The Impact - PSP Quarterly Newsletter
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Presents . . .
The PSP Impact
- A Quarterly Snapshot of the PSP Network -
April–June 2021
2021 Virtual Violent Crime Summit
The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Public Safety Partnership (PSP)
Virtual Violent Crime Summit was held April 21–22, 2021. The summit included two days of presentations that focused on national violent crime and criminal justice issues.
Day One: Presentations
Day One included a keynote address on the pandemic, social unrest, and crime in U.S. cities. This was followed by a presentation from the following federal partners on the resources that they can provide to each of the active PSP sites: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; and the U.S. Marshals Service. Before the midday break, there was also a live presentation on the Georgetown University Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) project. To view Day One presentations, click here.
Law Enforcement Leaders' Roundtable
The next session on Day One was the Law Enforcement Leaders’ Roundtable. The roundtable included various PSP law enforcement leaders, who were asked a variety of topical questions on violent crime in the United States, as well as recent issues pertaining to COVID-19. To watch the Law Enforcement Leadership Roundtable, click here.
PSP Virtual Academy Open House
At the conclusion of Day One, PSP announced the opening of the PSP Virtual Academy and provided a brief virtual open house to showcase the various educational resources that can be found in the academy. To learn more about the PSP Virtual Academy, click here.
Day Two: Breakout Sessions
Day Two included nine breakout sessions where participants could jump between sessions, if interested. Topics varied from community engagement, investigations, crime analysis, and criminal justice collaboration to technology, federal partnerships, gun violence, and constitutional policing. To view Day Two breakout sessions, click here.
Communities of Practice (CoPs) bring together those with common interests and/or professions to share lessons learned and promising practices, address common challenges, refine skills through interactive engagements, and expose members to new methods.
PSP has established CoPs in the areas of crime analysis, technology, prosecution, public information officers and, most recently, law enforcement leadership. Click here to learn more!
The PSP team encourages all active PSP sites to participate in the CoPs. Please contact info@pspartnership.org if you would like to join or learn more.
Communities of Practice:
Goals and Upcoming Events
Crime Analysis Community of Practice (CACoP)
The CACoP promotes crime analysis as a core and integrated element of participating agencies. The CACoP provides opportunities to share strategies and work products and to discuss concepts to turn data into actionable information. The CACoP leverages the Bureau of Justice Assistance's varied and customizable array of training and technical assistance to support the crime analysis needs of PSP sites.
Next Event: July 2021 (Tentative)
Law Enforcement Leadership Community of Practice (LELCoP)
The LELCoP provides PSP site leadership with opportunities to hear from other leaders and discuss the unique challenges, responsibilities, and issues they face daily. The LELCoP provides an environment for PSP site leaders to discuss issues, strategies, and solutions they are engaging in to drive positive change in the field.
Monthly Event: Third Tuesday of every month from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., ET
Prosecution Community of Practice (PCoP)
The PCoP encourages outreach and relationship building among all prosecutors and district attorneys throughout the PSP network. The PCoP shares best and promising practices and innovative strategies to reduce violent crime, supports collaboration with law enforcement and the community, and supports PSP’s efforts to drive evidence-based prosecution and enhance public safety.
Monthly Event: First Thursday of every month from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., ET
Public Information Officers Community of Practice (PIOCoP)
Public information officers (PIOs) communicate critical information to the public and are frequently viewed as the “face” of an agency. To support the PIO’s critical role and responsibilities, the PIOCoP facilitates learning and networking opportunities among PSP site PIOs about community engagement strategies, messaging, and media relations.
Next Event: August 12, 2021, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., ET
Technology Community of Practice (TCoP)
PSP established the TCoP to provide an opportunity for PSP site technology professionals to collaborate and discuss the increasingly critical and expansive role that technology plays in daily crime fighting. The TCoP shares promising practices and innovative methods to help address law enforcement’s technology-related challenges and needs in procuring, implementing, and leveraging technology to build capacities in areas that are critical to fighting crime.
Next Event: July 27, 2021, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon, ET (Tentative)
Communities of Practice:
Events From April to June 2021
Crime Analysis Community of Practice (CACoP) Roundtable: Social Network Analysis
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
"Examining the Utilization of Social Network Analysis to Enhance Crime Reduction: A Facilitated Discussion on Promising Practices and the Technical Training Needs of the Field"
This PSP webinar was moderated by Ms. Annie Mitchell and presenters included Dr. Andrew Fox, Dr. Bryanna Fox, Ms. Diane Koenig, Mr. John Markovic, Mr. Joe McHale, and Mr. Joe Winter. Social network analysis (SNA) is a tool frequently used by law enforcement to visualize relationships as social structures to be shared as intelligence to better inform crime prevention and intervention efforts. This facilitated discussion highlighted the recent growth and utilization of SNA in crime reduction strategies. The format for this engagement was designed to gain insight from practitioners and researchers who have had success or encountered challenges in progressing the use of SNA.
Law Enforcement Leadership Community of Practice (LELCoP) Roundtable
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
The Law Enforcement Leadership Community of Practice (LELCoP) Roundtable was hosted by PSP and facilitated by Retired Chief Sylvia Moir. The discussion was focused on summer violence. Specific topics included engagement with partner agencies, deployment changes, encouraging community members to secure guns, and measuring outcomes. PSP site leadership exchanged ideas on successes and challenges regarding these topics, and the conversation led to an opportunity for the leadership to engage with each other directly for increased support and mentorship.
Prosecution Community of Practice (PCoP) Roundtable
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
The Prosecution Community of Practice (PCoP) Roundtable was hosted by PSP and facilitated by Ms. Beth McGarry. The roundtable was used as a starting point to discuss potential topics and structures for upcoming PCoP sessions in 2021. The session began with a brief summary of PSP and how the program can assist prosecutors. The introduction led to a discussion revolved around what topics the group wanted to prioritize in upcoming sessions. Live polling questions were used to determine what the group would prefer as far as frequency of CoP sessions, structure of the calls, and goals/outcomes the group wanted to accomplish.
-Virtual Peer Exchanges and Webinars-
The PSP team is committed to the continued delivery of virtual engagements, such as webinars and collaborative virtual peer exchanges (VPEs), to support law enforcement agencies and PSP partners during these unprecedented times. By employing the use of Web-based technologies to host webinars and peer exchanges, PSP sites and their law enforcement partners can communicate and collaborate more frequently, and in a more cost-effective and interactive way. VPEs promote exposure to evidence-based investigation and prosecutorial strategies among a wider and more diverse audience.
The following virtual engagements, held between April and June 2021, cover a variety of topics aimed at reducing violent crime and enhancing public safety in PSP sites and other state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies.
Interested in participating in a VPE or need additional information? Contact the PSP team at info@pspartnership.org.
Kansas City Virtual Peer Exchange
On June 16, 2021, PSP welcomed Pasco County, Florida, in a virtual peer-to-peer exchange in response to Kansas City, Missouri's request to learn more about Pasco County’s approach to intervention in crime, specifically with local agencies to make referrals for services for those individuals who are most at risk for engaging in violent crime. The speakers, Dr. Bryanna Fox and Ms. Diane Koenig, provided a presentation on violent and narcotic offenders with the focus on the narcotic offenders incorporating and utilizing social network analysis. Dr. Fox is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida, and her research focuses on the identification of developmental risk factors for offending and developing evidence-based policing and crime prevention strategies. Ms. Koenig is a criminal intelligence analyst at the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, where she has worked for the past thirteen years. Her work focuses on initiatives to decrease violent crime and criminal activity associated with the opioid epidemic within Pasco County by using a focused deterrence strategy aimed at identifying individuals at the highest risk of prolific offending.
Miami Virtual Peer Exchange
On June 17, 2021, the Miami, Florida, Police Department received a virtual training by Sergeant Patrick Kinney of the Chicago, Illinois, Police Department on the Social Media Exploitation Team (SOMEX). PSP Miami has previously participated in two other virtual trainings to enhance its crime analysis and intelligence capacity, and this training was the third installment.
-Virtual Academy-
The National Public Safety Partnership (PSP), in collaboration with leading law enforcement experts and practitioners, has developed interactive, virtual
courses on law enforcement topics identified to be of great importance and shared interest to PSP network-wide and beyond.
These courses are available nationwide to requesting law enforcement professionals as part of the PSP Virtual Academy. All the courses within the Virtual Academy are self-paced, and students can access the platform using computers, smartphones, and tablets. Upon completion, students are given an opportunity to print and save a completion certificate. This can then be shared with their training staff or placed in their training records.
Available Courses
Law Enforcement Guide to Crime Guns
This course, which was developed in close collaboration with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), provides an overview of crime guns as they relate to investigative processes such as the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) and ATF’s eTrace (Electronic Tracing System).
Pilot Sites: Amarillo, Texas; Anniston/Oxford Alabama; Baltimore, Maryland; Cleveland, Ohio; Davenport, Iowa; Tulsa, Oklahoma
Feedback: The initial pilot took place with key staff from the Education and Training Section of the Baltimore, Police Department, as well as their Strategic Site Liaison, on Crime Guns and Crime S.C.E.N.E. Excellence. Crime S.C.E.N.E. Excellence was redesigned to include a more visual experience to supplement the podcast component, which has been beneficial in the roll-out of the generic version of that course to the other PSP sites currently enrolled in pilot mode. A generic version of Law Enforcement Guide to Crime Guns was developed for the other sites and includes videos from BJA/PSP leadership. Crime S.C.E.N.E. Excellence’s credit-hour component was expanded from two to four hours after reviewing time averages and gaining verbal feedback on the average time spent to complete the course.
Leadership Strategies: Building Effective Leaders to Impact Violence Reduction
This course provides law enforcement executives, line-level supervisors, and commanders with tools to develop their leadership mindsets and self-assess their capacities to navigate challenges while implementing the organizational change often associated with violence reduction strategies.
Pilot Sites: Amarillo, Texas; Anniston/Oxford, Alabama; Baltimore, Maryland; Cleveland, Ohio; Harris County, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma
Crime S.C.E.N.E. Excellence: Navigating the Initial Response to a Violent Crime Scene
This course highlights the tools and best practices that first responders need to consider to successfully manage violent crime scenes.
Pilot Sites: Amarillo, Texas; Anniston/Oxford, Alabama; Baltimore, Maryland; Cleveland, Ohio; Harris County, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma
Additional Courses Coming Soon!
GunStat
GETS
-Training and Technical Assistance-
Baltimore Training
Beginning February 2021, the Baltimore, Maryland, Police Department (BPD) piloted the first two virtual course offerings made available to PSP sites via the Virtual Academy. The BPD staff has been instrumental in piloting the Law Enforcement Guide to Crime Guns and Crime S.C.E.N.E. Excellence courses, which were initially developed to include Baltimore-specific content and included video content from the BPD command staff.
The Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) implemented feedback from the initial Baltimore pilot users and, in April 2021, rolled both courses out to more than 2,000 BPD personnel, which includes sworn officers and civilian crime scene personnel. To date, more than 1,300 users combined have completed the two courses. These two courses also have been piloted with staff from the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office and members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Division of Maryland, staff.
Featured Toolkit: Mental Health Awareness
Recognizing that May was National Mental Health Awareness Month, the PSP team is featuring the "Mental Health" Public Safety Clearinghouse toolkit, consisting of various federal resources focusing on mental health resources for both law enforcement and the community.
The Public Safety Clearinghouse is a public online tool that serves as a one-stop shop for violence reduction and public safety resources from DOJ program components and other federal entities. The Clearinghouse functions as an online catalog for users to browse, search, and ultimately build a custom toolkit of resources that can be downloaded in one package and shared with others for future access.
Designed for maximum functionality on your smartphone or tablet, the Public Safety Clearinghouse mobile app offers a convenient, single point of access to DOJ violence reduction and public safety resources for the criminal justice field. Download the Public Safety Clearinghouse mobile app today by clicking on the Apple or Android links or by visiting your mobile app store.
If you have questions or would like to add any DOJ-sponsored resources to the Clearinghouse, please contact info@pspartnership.org.
-Contact Us-
We want to hear from you! Do you have a success story or information that you would like to feature in future editions of The PSP Impact?
Please contact info@pspartnership.org for suggestions on items to spotlight.
This project was supported by Grant No. 2016-DG-BX-K006 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.