How Does the Federal Government Help Communities Leverage Data-Driven Change to Improve Public Safety?
The challenges confronting law enforcement agencies are complex. Pressures to address persistent and emerging crime problems, incorporate evidence-based practices, facilitate cooperative community relationships, and respond to the challenges of state and local finance may leave agencies wondering how to find the resources to access state-of-the-art training and technical assistance while focusing on competing priorities. So how can the Federal Government work in collaboration with local agencies to tackle their public safety challenges?
The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Diagnostic Center supports communities in addressing their unique public safety and justice concerns by collecting and analyzing local data that serve as the foundation for justice system reform. As a federal technical assistance resource, the OJP Diagnostic Center works collaboratively with community representatives and decision makers in municipalities that solicit assistance to define what drives their challenges and determine what will work in their specific communities. Diagnostic specialists with subject matter expertise craft workable solutions ranging from peer-to-peer exchanges to a host of training offerings and advocate for the development of comprehensive, cross-system community safety strategies. Diagnostic Center assistance comes at no cost to communities and leverages technical assistance resources from across the U.S. Department of Justice at the local level.
"If [a community has] issues related to criminal justice and the need for evidence-based practices, I think the Diagnostic Center is definitely the place to go."
-Karen Freeman-Wilson, Mayor of Gary, Indiana
Interested in learning more about how the OJP Diagnostic Center makes a lasting impact in the communities it serves? Look for our feature on Fayetteville, North Carolina, in the next edition of the Community Policing Dispatch, follow us on social media, and visit the OJP Diagnostic Center website to read about our engagements in a variety of communities nationwide.
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