The patriots we honor come from many places, and serve in many different roles, but they all share one thing in common: When faced with danger, they each put the lives of others before their own.  These are very brave people that I’m standing with today.

~President Donald J. Trump

The Medal of Valor is the nation’s highest national award for valor by a public safety officer. On February 20, President Trump and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions awarded the Medal of Valor to 12 law enforcement officers and first responders at the White House.  During his remarks, President Trump provided highlights of the awardees’ bravery.  The Bureau of Justice Assistance Medal of Valor Website provides an overview of the Medal of Valor program.

The CenTF Program, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, is proud to present a new webinar series, “Critical Components of Task Force Success,” which presents an overview of key strategies that are critical to task force operations in today’s law enforcement environment. Designed to highlight these key strategies, the webinars will discuss topics that are covered in detail throughout the CenTF training program.

Registration is open for the second webinar in the series, “Operations Planning and Confidential Source Management,” to be held on March 2, 2018, at 2:00 p.m., ET.  This webinar will discuss why it is important to assess and manage risk and will explore the unique risks, dynamics, and options involved in field operations. In addition, it will explain how the roles of the task force commander, unit supervisors, and task force members contribute to maintaining the safety and integrity of a successful task force. Confidential source management also will be discussed as it pertains to the development of sound policies and procedures.

Calls for service involving people with mental illness can be among the most time-consuming and complex types of calls for law enforcement agencies. Police officers are often the first responders to mental health calls, which may require more resources than other calls for service. These calls also necessitate increased awareness of the safety of both responders and people in crisis.

To improve the outcomes of interactions between police and people with mental illness, many law enforcement agencies have adopted police-mental health collaboration (PMHC) programs, collaborative partnerships among law enforcement agencies, mental health providers, and community-based organizations.  To help jurisdictions design and implement PMHC programs, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) compiled promising practices and resources into a one-stop online toolkit.  In the toolkit, law enforcement agencies can find resources on topics ranging from different PMHC models, such as crisis intervention teams or case management teams, to types of training available to officers, such as “Mental Health First Aid for Public Safety” courses.

On February 28, 2018, at 2:00 p.m., ET, the Strategies for Policing Innovation (SPI) program will present a webinar titled “Successful Strategies to Reduce Gun Violence.” The SPI is funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. This webinar will focus on the use of offender-based strategies and crime intelligence to target gun-related violence, highlighting successful SPI sites addressing this issue.  Participants will learn about the different strategies used to reduce gun violence and the impact that various strategies had on reducing violence.

We are trying to fight a global battle with our hands tied behind our back.

~Senator Angus King, I–Maine

The U.S. Intelligence Community’s 2018 assessment of threats to U.S. national security is of key importance for state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies as they seek to identify trends that may emerge in the United States.  On Tuesday, February 13, 2018, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence convened its annual hearing on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s 2018 assessment of threats to U.S. national security.  The hearing detailed a series of serious threats to the United States, including North Korea’s continued drive to develop a nuclear arsenal and the possibility that Pyongyang, North Korea, may conduct an atmospheric nuclear detonation over the Pacific Ocean after the Olympics and the potential threat from Chinese technology embedded in U.S. products.

Daniel R. Coats, Director of National Intelligence, provided the Statement for the Record:  Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.  The statement outlined global threats and trends, including cyberthreats, weapons of mass destruction and proliferation, terrorism, counterintelligence and foreign denial and deception, emerging and disruptive technology, space and counterspace, transnational organized crime, economics and energy, human security, and regional threats.