U.S. Department of Justice 

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services 

Image of United States Department of Justice seal
Community Oriented Policing Services logo

"9-11 AND OTHER RECENT 
EVENTS HAVE TAUGHT AMERICA 
THAT WE CAN BE MORE 
EFFECTIVE FIGHTING CRIME AND 
PREVENTING TERRORISM WHEN 
LAW ENFORCEMENT AND OTHER 
SECTORS ARE PREPARED TO 
WORK TOGETHER TO ENSURE 
OUR COLLECTIVE SAFETY." 

COPS DIRECTOR 
CARL R. PEED 


Fact Sheet 

www.cops.usdoj.gov 

COPS and Homeland Security


Background 

Now more than ever, the security of 
our nation, our people, and our 
infrastructures is of the utmost 
concern and importance. And, more 
than ever, the responsibility of 
responding to terrorist threats falls 
directly on the shoulders of state, 
local, and tribal law enforcement and 
their government and community 
partners. 

The Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services (COPS) is deeply 
involved in supporting law 
enforcement and their partners 
through partnerships with federal 
government agencies and other 
organizations, grants and funding, 
training, publications, community 
policing programs, and conferences. 

COPS/FBI/BJA Partnership–In 
March 2003, the COPS Office, the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation 
(FBI), and the Bureau of Justice 
Assistance (BJA) of the U.S. 
Department of Justice discussed 
ways to enhance counterterrorism 
training and technical assistance to 
state, local, and tribal law 
enforcement. These discussions led 
to several accomplishments: 
The three agencies jointly advertise 
their resources through a variety of 
methods, including a web site, 
www.counterterrorismtraining.gov. It 
is a single point of access for 
counterterrorism training 
opportunities and related materials 
from the federal government and 
private and nonprofit organizations. 
The site provides information on 
training and technical assistance, 
funding, research and statistics, 
equipment, planning and risk 
assessment, publications, legislation, 
victim assistance, and community 
preparedness. 

In 2003, a professional development 
counterterrorism training module for 
law enforcement executives was 
piloted at both the COPS annual 
conference and the National Sheriffs' 
Association conference. 

The FBI and COPS are delivering 
the BJA-funded State and Local 
Anti-terrorism Training (SLATT) 
through the COPS network of local 
Regional Community Policing 
Institutes (RCPIs). Details are under 
"Training". 

Partnership with PERF–With 
funding from the COPS Office, the 


Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) 
conducted a project entitled Community 
Policing in a Security Conscious World. The 
project included five executive sessions in 
which law enforcement leaders explored, 
debated, and exchanged information on 
providing community policing services in a 
security conscious world. The five sessions 
were: Improving Federal-Local Partnerships; 
Working with Diverse Communities; 
Bioterrorism; Intelligence; and Homeland 
Security. So far, white papers have been 
published on the first two sessions. See 
"Publications", for details. 

Grants and Funding–In fiscal year 2003, the 
COPS Office awarded $60 million in Homeland 
Security Overtime Program (HSOP) grants to 
294 agencies in 50 states and the District of 
Columbia. The HSOP initiative was developed 
by the COPS Office to supplement officer 
overtime salaries over the one-year grant period 
in support of homeland security and community 
policing efforts. HSOP grants pay for officer 
overtime during homeland security training and 
other law enforcement activities designed to 
help prevent acts of terrorism and other violent 
or drug-related crimes. The grants also can be 
used to fund overtime for officers replacing 
colleagues on military reserve duty and to 
support the overtime work of nonsupervisory, 
sworn personnel such as intelligence officers, 
crime analysts, undercover officers, and others 
who work on homeland security or terrorism 
task forces. 

In March 2004, the COPS Office announced a 
second grant program awarding $27.1 million 
in grants to local police and sheriffs' offices for 
hiring additional officers under the COPS 
Universal Hiring Program (UHP). The goal of 
this grant program is to make communities 
safer by helping increase the number of 
community policing officers on patrol in local 
jurisdictions. The grants, awarded to 85 law 
enforcement agencies in 42 states and Puerto 
Rico, will fund 370 additional community 
policing officers. Under UHP, the grants 
provide 75% of the total salary and benefits for 
each new officer during a three-year period, up 
to a maximum of $75,000 per officer. Since 
1994, the COPS Office has funded more than 
118,000 officers in 13,000 law enforcement 
agencies. 

One of the major issues facing the emergency 
services sector is the inability of emergency 
service workers, including the law enforcement, 
fire service, and emergency medical service 
communities to communicate when the need 
arises. In 2003, the COPS Office awarded 
more than $66 million to agencies to address 
the growing need for interoperable 
communications technology. This year, COPS 
received approximately $80 million for this 
effort. The 2004 COPS Interoperable 
Communications Technology Program will be 
targeted to invited jurisdictions. The 
applications will be sent to law enforcement 
agencies requesting proposals that are multi-
jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary. 

Training–The RCPIs, whose creation was 
funded by COPS in 1997, provide 
comprehensive, innovative community policing 
education, training, and technical assistance to 
COPS grantees across the country. As a result 
of the COPS/FBI/BJA partnership, the RCPI 
training partnerships, serving all 50 states, are 
certified to teach the FBI/BJA SLATT 
curriculum. Currently, 12 RCPIs are working 
in partnership with local FBI field offices to 
deliver SLATT. In these classes, the FBI and 
RCPI trainers teach counterterrorism and officer 
safety strategies to state, local, and tribal law 
enforcement personnel. In less than a year, 
COPS and the FBI together have trained more 
than 5,000 law enforcement officers. 


Several RCPIs have also adapted the SLATT 
curriculum to train citizens in aspects of 
counterterrorism awareness. The Missouri RCPI 
has a class entitled "Homeland Security on your 
Block." The Kentucky RCPI has offered a 
"Terrorism Awareness" class in diverse settings 
such as banks, restaurants, and hospitals, 
focusing on their unique vulnerabilities. The 
class is scheduled to be taped for local access 
public television in July 2004. 

COPS is expanding its partnership with the FBI 
and BJA, in continuing to develop 
counterterrorism roll call training programs for 
line officers involving short segments of various 
aspects of the counterterrorism curriculum that 
would be presented to officers during their roll 
calls. 

Publications–The COPS Office has produced 
several publications on counterterrorism topics, 
including the following: 

Protecting Your Community from Terrorism: 
Strategies for Local Law Enforcement, Volume 1 

– Improving Local-Federal Partnerships is a 
white paper resulting from the first forum on 
Community Policing in a Security Conscious 
World conducted by PERF with funding from 
the COPS Office. Sheriffs, police chiefs, FBI 
special agents, antiterrorist experts, and other 
experts discussed the practical and real concerns 
of those who must decide how to use their 
personnel and other resources to address 
terrorism and competing demands for service. 
The participants looked at how local and federal 
agencies work together and what should be done 
to improve cooperation. 

Protecting Your Community from Terrorism: 
Strategies for Local Law Enforcement, Volume 2 

– Working with Diverse Communities is the 
white paper resulting from PERF's second forum 
on Community Policing in a Security Conscious 
World. In this session, ethnically diverse 
community leaders and advocates, sheriffs, 
police chiefs, and federal law enforcement 
officials offered practical suggestions for 
meeting the needs of diverse communities and 
protecting against future terrorist threats, 
providing insights on interviewing and 
interrogation, bias crimes, racial profiling, and 
immigration enforcement. 

Local Law Enforcement Responds to Terrorism 

– Lessons in Prevention and Preparedness is a 
COPS Innovations publication that discusses the 
resources that the police may want to consider 
when developing their terrorism prevention and 
response plans. 

Connecting the Dots for a Proactive Approach, 
written by three COPS staffers, explores how to 
harness the power of community policing to 
secure the homeland. Originally, it was 
published in the fourth quarter 2003 issue of 
Border and Transportation Security magazine. 

A Police Response to Terrorism in the Homeland 

is a CD produced by the COPS-funded RCPI of 
Wichita State University. It provides resources 
related to almost every dimension of homeland 
security, including training curricula on 
counterterrorism, emergency response, 
intelligence, preparedness, weapons of mass 
destruction, and other related topics. 

Future Publications 

Planned for publication at the end of 2004, the 
tentatively titled An Intelligence Guide for State, 
Local, and Tribal Law Enforcement is a joint 
COPS/FBI/BJA publication covering 
intelligence issues and guidance on information 
collection and storage that meet federal 
guidelines and minimize exposure to liability. 

The COPS Office is also preparing a guide on 
the best practices for reducing the fear of 


COPS offers a variety of 
publications, products, 
and training opportunities 
to advance community 
policing and support its 
grant programs. COPS 
publications and products 
offer insights and 
experiences from others 
in the field addressing 
specific problems 
including: 

Local Law 
Enforcement 
Responds To 
Terrorism 
Applying Community 
Policing Principles 
Post-911 
Connecting the Dots 
Community Policing: 
Now More Than Ever 
Protecting Your 
Community From 
Terrorism: Strategies 
for Local Law 
Enforcement 
Volume 1: Local-
Federal Partnerships 
Volume 2: Working 
With Diverse 
Communities 


COPS also sponsors 
training opportunities and 
conferences to give law 
enforcement 
professionals an 
opportunity to learn, 
network, and exchange 
ideas. All COPS 
publications and training 
opportunities are posted 
at COPS Online at 
www.cops.usdoj.gov. 

terrorism and a homeland security 
curriculum for schools. 

The "STAR" toolkit, a homeland 
security/disaster preparedness 
community resources assessment 
tool, will be available this fall from 
the RCPIs and the National Sheriffs' 
Association. 

The COPS Office and the 
International Association of Chiefs 
of Police (IACP), along with a 
number of private security 
associations, sponsored a national 
policy summit to examine how 
public law enforcement agencies and 
private security could better 
collaborate to make communities 
safer. A forthcoming COPS/IACP 
report will synthesize the summit 
discussions and identify a number of 
policy recommendations. 

Community Policing–The 
philosophy behind community 
oriented policing can be directed 
toward concerns involved with 
homeland security and of trying to 
prevent terrorist activities and other 
crimes before they occur. It requires 
law enforcement officials to rethink 
public security procedures and 
practices to maximize the full 
potential of their resources. Many 
local entities are using their COPS 
grants to strengthen their response to 
possible terrorism by improving data 
and intelligence collection and 
processing; increasing their capacity 
to address terrorism by capitalizing 
on technological advancements; 
maintaining open communications 
with other public safety agencies; 
and responding to citizen fears about 
terrorism and preparing to assist 
potential victims. 

Conferences–The COPS Office 
sponsors and participates in a variety 
of conferences, most of which 
include sessions on homeland 
security and counterterrorism issues. 
The June 2004, COPS conference, 
Community Policing for America's 
Future, for example, includes 11 
workshops on the various aspect of 
homeland security and 
counterterrorism. 

Other Sources of Information– 
The COPS Office maintains a list of 
guides and reports from various 
sources, such as PERF and the 
International Association of Chiefs 
of Police; training and technical 
resources from FEMA, the 
Department of Homeland Security, 
and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, 
Firearms and Explosives among 
others; and links to resources such 
as the White House Homeland 
Security page and the U.S. 
Government Counterterrorism web 
site. This information is available 
on the COPS web site under 
Community Policing 
Topics/Homeland Security. 

Contact COPS 

For more information, call the 
COPS Office Response Center at 
800.421.6770, or visit COPS 
Online at www.cops.usdoj.gov. 

Updated June 18, 2004 
e06042393