The Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has dedicated nine awards to eight institutions and organizations for research and evaluation projects to identify meaningful solutions to support law enforcement investigations and help law enforcement agencies and communities strengthen mutual trust and collaboration.
These investments are part of NIJ’s strategic research plan, which supports the recommendations of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, to advance law enforcement technology, improve policing practices, promote police-community engagement, and advance officer and public safety at the state, local and tribal levels.
(Director Nancy Rodriguez speaks about her vision for NIJ, including her goals to put in place long-lasting changes that strengthen NIJ as an agency and ensure the impact of NIJ’s work in the field. Courtesy of NIJ and YouTube)
“Public safety relies on community partnerships, innovative technology, problem solving and research-based policing policies and practices,” said NIJ Director Nancy Rodriguez.
“These awards represent NIJ’s continued commitment to advance policing science.”
The awards specifically help identify strategies to reconnect the police with the communities they serve, improve officer wellness and safety, protect the privacy of witnesses and victims of crime, combat child pornography, and address unprocessed sexual assault evidence.
Following are today’s award recipients and titles of their projects:
- The Police Foundation, Washington, D.C.
The National Police Research Platform: Phase 3 ($1,799,002) and
A New Approach to Utilizing Evidence from Sexual Assault Kits in Texas: Benefits and Costs of a Universal Testing Statute($235,794) - Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.
Targeted Forensic Data Extraction From Mobile Devices ($541,232) - National Opinion Research Center, Chicago, Ill.
Law Enforcement Officers Safety and Wellness: A Multi-Level Study ($970,795) - New York University, New York, N.Y.
Advanced learning techniques for detection of contraband video ($465,815) - Old Dominion University Research Foundation, Norfolk, Va.
Assessing Procedural Justice during Police-Citizen Encounters with Officer Surveys, Citizen Surveys, And Systematic Social Observations ($392,986) - Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.
Police Officer Learning, Mentoring, and Racial Bias in Traffic Stops ($279,810) - University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.
An Evaluation of a Social Interaction Training Program to Reduce the Use of Force and Build Legitimacy ($799,454) - Georgia Tech Research Institute /Georgia Tech Applied Research Corporation, Atlanta, Ga.
Remote Methods for Volunteering Evidence on Mobile Devices ($438,161) - University of Rhode Island, Kingston, R.I.
Deep Patrol: Finding Illicit Videos for Law Enforcement ($396,686)
In response to a number of serious conflicts between law enforcement and the communities they serve, President Obama formed the task force to identify best practices and recommend ways policing methods can promote effective crime reduction while building public trust.
(Michael Davis, Director of Public Safety at Northeastern University, discusses the concept of procedural justice and how it can be integrated into policing operations to improve community relations and address crime challenges. Courtesy of NIJ and YouTube)
The results and recommendations are detailed in the Final Report of The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, issued in May 2015.
The report and its Implementation Guide are located here:
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/TaskForce_FinalReport.pdf;
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/Implementation_Guide.pdf.
More information on NIJ’s programs is located here: www.nij.gov.
OJP, headed by Assistant Attorney General Karol V. Mason, provides federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice and assist victims.
OJP has six components:
- The Bureau of Justice Assistance
- The Bureau of Justice Statistics
- The National Institute of Justice
- The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
- The Office for Victims of Crime and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking.
