News & Announcements

A message from Police Foundation President Jim Bueermann:

I am pleased to share the news that the 21st Century Cures Act  passed  the House of Representatives last night with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 392-26. As I shared previously, the bill, while primarily focused on medical innovation, contains critical provisions on criminal justice. I was most pleased by inclusion of a provision that would provide for the creation of a National Criminal Justice and Mental Health Training Center, which would coordinate best practices on responding to mental illness in the criminal justice system and provide technical assistance to governmental agencies.

Here’s a list of 7 things the bill does to support law enforcement:

1.  Law Enforcement Training – Authorizes resources for police responses to individuals with mental illness and de-escalation training.

2.  National Criminal Justice and Mental Health Training Center – Creates a new center to coordinate best practices on responding to individuals with mental illness in the criminal justice system and provide technical assistance to governmental agencies.

3.  Diversion Programs – Allows state and local governments to use grant funds on programs to divert individuals with mental illness and co-occurring disorders from prisons and jails.

4.  Crisis Intervention Teams – Expands resources available to state and local governments to develop and operate school-based mental health crisis intervention teams that include coordination with law enforcement agencies.

5.  Focus on Evidence-Based Research – Requires the Department of Justice to prioritize grant applications to those who use evidence-based interventions and risk assessment tools to reduce recidivism.

6.  Mental Health Response and Corrections Programs – Allows funds from existing federal grant programs to be used in new ways, such as on specialized mental health response training like crisis de-escalation techniques.

7.  Active-Shooter Training – Permanently authorizes the VALOR Initiative to provide crisis training and active-shooter training for federal, state and local law enforcement officials.

8.  Reauthorization of the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act (MIOTCRA) – an essential funding mechanism that supports the use of mental health courts and crisis intervention teams in local law enforcement agencies. The bill would extend MIOTCRA, effectively filling critical gaps in the system, including providing additional resources for veterans’ treatment courts to help those suffering from behavioral or post-traumatic stress disorders.

This bill is a needed step along the way to strengthening our nation’s criminal justice system and ensuring that people with mental illness are treated well by it. Law enforcement professionals are a huge part of the system and I am glad that the bill recognized this and provided solid policy provisions designed to aid the community in its work each day.

Fortunately, Police Foundation was at the table in crafting these important provisions, having worked with key champions on the Hill to advance this work and having sent a letter of support. Thank you to those who lent their names to that effort. I look forward to keeping you updated as we follow the bill’s progress through the Senate and then onward to the President for his signature, which we hope to see finalized within the next two weeks.

Chief Jim Bueermann (Ret.)
President
Police Foundation

Ensuring the safety of the public is a core mission for all professional law enforcement agencies. In pursuit of this mission, law enforcement leverage many different types of tools, including new and emerging technologies.  One of these latest technologies is the small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS).

“UAS technologies provide law enforcement agencies with unique capabilities for rapid, safe, economical and effective responses to a wide variety of public safety tactical challenges. Harnessing these capabilities requires not only the skills to operate the technology, but the input and understanding of the community and a pledge to operate the technology in a transparent manner. This is what community policing is all about,” said Jim Bueermann, President of the Police Foundation and former Chief of Police in Redlands, California.

While the sUAS has significant potential to improve operational efficiency as well as officer and community safety, there are understandable and legitimate concerns about privacy risks. To help law enforcement agencies address these concerns, the Police Foundation is releasing new recommendations for local law enforcement agencies considering the use of small unmanned aircraft systems for public safety purposes. Community Policing & Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Guidelines to Enhance Community Trust provides comprehensive guidance on all aspects of UAS use in public safety, including operational, training, and legal and regulatory compliance considerations.

The guidebook reflects the recommendations provided in five focus groups by law enforcement practitioners and community members on how to best achieve consensus building between law enforcement and the communities they serve on the use of sUAS. The focus group sites were Los Gatos, California; San Bernardino County, California; Draper City, Utah; Morristown, New Jersey; and Milliken, Colorado.

The guidebook also reflects the strong recommendations of the project advisory group that any sUAS program must be created as a public benefit, with public backing and the highest level of transparency, if it is to succeed. This imperative is reflected in both the framework and the language of the guidebook and the importance of maintaining and advancing community policing values is reflected in each section.

To view and download the full report, please click here.

Dr. Karen Amendola, Chief Behavioral Scientist, was recently appointed to the Third Circuit Task Force on Eyewitness Identifications. Dr. Amendola is one of 17 members appointed by Chief Judge Theodore A. McKee (and co-Chaired by Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg) to this task force, charged with making recommendations regarding jury instructions for the evaluation of eyewitness identification testimony, and the use of expert testimony. The goal of the task force is to make important recommendations “pertaining to eyewitness identifications and testimony that can minimize the risk of wrongful convictions.”

Dr. Amendola was the lead investigator on a series of Police Foundation eyewitness identification field studies. She has published widely on the findings with colleague John Wixted in both the Journal of Experimental Criminology and the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, and has authored the Evidentiary Strength Rating Scale (with Meghan Slipka, 2011).

In collaboration with the California Police Chiefs Association and the California State Sheriffs’ Association and with funding from the California Endowment, the Police Foundation is proud to release the final brief in a series of youth–focused policy briefs, “The Career Pipeline Concept and the California POST.”

To meet the challenges associated with recruiting and retaining a workforce that is representative of the community, sheriffs and chiefs are exploring creative ways to attract and retain underrepresented candidates to law enforcement. Using POST Career Pipeline concepts, that involve engaging students in structured school-based public safety career pipeline programs, agencies in California have been at the forefront of efforts to recruit, train, and hire qualified candidates that represent gender and racial diversity represented in their community. This brief introduces the Career Pipeline concepts and highlights examples of how law enforcement agencies and schools can bridge the gap between officers and students and encourage youth to consider careers in law enforcement.

This is the final brief in a four-part series of youth-focused policy briefs produced to enhance law enforcement knowledge and understanding of youth development in an effort to improve outcomes for youth interactions with law enforcement. California law enforcement executives, and those nationwide, can use this tool as they examine their policies and processes for ways to improve approaches to youth. The first three in this series ‘Issue Brief 1: Introduction’, ‘Issue Brief 2: Teen Brain: Preparing Your Officers to Engage with Youth’,  and ‘Issue Brief 3: Defining the Role of School-Based Police Officers’ were released earlier this year.  

For more information, visit the Youth Policing Project page.

According to the sponsors, “[t]hroughout history, numerous technologies originally designed for military use have found applications in the civilian sector, from radar to the Internet. In recent years, a similar transfer of technology has begun taking place across the field of robotics, and this trend shows every sign of accelerating. While once present only on the front lines, autonomous systems now patrol our borders, capture footage of our weddings, and may soon be driving us to work and delivering packages to our homes. Although these developments have great potential, however, the proliferation in civilian life of technologies originally designed to inflict maximum damage on a battlefield adversary raises significant ethical and policy questions – especially when they involve decisions that are made, at least in part, without human input. As evidenced by the recent use of a robot to kill a domestic terrorism suspect in Dallas, such concerns are not unwarranted. This dialogue will explore the “promise and peril” of this rapidly-evolving interaction between military and civilian robotics research, with the goal of fostering a better understanding of how to maximize the benefits associated with these new technologies while minimizing the risks.”

The Police Foundation was honored to participate in such a distinguished event and to contribute to future discussions.

Perhaps nothing is more important in law enforcement today than improving community-police relations. In a new essay, Police Foundation Senior Research Fellow and former police officer Dr. David J. Thomas discusses the challenges that law enforcement across the country must address in order to regain the public’s trust and improve police legitimacy. To read the full essay, click here or visit www.onpolicing.org.

If you would like to receive updates when new On Policing essays are posted, please click here to subscribe and indicate that you would like to receive information about the On Policing essay series.

As part of National Community Policing Week, in collaboration with the California Police Chiefs Association and the California State Sheriffs’ Association and with funding from the California Endowment, is proud to release the 3rd brief in a series of youth–focused policy briefs, “Defining the Role of School-Based Police Officers.”

School-based police officers often serve as educators and mentors, community liaisons and problem solvers, and ensurers of campus safety and security. Many officers develop positive relationships with students and their families and help guide them through the personal, educational, and social pressures that are part of being an adolescent. This brief aims to advance discussions about the roles for school-based officers and how a balanced approach regarding selection of officers, training, and collaboration can strengthen campus safety, respectful relationships, and student success.

This is the third brief in a four part series of youth-focused policy briefs produced to enhance law enforcement knowledge and understanding of youth development in an effort to improve outcomes for youth interactions with law enforcement. California law enforcement executives, and those nationwide, can use this tool as they examine their policies and processes for ways to improve approaches to youth. The first in this series ‘Issue Brief 1: Introduction’ and ‘Issue Brief 2: Teen Brain: Preparing Your Officers to Engage with Youth’ were released earlier this year.  The series will conclude in the coming months with:

• The Career Pipeline Concept

For more information, visit the Youth Policing Project page.