When it Comes to Eyewitness ID Best Practices, the Science is Settled

The COPS Office top 10 must-reads of 2014

Best Practices and Expert Advice on the Issues Critical to You, Your Department, and Your Community

top 10 image We’re here for you. Since our founding 20 years ago in 1994, the mission of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) has been to provide you and your colleagues with the training and information you need to prevent crime, enhance operations, and build productive relationships with your community.

To that end, we’ve developed a wide array of knowledge resources that combine the input of subject matter experts, law enforcement professionals, social service providers, and community leaders with research and case studies to provide the most current and reliable guidance on topics as diverse as school and campus safety, online recruitment for violent extremism, agency management, and much more.

This year is no different. The COPS Office has developed more than 60 publications that can help you with the issues facing your community. All are free of charge—part of our service to law enforcement and community policing. Below are 10 new publications that have been well received by our audiences. You can read them by clicking on their respective links:

Stop and Frisk: Balancing Crime Control with Community Relations discusses the legal aspects and unintended consequences of stop and frisk and offers practical recommendations for the lawful and respectful use of this procedure.
Not In Our Town: Light in the Darkness—A Guide for Law Enforcement can help agencies initiate important conversations and develop strategies that promote mutual police-community trust, improve hate crime reporting, and address tensions before they erupt into violence.
Drug Endangered Children Guide for Law Enforcement: Key Insights for Partnering with Child Welfare, Medical Providers, Treatment Providers, Prosecutors, and Civil Attorneys discusses the rolls and responsibilities of these professionals as well as the ways in which the DEC Approach can change their response to drug endangered children.
Promising Practices for Helping Drug Endangered Children: Paths to a Common Vision shares promising practices that state, tribal, and provincial DEC alliance leaders are using and helps connect DEC leaders and other professionals to leverage resources and share ideas.
Custom Notifications: Individualized Communication in the Group Violence Intervention provides practical information about "custom notifications," an independent element of GVI that enables quick, tactical, direct communication to particular group members.
Managing the Group Violence Intervention: Using Shooting Scorecards to Track Group Violence explains how to use scorecards to identify the groups that commit or are victimized by the highest number of shootings and how to use the data to implement focused deterrence strategies.
IACP National Symposium on Law Enforcement Officer Suicide and Mental Health: Breaking the Silence on Law Enforcement Suicides discuss the results of this symposium, which addressed mental health and suicide prevention, the stigma associated with mental health issues, and recommendations for policies and practices.
Implementing a Body-Worn Camera Program: Recommendations and Lessons Learned explores issues such as privacy, cost, police-community relationships, and procedural justice and offers policy recommendations.
Future Trends in Policing explores the impact of new technologies and strategies such as predictive policing, the use of social media, the growing threat of cybercrime, and the effects of changing workforce demographics.
Using Community Policing to Counter Violent Extremism: 5 Key Principles for Law Enforcement discusses the application of community policing principles to homeland security and provides examples of law enforcement agencies building community cooperation and collaboration.

To find additional resources on community policing or any other topics of interest, visit the COPS Office Resource Center.

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