Two important new eLearning courses have been added to the training portal of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Policing Services (COPS Office). Like all of the more than 50 courses available on the COPS Training Portal, they are free of charge and developed by subject matter experts in the law enforcement field.

Designed to provide a no-cost means for law enforcement organizations, training academies, and individual officers to access high-quality materials and information, the COPS Training Portal is also convenient to access 24/7 on the portal’s mobile app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Vehicular Pursuit Management: Balancing Risks and Enhancing Safety

Vehicular Pursuit Management: Balancing Risks and Enhancing Safety explores the decision-making challenges that police chiefs, sheriffs, and other law enforcement professionals face regarding vehicular pursuits: setting pursuit policies, managing the risks associated with them, and choosing alternatives that can shorten or eliminate the need for a vehicular pursuit.

The course is based on the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and COPS Office publication Vehicular Pursuits: A Guidebook for Law Enforcement Executives on Managing the Associated Risks. Developed in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), it is intended for law enforcement executives, decisionmakers, and policymakers, but is also appropriate for other public safety practitioners.

The course discusses promising practices from field professionals including state, local and tribal law enforcement leaders. It concludes with a Prioritized Action Plan that provides concrete steps for reviewing, managing, and implementing effective pursuit policies.

Topics covered include the following:

• Considerations for pursuit interventions
• The role of data in managing law enforcement pursuits
• Building a comprehensive pursuit reporting system
• Using agency-level analysis of pursuit data to identify areas for improvement
• The benefits to agencies of providing regular and realistic pursuit training
• The benefits of community engagement and transparency about vehicular pursuits
• Methods for educating the community about pursuits

Pathways to Resiliency: Community Policing and Countering Violent Extremism

Pathways to Resiliency: Community Policing and Countering Violent Extremism highlights community-based efforts to address the threat of violent extremism and targeted violence through partnerships, problem solving, and community policing strategies.

Developed by the National Center for Policing Innovation (NCPI) to provide local, state, and tribal law enforcement personnel with practical guidance and important insights into this critical public safety issue, the course features video case studies of agencies and organizations which have effectively used community policing to counter the threat of violent extremism and build community resiliency.

In addition to examining both time-tested and innovative approaches which law enforcement and communities across the nation have successfully employed, it offers resource links for quick access to the latest and most relevant information from organizations such as the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

It also provides links to the latest guidance on law enforcement best practices and effective community policing from the COPS Office and other helpful resources.

Topics covered include the following:

• The role of community policing in building resiliency to violent extremism
• Effective community-based efforts to counter the threat of violent extremism
• Understanding of violent extremism and mobilization to it
• The dynamics underlying violent extremism, such as youth susceptibility and social media
• Effective youth engagement strategies
• The applicability of strategies examined in each module's content to the learner’s community or jurisdiction
• Key partnerships necessary for building community resiliency

Certificates of Completion are awarded on both courses based on assigned learning hours and minimum 80 percent score on post-course assessment. Portal course sessions are active January 1–December 31 of each year; course content must be completed by December 31 to earn your certificate.

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