a copy of the report here:

https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/firearm-violence-advisory.pdf

Better Crime Data, Better Crime Policy – CCJ Report

In April 2023, CCJ launched the Crime Trends Working Group to continue the important work of grounding debates about crime and criminal justice reform in facts. Its mission is to explore and explain current crime trends, while building consensus for significant improvements in the nation’s capacity to produce timely, accurate, and complete crime data. With a diverse membership of expert producers and consumers of criminal justice statistics, the Working Group collects real-time crime data, identifies gaps in data collection and availability, and develops strategies to improve crime reporting nationwide as law enforcement agencies transition to a new federal reporting system
— Read on counciloncj.foleon.com/crime-trends-working-group/final-report/