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Youth Focused Policing: Agency Self-Assessment Tool

NCJ Number
248825
Date Published
March 2015
Length
29 pages
Annotation
After discussing the importance of and potential impact of police interaction with youth in the course of their critical adolescent development, this publication presents a law enforcement agency self-assessment tool developed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), which guides an agency through a self-assessment of its policies and procedures regarding officers' interactions with and decisionmaking regarding the management of youths' problem and delinquent behaviors.
Abstract
The self-assessment tool guides agency executives through an assessment of an agency's policies and practices regarding police interactions with youth. The following 13 areas of organizational practices are examined: mission, vision, values statements; youth-specific policies and procedures; agency organization; personnel assigned to juvenile functions; juvenile information collection; juvenile crime analysis; access to youth-focused information databases; juvenile crime information sharing; partnerships and collaborations; best practices or evidence-based programs; police-operated programs, practices, and intervention activities; police involvement in juvenile diversion programs; and training. Agency responses in this self-assessment are intended for use in shaping departmental policymaking and programs designed to reduce juvenile offending, reoffending, and victimization. An Action Plan Template is included in this report.