The Fusion Center Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Policy Development Template, released as part of the Global Justice Information Initiative, was developed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the joint DHS/DOJ Fusion Process Technical Assistance Program.

Version 3.0 will assist fusion center personnel in updating their centers’ existing privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties policies to reflect changes in law and implementation experience related to the information that the centers collect, receive, maintain, archive, access, and disclose.  Provisions contained in the template help centers comply with requirements of the DHS Homeland Security Grant Program Guidance, the ISE Privacy Guidelines, and the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative.

Increasingly, law enforcement officers are the first, and often the only, responders to calls involving people who have mental health needs. With support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Council of State Governments Justice Center recently released a framework to help law enforcement agencies across the country better respond to the growing number of calls for service involving this population.  The framework provides considerations regarding the development and sustainment of a Police-Mental Health Collaboration (PMHC), including several examples of current programs.

Supporting this need, BJA recently released a new funding opportunity, Improving Justice and Mental Health Collaboration: Training and Technical Assistance to Grantees and the Field, to improve justice and mental health collaboration.  In addition, BJA provides background on PMHCs and the different response models in the PMHC Toolkit.

The new guide is organized around the life cycle of an AMBER Alert, so it connects best practices to each decision point in the response, from intake of a report to specific law enforcement actions and on to the elements that factor into an AMBER Alert coordinator’s decisions.

~Matt M. Dummermuth, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs

The U.S. Department of Justice released updated guidelines to help states and regional offices recover abducted children through America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) Alerts.  Published by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, this guide provides a “what works” approach, based on the input of those who lead and oversee AMBER Alerts, as part of larger missing persons and child protection programs at the state and regional levels.

In this no-cost webinar, hosted by the National White Collar Crime Center, the co-founder of the Tor Project will share and explore various case studies that involve utilizing information found on the darknet as a part of criminal investigations.  The webinar will use real-world, darknet-based examples that have been selected for a law-enforcement audience.  Participants will learn about different methodologies that can be used to de-anonymize threat actors, the different tools and approaches involved in conducting these types of investigations, best practices, and lessons learned.

This webinar is intended for law enforcement personnel.  Please register using your agency-issued email.

The 2019 International Association of Chiefs of Police Technology Conference brings leading practitioners together to explore law enforcement technology opportunities and challenges.  Attendees will learn how to apply the latest technology to create efficient solutions and to keep pace with sophisticated cyber-enabled crimes. 

The 2019 conference will be held on May 20–22 at the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center in Jacksonville, Florida.