Forensic labs hold a significant amount of data and engage in a wide variety of scientific disciplines when analyzing evidence. Collaboration between investigative and lab functions can have a multitude of benefits. Supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), this resource provides law enforcement intelligence functions and fusion centers with promising practices and recommendations on how to develop or enhance the relationships between forensic labs and intelligence units to further build out agency intelligence efforts. These include examples of ways to leverage lab submissions and analysis to augment intelligence operations and examples of how labs and intelligence units can work together to exchange information. The Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council (CICC) task team charged with the development of this resource was composed of state, local, and federal forensic laboratory and intelligence unit subject experts. 

In 1974, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) launched a new initiative to fund research that analyzed the needs and problems of crime victims. This initiative has flourished over the past 45 years, as NIJ has continued to play an integral role in performing and funding research on issues critical to victim recovery and evaluating victim services.

NIJ funding has spanned from early victim and witness programs, to experiments to find ways to deter intimate partner violence, to evaluation of grant programs funded by the Office for Victims of Crime to support wraparound legal services for victims

Designing Effective Community Responses to Radicalization to Violence (DECRRV) is a six-week, no-cost online course that provides an interactive, hands-on opportunity to apply design thinking methodologies to the development of community-based Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) efforts. This course was developed by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) and funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Training and Education Division.

After taking this course, participants will be able to:

• Explain how whole community approaches to CVE can build resilience to hazards.
• Identify the five phases of the design thinking process and associated techniques.
• Describe how design thinking methods can be used to develop a community-based program to counter violent extremism.
• Utilize design thinking to develop a community engagement program to counter violent extremism.

Every day, law enforcement officers engage in exceptional acts of bravery in the line of duty. To honor these acts of bravery, Congress passed the Law Enforcement Congressional Badge of Bravery Act of 2008, which establishes an award to honor exceptional acts of bravery by federal, state, and local law enforcement officers. The medals are awarded annually by the U.S. Attorney General and are presented by the recipients’ congressional representatives.

This webinar, supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, will provide important details and guidance about the Law Enforcement Congressional Badge of Bravery (CBOB). The presenters will review CBOB definitions, eligibility, time periods, the nomination process, and core issues to consider when submitting nominations. A question-and answer-session will conclude this webinar.

Date: Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Time: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., ET

“This updated website gives our AMBER Alert partners more information, greater access to resources and a better chance to rescue endangered children.”—OJP Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Katharine T. Sullivan and National Coordinator for the AMBER Alert Program

A newly redesigned AMBER Alert website now features Indian Country resources. From the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the refreshed AMBER Alert website now includes access to the AMBER Alert in Indian Country website, a summary of the AMBER Alert in Indian Country Initiative, and training and technical assistance resources. The website, managed by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), provides resources to help regional and state-level AMBER Alert training and coordination efforts and links to resources that support the AMBER Alert program through national partners and OJJDP grantees.