Hosted by the National Suicide Awareness for Law Enforcement Officers (SAFLEO) Program and funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, this self-paced training will discuss several important topics related to officer wellness, as well as a live roundtable session. These topics include: 

• Discovering the underlying causes of suicide 
• Identifying solutions to the stigma of help-seeking 
• Identifying protective factors that promote strength and resilience
• Developing an action plan specific to your agency 

When: Monday, November 15, 2021
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., ET

Hosted by the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence and funded by the National Institute of Justice, this webinar will discuss how increased connectivity and other advancements available to forensic service providers can increase automation and eliminate repetitive tasks, enabling them to share data and improvements, use predictive modeling, and quickly adapt to changes. Moreover, forensic providers may be able to move from constantly reacting to external pressures to proactively planning and designing for future needs. The medicolegal death investigation (MDI) context is an excellent example of how embracing these models can have a direct impact on a national scale. This presentation will focus on developing operational models and goals for the baseline information services needed by all forensic science service providers, including those in MDI. 

When: Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m., ET

Funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and published by the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP), this brief discusses one of the six local communities funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance Partnership for Data-Driven Responses Demonstration Project. One of the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment’s (PDPHE) core project activities was to create a robust, near real-time, and regular data collection and sharing infrastructure for public safety, public health, and behavioral health partners. This publication outlines the implementation of this activity.

Published by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), this toolkit was developed on the premise that exposure to the traumatic experiences of other people—known as vicarious trauma—is an inevitable occupational challenge for those working in victim services, emergency medical services, fire services, law enforcement, and other allied professions; however, organizations can mitigate the potentially negative effects of trauma exposure by becoming better informed about vicarious trauma.  The VTT includes tools and resources tailored specifically to these fields that provide the knowledge and skills necessary for organizations to address the vicarious trauma needs of their staff members.

Published by the National Police Foundation (NPF), this article discusses how agencies have increasingly deployed technological solutions to prevent and solve gun crimes.  Agencies and elected officials have long recognized the need for rigorous evaluations of these technologies.  However, what is often neglected is a clear-eyed statement of what a successful or unsuccessful program looks like. Instead, evaluation criteria are often driven by the availability of data rather than the thoughtful assessment of outputs and outcomes, which are also often overlooked.  Without clear articulation of expected changes in outcomes, the evaluations become an exercise in interpreting scattershot analyses that were conducted because they were possible, rather than because they were needed or provided worthwhile evidence on the system’s effectiveness. This article will describe what a successful technology evaluation strategy would look like.