NCJ Number
194042
Date Published
September 1997
Length
52 pages
Annotation
This report highlights the accomplishments and activities of them U.S. Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) since the passage of the 1994 Crime Act, including an overview of the progress being made in community policing around the country.
Abstract
The COPS Office has four primary goals: to increase the number of community policing officers on the beat by 100,000; to promote community policing across the country; to help develop an infrastructure to support and sustain community policing after Federal funding has ended; and to demonstrate and evaluate the ability of agencies practicing community policing to significantly reduce the levels of violence, crime, and disorder in their communities. In the 3 years since the enactment of the 1994 Crime Act, the COPS Office has awarded communities more than $3.6 billion in grants toward the hiring or redeployment of over 65,000 officers to the Nation's streets and neighborhoods. COPS grants have been awarded to more than half the policing organizations in the country. Through the COPS MORE grant, agencies can purchase technology and equipment or hire civilian support staff. Equipment such as laptop computers, records management systems, and crime analysis and mapping software support community-based efforts and improve problem-solving. Other grants fund research that is developing innovative technologies to counter crime. Agencies such as the San Diego (California) and Knoxville (Tennessee) police departments, which are profiled in this report, have used the grants to install time-saving equipment that supports their community policing activities. The COPS Office has also brought the most effective and innovative community policing strategies to communities across the country and provided training and technical assistance to practitioners in helping them ease the transition from traditional to community policing. COPS has also funded community policing studies. This report profiles the following COPS innovative community policing strategies: Youth Firearms Violence Initiative, Anti-Gang Initiative, a domestic violence program, and problem-solving partnerships. Eight examples are provided of how local police departments have used the funding and technical assistance of the COPS Office to develop and enhance their transition to community policing.