The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Director Karhlton F. Moore was joined by other U.S. Department of Justice officials, sheriffs, jail leaders, association partners, and advocates from across the country to launch the new Jails and Justice Support Center (JJSC). The JJSC assists jails in creating safe, humane, and effective environments for incarcerated individuals, staff members, and visitors. The mission of the JJSC is to coordinate and facilitate direct delivery of innovative and industry-leading services and support focusing on justice and correctional policy, operational practices, and professional development for America's jails. The JJRC website features a toolkit, a library of resources, a means to request technical assistance, and more.

Funded and hosted by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), this podcast episode explores a new research study recently announced by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) that will use AI to analyze LAPD officers’ tone and language during traffic stops; the study could be used to develop state-of-the-art training. In this episode, PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler spoke with LAPD Chief Michel Moore to learn more about the study.

Published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security, this report provides definitions, terminology, and methodology of domestic terrorism (DT), with an assessment of the different types of activities categorized as DT. It also presents the FBI’s criteria for opening, managing, and closing cases. It proceeds with a presentation of data and concludes with recommendations for National Strategy implementation, legislation, and resource enhancement. Some key findings from the report are as follows: 

• Domestic terrorism is currently grouped into the following five threat categories: (1) racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism; (2) anti-government or anti-authority violent extremism; (3) animal rights or environmental violent extremism; (4) abortion-related violent extremism; and (5) all other domestic terrorism threats.
• Racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs), driven by a belief in the superiority of the white race, remained among the FBI’s highest priority threats in 2022; however, by the end of FY 2022, cases of anti-government or anti-authority violent extremism made up the largest percentage of DT threat investigations (31%).
• While not considered a DT threat, also covered under DT investigations are cases of rioting and civil unrest, which made up the largest percentage (35%) of all DT investigations.

Published by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, this database contains a compilation of global hate and extremist symbols. Extremist groups collaborate with each other across countries, sharing hateful narratives, tactical playbooks, and symbols to represent their causes. This database is a tool for identifying the whereabouts, narratives, and violent acts of these extremist groups and is intended to be used by law enforcement, tech companies, policymakers, media, and advocates, as well as the general public. Various information is listed regarding each symbol in the directory, including photos, descriptions, associated ideologies, and the location(s) where the symbol was found. So far, the database contains symbols from more than 40 different countries and more than 20 associated ideologies.  It should be noted that this database does not contain a comprehensive list, since new extremist groups are constantly emerging. 

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has released its Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community for 2023.  This annual report focuses on the worldwide threats to U.S. national security for the upcoming year and specifically “provides the Intelligence Community’s (IC’s) baseline assessments of the most pressing threats to U.S. national interests.“ The report details the objectives, activities, and capabilities of four adversarial nations: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. In addition, it examines conflicts and instability taking place across the globe that may be of concern to the United States (Afghanistan, India-Pakistan, India-China, Near East, East Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa).  The report discusses climate change and environmental degradation, health security, and additional transnational issues such as the global economic consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war.