On June 14, 2018, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) VALOR Officer Safety and Wellness Program launched the “Not Today” video, a filmed adaptation of Lieutenant Brian Garrett’s “Not Today” poem.  This video is intended to motivate officers to perform their duties to the best of their abilities, enabling them to go home after every shift.  

Schools should be safe, nurturing places for children to learn and grow. Ensuring that students and teachers are protected during the school day is an important responsibility for all Ohio communities.

~Attorney General Mike DeWine, Ohio

The Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) and Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy (OPOTA) have outlined new resources to aid educators and law enforcement in preparing for and reacting to a potentially violent school incident.  These resources include:

• Emergency Management Plan Aerial Photographs:  BCI is now offering the use of drones to take free aerial photographs of school buildings for inclusion in school safety plans. 

• Active Shooter Response: An Educator's Guide:  This guide includes a video series and companion workbooks.  The video series, produced by OPOTA, provides guidance on how educators and law enforcement can work together to prepare for and react to a violent school incident.

In addition, Attorney General DeWine worked with schools across the state to achieve greater compliance on school safety plans and convened a School Safety Task Force that issued dozens of school safety recommendations. The task force recognized that mental health awareness is essential for schools to identify and intervene with students who may be at risk.

Criminals who think that they are safe on the Darknet are wrong.  We can expose their networks, and we are determined to bring them to justice.

~Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, U.S. Department of Justice

On June 26, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced the results of a year-long, coordinated national operation that used the first nationwide undercover action to target vendors of illicit goods on the Darknet.

The extensive operation, which culminated in four weeks of more than 100 enforcement actions around the country, resulted in the following:

• Federal arrests of more than 35 Darknet vendors who engaged in tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods;

• Execution of 70 search warrants, resulting in the seizure of massive amounts of illegal narcotics;

• Seizure of more than 100 firearms, including handguns, assault rifles, and a grenade launcher;

• Seizure of five vehicles that were purchased with illicit proceeds and/or used to facilitate criminal activity;

• Seizure of more than $3.6 million in U.S. currency and gold bars;

• Seizure of nearly 2,000 Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, with an approximate value of more than $20 million;

• Confiscation of 15 pill presses, which are used to create illegal synthetic opioids; and

• Seizure of Bitcoin mining devices, computer equipment, and vacuum sealers.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) Program is hosting a law enforcement-only webinar that will focus on:

• Why social media is an effective propaganda, communications, recruitment, and operational planning tool for FTOs.

• Tips for identifying online accounts for individuals who are possibly utilizing social media platforms to advocate or mobilize for violence.

• How global activity is identified at the local level.

This report, which details aspects of the event and its aftermath, underscores the need for a national conversation about law enforcement policies, practices, and training for handling acts of mass public violence and terrorism. This discussion is especially important now, in an era when we face coordinated events, multisite attacks, explosive devices, and other unforeseen threats.

~Russ Washington, Principal Deputy Director, Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice

In December 2017, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) released Rescue, Response, and Resilience: A Critical Incident Review of the Orlando Public Safety Response to the Attack on the Pulse Nightclub.  This report is an independent critical incident review of the Orlando, Florida, Police Department’s response to identify best practices and lessons learned to improve the department’s planning, training, policies, procedures, and practices regarding critical events of this nature and magnitude.  The review and resulting report provides important lessons for law enforcement and public safety agencies across the nation as they prepare to face increasing acts of mass public violence and the growing threat of terrorism.