The Community Oriented Policing Services’ (COPS Office) CPD funds are used to help law enforcement implement community policing through the development and testing of innovative strategies; building knowledge about effective practices and outcomes; and supporting creative approaches to preventing crime and promoting safe communities.
Officials described the “National Law Enforcement Knowledge Lab” as an attempt to compile a one-stop shop of information and best practices that are scattered across federal agencies and outside organizations. The goal is to create a road map for police departments seeking to implement reforms.
The Department of Justice today announced more than $139 million in grant funding through the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) COPS Hiring Program (CHP). The awards provide direct funding to 183 law enforcement agencies across the nation, allowing those agencies to hire 1,066 additional full-time law enforcement professionals.
Under the new policy, the department’s law enforcement components will be prohibited from using “chokeholds” and “carotid restraints” unless deadly force is authorized, that is “when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”
Monitoring teams — usually composed of former police officials, lawyers, academics and police-reform consultants — have typically billed local taxpayers between $1 million and $2 million per year. Some consultants have served on federal oversight teams in more than one city at the same time, drawing criticism over conflicts of interest.
“This is not about one particular officer, policy or incident," Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said in a statement. “Rather, this is about reforming the entire institution of policing in Columbus.”
The case studies provide an in-depth look at civilian oversight in Atlanta, Cambridge, MA, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.
Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said her department has already engaged in reform efforts and would cooperate with Justice officials.
The Justice Department is urging the city to adopt body cameras and other accountability measures to bring the city back into compliance with the 2014 settlement agreement.
The initial strike forces in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., will work to stop guns traveling from areas where it is easier to obtain firearms to places with more restrictive gun laws.
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