Over the past year, the Department has vigorously fought the prescription opioid crisis, and we are determined to continue making progress. Today, we are opening a new front in the war on the opioid crisis by bringing all of our anti-opioid efforts under one banner.

~Jeff Sessions, U.S. Attorney General

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced the creation of a new Prescription Interdiction and Litigation (PIL) Task Force to coordinate the department’s criminal and civil law enforcement tools to fight opioid abuse, with a focus on manufacturers and distributors.  The Attorney General has directed the task force to establish a working group to improve coordination and data sharing across federal agencies to better identify violations and patterns of fraud related to the opioid epidemic and to evaluate possible regulatory changes governing opioid distribution.

The Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines is an evidence-based model for use in schools conducting threat assessments of students.  This model was developed by Dr. Dewey Cornell and colleagues at the University of Virginia in 2001 and has been extensively examined through field tests and controlled studies that demonstrate its utility and effectiveness.  The Virginia model of threat assessment is an approach to violence prevention that emphasizes early attention to problems such as bullying, teasing, and other forms of student conflict before they escalate into violent behavior.  School staff members are encouraged to adopt a flexible, problem-solving approach, as distinguished from a more punitive, zero-tolerance approach to student misbehavior.  As a result of this training, the model is intended to generate broader changes in the nature of staff-student interactions around disciplinary matters and to encourage a more positive school climate in which students feel they are treated with fairness and respect. 

For years, we have watched as websites that facilitate sex trafficking have been shielded from accountability, allowing online trafficking to proliferate and leaving survivors without recourse. Court after court has denied victims relief and called on survivors to seek a legislative solution. Today, members of Congress heard survivors’ calls and helped pave a much-needed path to justice by making clear that these websites should not be immune from civil and criminal liability.

~Director Yasmin Vafa, Rights4Girls

On February 27, 2018, the House passed a bill to close a legal loophole that has let websites such as Backpage.com avoid criminal prosecution and lawsuits for facilitating sex trafficking.  H.R. 1865, titled Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), amends the Communications Decency Act by specifically allowing criminal and civil actions against a website if its conduct violates federal sex trafficking laws.  The bill would allow states to investigate and prosecute websites that facilitate sex trafficking using state criminal statutes that prohibit sex trafficking or sexual exploitation of children.  It also would allow victims of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of children to exercise civil remedies, such as a private right of action available to sex trafficking victims.  The FOSTA is now awaiting further consideration in the U.S. Senate.

In August 2017, all 50 state attorneys general sent a letter to Congress urging action on this issue.

The Association of Criminal Investigative Agencies has developed a human trafficking information and investigations strategy toolkit as a guide to developing a law enforcement strategy to combat human trafficking.

The National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA) is seeking nominations for its annual NCJA Outstanding Criminal Justice Programs Awards.  These awards honor successful criminal justice programs that use promising practices to address important crime and justice issues in communities.  Programs are evaluated using the following criteria:

• Does the program address an important criminal justice issue?
• Does the program demonstrate collaboration among criminal justice and allied agencies or disciplines?
• Can the program provide quantitative evidence of its effectiveness in accomplishing program goals?
• Does the program leverage federal, state, local, or other nongovernmental funds and resources?
• Can the program be easily replicated in other jurisdictions?

The NCJA will honor these winning programs during an awards luncheon at the 2018 National Forum on Criminal Justice in Fort Worth, Texas.  Travel expenses will be provided for one representative from each winning program.  The deadline to submit nominations is March 23, 2018, at 5:00 p.m., ET.

In 2017, the Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies (ASCIA) recognized the challenges facing many agencies that are tasked with investigating officer-involved shootings and other uses of force. As an association of statewide investigating agencies across the United States, ASCIA recommended the development of peer-agency guidance to assist state investigative agencies as well as local agencies conducting their own investigations into these incidents.

As a result, the guide Considerations and Recommendations Regarding State and Local Officer-Involved Use-of-Force Investigations was developed under the auspices of the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global). Through Global, a Federal Advisory Committee made up of many national criminal justice and law enforcement associations, numerous organizations contributed to the content of the guide, including the ASCIA Use of Force Investigations Committee, the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the DOJ Civil Rights Division, the Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council (CICC), the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), the Major County Sheriffs’ Association (MCSA), the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the Law Enforcement Intelligence Units (LEIUs), the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (APA), and multiple police departments and cities at large.

The Police Foundation and ASCIA are hosting the "Use of Force Investigations Guide" Webinar on Thursday, March 29, 2018, at 1:00 p.m., ET to provide an overview of the guide and its development, how it has been used to train agencies, and how it has been used by agencies in investigations to date. This webinar is intended for those municipal, county, and state law enforcement agencies seeking peer insights on investigating officer-involved shootings and other uses of force.