The Police Foundation is a private, non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting innovation and improvement in policing through its research, technical assistance, and communications programs. Established in 1970, the foundation has conducted seminal research in police behavior, policy, and procedure, and works to transfer to local agencies the best new information about practices for dealing effectively with a range of important police operational and administrative concerns. The foundation has established and refined the capacity to define, design, conduct, and evaluate controlled experiments testing ways to improve the delivery of police services.

Our purpose is to help the police be more effective in doing their job, whether it be deterring robberies, intervening in potentially injurious domestic disputes, or working to improve relationships between the police and the communities they serve. To accomplish our mission, we work closely with police officers and police departments across the country, and it is in their hard work and contributions that our accomplishments are rooted.

The foundation's Institute for Integrity, Leadership, and Professionalism in Policing helps police departments to acquire both the knowledge gained through research and the tools needed to integrate that knowledge into police practices. Recognizing that the issues of integrity, leadership, and professionalism are fundamental to effective service delivery and sound police-community partnerships, the foundation established the institute to help police agencies develop 21st century approaches to accountability and leadership.

Sometimes foundation research findings have challenged police traditions and beliefs. When police agencies employed routine preventive patrol as a principal anti-crime strategy, a foundation experiment in Kansas City showed that routine patrol in marked patrol cars did not significantly affect crime rates. When police officials expressed reservations about using women on patrol, foundation research in Washington, DC showed that gender was not a barrier to performing patrol work. Foundation research on the use of deadly force was cited at length in a landmark 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Tennessee v. Garner. The court ruled that the police may use deadly force only against persons whose actions constitute a threat to life.

The foundation has done much of the research that led to a questioning of the traditional model of professional law enforcement and toward a new view of policing-one emphasizing a community orientation-that is widely embraced today. For example, research on foot patrol and on fear of crime demonstrated the importance to crime control efforts of frequent police-citizen contacts made in a positive, non-threatening way.

As a partner in the Community Policing Consortium, the foundation, along with four other leading national law enforcement organizations, plays a principal role in the development of community policing research, training, and technical assistance.

The foundation's state-of-the-art Crime Mapping Laboratory works to advance the understanding of computer mapping, to pioneer new applications of computer mapping, and to explore the spatial element of all foundation research.

Other foundation projects are also directed at the improvement of policing. For example, the foundation has helped to create independent organizations dedicated to the advancement of policing, including the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).

The foundation has developed strong institutional capacities in the following areas:

• community- and problem-oriented policing
• control of police use of force
• crime and place/displacement and diffusion
• crime mapping
• cultural diversity training
• ethics
• "hot spots" policing
• internal affairs and discipline
• managing the police culture to control police abuse of power
• police effectiveness
• police response to domestic violence
• recruiting, training, selection, and promotion

The foundation has sponsored con-ferences and workshops on issues as diverse as:

• women in policing
• police productivity
• police liability
• strategic planning
• higher education for the police
• community institutions and inner-city crime reduction
• the impact of drugs and violence on the police
• the police role in civil disorder

Following the Police Foundation's central involvement in the Special Advisory Commission to study the police response to the 1992 civil disorders in Los Angeles, the foundation established the National Center for the Study of Police and Civil Disorder at its headquarters in Washington, DC. The goal of the center is to enable police departments in the U.S. to plan for and prevent civil disorders, and, in the event they do occur, to minimize damage to the community and its people.

Despite efforts to control it, real or perceived use of excessive force by police has contributed to most of the country's urban riots. The Police Foundation itself was created in 1970 largely as a result of the need, made undeniably clear by the riots of the 1960s, to understand and improve the functioning of America's police. From its inception, the foundation has worked to ensure that the nature of force used by police is the minimum amount necessary to properly discharge their responsibilities under the law.

A widespread absence of any systemic approach for assessing risks that place municipal interests at risk can be faulted for the inability of officials to cope with this increasingly difficult problem. To fill this void, the Police Foundation has developed The Risk Analysis Management System-The RAMS©-that enables law enforcement agencies to manage potential risks more effectively. By delivering timely reports based on collection and analysis of traffic stop data, the QSI©-Quality of Service Indicator-helps departments maximize effective community relations, build accountability, and reduce liability through officer performance.

A guiding tenet of the foundation is that to advance, policing-like other public services-deserves the best of thorough, objective study, and the impetus of new ideas that have the widest possible dissemination. Unconstrained by partisan imperatives, the Police Foundation speaks with a unique and objective voice. Our focus and perspective is the whole of American policing, rather than any single facet.

Hubert Williams is president of the foundation. A 30-year veteran of policing, Williams came to Washington and the Police Foundation in 1985, after serving for eleven years as director of police in Newark, NJ.

William G. Milliken is chairman of the foundation's board of directors. Formerly governor of Michigan and chairman of the National Governors' Association, Mr. Milliken joined the foundation's board in 1991, and was elected chairman in 1998.

Motivating all of the foundation's efforts is the goal of efficient, effective, humane policing that operates within the framework of democratic principles and the highest ideals of the nation.