This bulletin is intended to identify resources to assist you and your community with preventing, detecting, and prosecuting hate crimes and other criminal acts while ensuring privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.

We encourage you to share the information contained in this bulletin with your agency members, peers, and partners.

U.S. Department of Justice Programs and Initiatives

• U.S. Department of Justice Hate Crimes
• Overview of Office of Justice Assistance Hate Crime Programs
• Community Relations Service
• Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office)
• The FBI offers a broad range of support to law enforcement agencies, victims, parents, students, businesses, and communities. For additional information, refer to Community Outreach—FBI and Office of Partner Engagement—FBI.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), along with the Global Advisory Committee (GAC) and the Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council (CICC), recently released a package of resources to address Tips and Leads and Threats to Life. The resources were developed for federal, state, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) law enforcement agencies, school officials, and tip line operators to support the efficient and timely sharing of tips and leads (TL) and threat to life (TTL) information originating from tip lines and social media platforms. These resources

• highlight the importance of coordination, collaboration, and streamlined information sharing among law enforcement entities;
• offer valuable guidance and promising practices related to the proper handling of TLs and TTLs; and
• are based upon the premise that responsible multidisciplinary information sharing will enhance stakeholders’ abilities to evaluate relevant data, identify and mitigate credible threats, and route the information to the entities that can provide appropriate support for individuals in need of assistance.    

Targeted Violence and Counterterrorism

Making Prevention a Reality:  Identifying, Assessing, and Managing the Threat of Targeted Attacks is a resource developed by the FBI that serves as a guide on assessing and managing the threat of targeted violence. It contains concrete strategies to help communities prevent these types of incidents. 

For information about how to respond to an active shooter event, consider the following resources: 

• Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) offers training to first responders across the nation in ALERRT operations and tactics to respond to active attack situations.      
• Active Shooter: How to Respond Booklet provides information on how to respond to an active shooter in your vicinity, how to react when law enforcement arrives, and how to train staff and prepare for an active shooter situation, including roles and responsibilities
• Run. Hide. Fight. is a publicly available training video, showing that persons who are caught in an active shooter event will be prepared, empowered, and able to survive the attack by employing the run, hide, and fight tactics and knowing the basics of rendering first aid to others.

US Violent Extremist Mobilization Indicators informs law enforcement, terrorism prevention practitioners, other first responders, community leaders, as well as the public about both threats of violence and contextual behaviors that suggest an individual is mobilizing to violence. 
The National Threat Assessment Center (secretservice.gov) has research videos and resources to combat the ever-evolving threat of targeted violence impacting communities.     

Prevention and Detection

The U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service serves as “America’s Peacemaker” for communities facing conflict based on actual or perceived race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or disability. CRS provides facilitated dialogue, mediation, training, and consultation to assist these communities to come together, develop solutions to the conflict, and enhance their capacity to independently prevent and resolve future conflict. For detailed information that shows how CRS works with colleges and universities to prevent and respond to hate crimes and bias incidents, refer to this resource.   

The Violence Prevention Resource Guide provides an overview of resources that can support terrorism and targeted violence prevention efforts within local communities.

The Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) seeks to prevent acts of targeted violence and terrorism by working with the whole of society to establish and expand local prevention frameworks. Through technical, financial, and educational assistance, CP3 supports local efforts that prevent individuals from radicalizing to violence and intervene with individuals who may be radicalizing, or have radicalized, to violence.

Responding to Hate Crimes: A Police Officer’s Guide to Investigation and Prevention provides constructive information about the components of an effective police response to hate crimes.

Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Protection

To assist law enforcement agencies in the ongoing protection of P/CRCL, BJA, with the support of GAC and CICC, has developed a wide array of resources, including:

•  First Amendment Online Training videos that are publicly available and designed to assist law enforcement personnel in:
  • Understanding their roles and responsibilities as they prepare for and respond to a First Amendment-protected event.
  • Protecting the P/CRCL of persons and groups participating in a First Amendment-protected event.
  • Reinforcing fundamental concepts learned at law enforcement training academies and during in-service programs.
• Recommendations for First Amendment-Protected Events for State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies provides guidance and recommendations to state and local law enforcement officers in understanding their role in First Amendment-protected events.
• P/CRCL Policy Development Guide for State, Local, and Tribal Justice Entities offers a template for criminal justice entities to use when developing a P/CRCL policy. 

Rethinking the Police Response to Mass Demonstrations provides nine major recommendations and guidance that law enforcement agencies can take to improve their planning for, and response to, demonstrations in their communities.

Faith-Based

Protecting Places of Worship Forum: Facilitator Guide for Community Leaders, provides community leaders with step-by-step instructions on how to plan and implement a Protecting Places of Worship Forum. The program engages federal law enforcement, local law enforcement, government officials, faith-based organizations, and forum participants in discussions and information sharing about methods for preventing and responding to violent incidents targeting places of worship.

COPS Office Hate Crime Resources, offers videos, toolkits, guides, sample policies, and effective approaches that law enforcement can use to lead the healing of distressed communities.

Faith-Based and Volunteer Partnership Resources offers training and planning exercises to enhance the disaster preparedness – and response and recovery capabilities and capacity – of the voluntary, faith-based, and community partner organizations, staff, and volunteers.

Information Sharing and Outreach

Fusion Centers serve as focal points in states and major urban areas for the receipt, analysis, gathering and sharing of threat-related information between SLTT, federal and private sector partners. The National Network of Fusion Centers provides partners with a unique perspective on threats to their state or locality and serves as the primary contact between frontline personnel, state and local leadership and the rest of the Homeland Security Enterprise. For further information, refer to the National Fusion Center Association.

Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) offers secure information sharing and communications capabilities, critical analytical and investigative support services, and event deconfliction to enhance officer safety. RISS supports efforts against organized and violent crime, gang activity, drug activity, terrorism and violent extremism, human trafficking, identity theft, cybercrime, and other regional priorities.

The Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP) is a secure platform for law enforcement agencies, intelligence groups, and criminal justice entities. LEEP provides web-based investigative tools and analytical resources. (Access is restricted to U.S. citizens with a need to know who meet certain criteria.)

The eGuardian system was developed by the FBI to help meet the challenges of collecting and sharing terrorism-related activities among law enforcement agencies across various jurisdictions. The system is hosted through the LEEP and serves as an incident reporting system reporting system that standardizes existing reporting types and as the primary shared data repository for suspicious activity reporting.

The Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) is DHS's official system for trusted sharing of Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) information between federal, SLTT, international and private sector partners. Mission operators use HSIN to access Homeland Security data, send requests securely between agencies, manage operations, coordinate planned event safety and security, respond to incidents, and share the information they need to fulfill their missions and help keep their communities safe. (HSIN has restricted access; if you are not currently a HSIN user, please send an email to HSIN@hq.dhs.gov to request access.)

The Action Agenda for Community Organizations and Law Enforcement to Enhance the Response to Hate Crimes report contains action items to help break down barriers and strengthen trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve to enhance the prevention, reporting, investigation, and successful prosecution of hate crimes.