Official websites use.gov
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Every police department has a role to play in homeland security, and community policing is essential to public safety at both the local and national levels.
COPS Office resources will help you use the community policing philosophy to navigate the complexities of intelligence gathering, information sharing, privacy, and civil liberties. The following publications are organized by publication date (newest to oldest).
| Roadmap to Implementing an Effective Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Program In early 2020, the COPS Office launched a working group comprising leaders in the field, both local and federal, to identify and create vital resources for law enforcement agencies using and confronting the use of drones. This publication is a roadmap on how agencies can plan, establish, and implement drone programs. |
Unique Needs and Challenges of Border Law Enforcement and Promising Practices for Establishing a Criminal Interdiction Unit The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) and the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) hosted a series of roundtable and focus groups, supplemented by a needs assessment, to determine the needs, promising practices, and challenges of sheriffs' offices along the northern and southern borders of the United States. This report summarizes the findings of those discussions. Border sheriffs' primary needs are for personnel; updated equipment and infrastructure, particularly along the northern border; and support in information sharing and communication across all levels of government. The report also focuses on a widely shared promising practice—the establishment of dedicated interdiction units. A COPS Office / NSA training on rural interdiction is summarized, along with lessons learned from an interdiction unit in North Texas. |
| Drones: A Report on the Use of Drones by Public Safety Agencies—and a Wake-Up Call About the Threat of Malicious Drone Attacks This publication synthesizes information presented and discussed by participants; lessons learned; and promising practices gathered from interviews, policy reviews, and survey data for the purpose of providing law enforcement agencies with guidance on implementing a drone program. |
Policing the Connected World: Using Social Network Analysis in Police-Community Partnerships Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using social network analysis (SNA) to understand the organization of gangs and other criminal networks, to identify their relationships, and to analyze data that can be used to focus crime prevention efforts |
| Lessons to Advance Community Policing: Final Report for 2014 Microgrant Sites In 2013, the COPS Office launched the Microgrant Initiative for Law Enforcement under the Community Policing Development program to facilitate the implementation or advancement of nationwide community policing efforts and address existing gaps in community policing knowledge and tools |
Building Interdisciplinary Partnerships to Prevent Violent Extremism This report on the Forum for Building Interdisciplinary Partnerships to Prevent Violent Extremism documents the discussion of the forum participants, provides case studies of collaborative efforts and recommendations from forum participants on building partnerships among stakeholders critical to preventing violent extremism. |
| Bringing Calm to Chaos: A Critical Incident Review of the San Bernardino Public Safety Response to the December 2, 2015, Terrorist Shooting Incident at the Inland Regional Center In December 2015, two terrorists attacked a training session and holiday party for San Bernardino County employees, killing 14 and wounding 24 including two police officers. But further losses were averted by the response of the police department, sheriff's office, emergency services, and FBI, who came together to prevent additional deaths and injuries. With a grant from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), the Police Foundation critically, objectively, and thoroughly examined all aspects of the public safety response - including preparation and aftermath - and prepared this critical incident review of the events surrounding the shooting. This review provides a detailed overview of the incident response; lessons learned to improve responding agencies' policies, procedures, tactics, systems, culture, and relationships; and guidance to other agencies and first responders as they prepare for responses to terrorist, active shooter or other hostile events, and mass casualty incidents. A visual representation of the events that took place that day is available at http://incidentreview.wpengine.com/san-bernardino/. |
Report on the National Summit on Empowering Communities to Prevent Violent Extremism Offers a framework to improve community engagement, trust , prevention, and intervention regarding individuals at risk for engaging in violent extremism |
| Uniting Communities Post-9/11: Tactics for Cultivating Community Policing Partnerships with Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian Communities Aims to explore how community oriented policing strategies could support homeland security initiatives while building stronger, more trustful relationships between communities and police |
Using Community Policing to Counter Violent Extremism: 5 Key Principles for Law Enforcement Discusses five key principles of community policing applied to homeland security concerns and provides practical examples from law enforcement agencies implementing community policing approaches to counter violent extremism. |
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Awareness Briefs: |
Building Relationships of Trust: |
| Intelligence Analysis for Problem Solvers This manual fuses aspects of intelligence analysis with Problem-Oriented Policing. It is focused on the analysis of intelligence and has been written for three groups in local policing agencies: (1) intelligence officers and analysts, (2) crime analysts who may be called upon to use intelligence information and, (3) police managers who supervise crime and intelligence analysts. |
Planning and Managing Security for Major Special Events: Guidelines for Law Enforcement The guide covers all aspects of pre-event planning, security needs during the event, and post-event activities. Topics covered include threat and risk assessments; intelligence; staffing needs and resources; communications; access control and credentialing; traffic and transportation; logistics, training, and public information; hazardous materials; critical infrastructure; demonstrations; and security management. |
| Enhancing the Law Enforcement Intelligence Capacity Provides recommendations on developing and maintaining a criminal intelligence capacity |
Law Enforcement Intelligence: A Guide for State, Local and Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies, 2nd Ed Covers intelligence-led policing, civil rights and privacy in the law enforcement intelligence process, public-private partnerships, fusion centers, suspicious activity, and open source information |
| National Summit on Intelligence: Gathering, Sharing, Analysis and Use after 9/11 Outlines ways to overcome persistent challenges in intelligence sharing |
Policing Terrorism: An Executive's Guide Focuses on terrorism prevention and preparedness for executives |
| Integrated Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Enhanced Information Management for LE Leaders Examines the disconnect between crime analysis and intelligence analysis found in many law enforcement agencies |
Protecting Your Community From Terrorism: |
| Connecting the Dots for a Proactive Approach Explores how to harness the power of community policing to secure the homeland. |
OTHER GOVERNMENT RESOURCES
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Protects and defends the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, upholds and enforces the criminal laws of the United States, and provides leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners
National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)
Serves as the primary organization in the U.S. government for integrating and analyzing all intelligence pertaining to terrorism possessed or acquired by the U.S. government (except purely domestic terrorism)
National Criminal Intelligence Resource Center
Provides a multitude of resources concerned with law enforcement intelligence operations and a clearinghouse for counter-terrorism-related information for local law enforcement
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Provides protection to the nation through a wide range of duties including preserving individual rights under the law (Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties) and the gathering of intelligence and information to maintain a safe, secure, and resilient homeland (Office of Intelligence and Analysis)
