Webinars and Podcasts

The Bureau of Justice Assistance, the National Public Safety Partnership, and TacLogix Inc. present on-demand viewing of the three-part Web series on what agencies can learn from consent decrees, constitutional policing strategies, and successful police reform initiatives. The three sessions featured several notable guests and were moderated by Mr. Arif Alikhan, former Director of Constitutional Policing and Policy for the Los Angeles Police Department and U.S. Department of Justice official, and Geoffrey Alpert, Ph.D., professor, and independent monitor and police researcher, from the University of South Carolina’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Street-level violent gun crime has two consistent, demographic features: a small percentage of a city’s population is responsible for an overwhelming majority of its violent gun crime and this small population operates in groups. Yet, in violent gun crime investigations and prosecutions, it is most often the single event and the single suspect that are in focus. This focus may overlook what is known and often leaves criminal organizations participating in violent gun crime free from accountability.

The National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) further reveals the group aspect to violent gun crime by showing a pattern of criminal behavior shootings. A more complex, but effective, approach to investigating individuals working together to engage in a pattern of violent gun crime is through conspiracy. This webinar explores the surface issues, applying conspiracy strategies to violent gun crime. It opens a discussion for thought to move toward innovative solutions.

PSP provides the opportunity for PSP sites to receive an independent assessment of their nonfatal shooting (NFS) processes and protocols. These assessments are intended to provide the sites with a basis to increase their clearance rates, reduce violent offenses, enhance public safety, and decrease crime guns in circulation. In partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) fields an accomplished team of subject-matter experts to review and assess the requesting agency’s policies, procedures, and practices. This webinar highlights commonalities found in NFS investigation assessments conducted by IIR and provides a generic overview of related observations.

This PSP Lunch and Learn event highlighted the Wichita, Kansas, Police Department’s Operation Save a Casing initiative, a Bureau of Justice Assistance-sponsored program that allows for local residents of a community to provide critical ballistic intelligence to law enforcement in the event that their firearms are stolen or lost. This event provided an overview of the program and its implementation by the Wichita Police Department.

The National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) is a useful, evidence-based tool for law enforcement’s fight against violent gun crime. As NIBIN continues to expand, more law enforcement agencies are able to take advantage of its important information. With that expansion, however, comes an increase in leads developed by NIBIN, often overwhelming departments and law enforcement in a region. Determining the investigative potential of these leads through effective triage is a critical piece to any successful NIBIN program.

This webinar featured a standardized and highly effective approach to accomplish NIBIN lead triage in a very short amount of time. Using geography, events, time, and solvability factors (GETS), departments are able to systematically triage NIBIN leads, saving hundreds of hours of criminal intelligence and investigative resource expenditures.

In today’s climate of rapidly evolving technology, intense public scrutiny, and the increased availability of data to drive strategies, it has become increasingly important that violence reduction strategies are intelligence-led. This webinar provided PSP sites with an overview of the terminology associated with intelligence, as well as the review process required to utilize it in a manner that is both efficient and legal. In addition, the Intelligence 101 webinar highlighted critical practices and reviewed national standards that line officers and investigators need to know to combat violent crime, gangs, and criminal enterprises.

Integrating victim services into law enforcement agencies can provide crime victims with streamlined access to counseling and resources. In addition to providing more empathetic services to victims of crime, law enforcement agencies and prosecutorial partners benefit from enhanced victim/witness communication, which in turn can increase the likelihood of cooperation as cases progress through the criminal justice system. Implementing a victim services program can increase an agency’s ability to connect with the community they serve, however the process of building capacity in victim services can be a challenging endeavor. This webinar highlighted the implementation of a victim services program in the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Police Department and the Office for Victims of Crime’s law enforcement and victim services portfolio.

The 21st-century crime analyst’s role is ever-changing as technology continues to grow, evolve, and successfully support criminal investigations. Crime analysts are responsible for producing more than just dots on a map, charts, and graphs. The amount of data that is available to an analyst can be overwhelming, but knowing how to use data as a valuable tool for law enforcement can be a game changer. Topics addressed during this webinar included capturing, analyzing, and acting on data; critical thinking and becoming investigative in analyzing crime; utilizing the analyst network; and investigative resources and analytical case studies.

Social network analysis (SNA) can be a useful tool for criminal investigations and police community efforts to reduce violent crime. Understanding how data is compiled and structured, how it may be utilized, and the limitations that it has is critical for leaders considering the use of SNA. This webinar outlined the concept of SNA and how this tool can be utilized to further crime-reduction strategies. Topics included visualizing a network and types of network data related to SNA, understanding group dynamics and the utilization of SNA in focused deterrence, SNA associated with hotspots as well as NIBIN linkages, and potential implementation challenges and legal considerations.

Crime analysis has become an essential tool in law enforcement’s efforts to enhance public safety, identify emerging trends, allocate resources, apply new technology, and plan crime-prevention strategies. Successful data-driven strategies such as hot-spot policing, problem-oriented policing, and intelligence-led policing use the work of an effective crime analysis unit. This webinar provided insight on how a crime analyst can support chiefs, sheriffs, and other police executives or managers with strategic or tactical decision making. Topics included: what to expect from your crime analyst, and how to make effective use of crime analysis; supporting and managing crime analysts, as well as staffing levels and placement; methods to improve data quality, including necessary tools and training; and Records Management System (RMS) and Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) connectivity.

Focused-deterrence initiatives commonly include such aspects as identification of prolific offenders, scripted offender notification meetings, coordinated and strategic prosecution, provision of social services to individuals willing to accept them, and careful monitoring of individuals’ actions. When carefully and properly implemented, focused-deterrence initiatives have great potential to enhance the perceived legitimacy of the police and the public’s trust in them in communities where these have often been lacking. This webinar provides an introductory overview of the fundamentals of focused deterrence, research on and implementation of focused deterrence in major cities, and virtual tools to further focused deterrence efforts.

Please note, due to technical difficulties with the audio service provider during this presentation, viewers may experience minor audio impairments when viewing this webinar. For questions regarding this webinar or the topic of focused deterrence, please contact info@pspartnership.org.

The initial recovery and identification of a crime gun is one of the most critical steps in any investigation. This step is even more critical for agencies whose communities are experiencing high incidences of violent gun crime, are expanding their utilization of crime gun intelligence (National Integrated Ballistic Information Network [NIBIN] and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ [ATF] eTrace), or are participating in a Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC). These firearms provide valuable investigative leads and are subsequently scrutinized during all aspects of the investigation that follows the recovery. Despite the importance of this initial step, few officers receive training on the identification of firearms and, as a result, firearms are frequently misidentified, leading to missed opportunities for lead development, case connection, and successful prosecution. This webinar provided an overview of the NIBIN process and CGIC concept, history and relevance of ATF’s eTrace, how to properly identify and recover crime guns, and lessons learned and successes from unique cases.

Before crime analysts can become effective within their agencies, they must first build an analytical foundation built on basic principles. This presentation assisted participants in establishing a solid base as well as producing information and products that are useful to command staff members, patrol, and detectives. This presentation focused on defining the crime analyst’s role and building a solid analytical foundation, effective and actionable crime analysis products, and time management and prioritization of high vs. low priority products and services. Analytical case studies were also reviewed during this presentation.

Heading further into the 21st century, digital ethics and trust have become increasingly important issues for police. Communities and agencies are beginning to demand the collection of data and the analysis produced from its collection. Law enforcement agencies are also expected to utilize the data analysis and technology in a secure and ethical manner. The injudicious use of data, analytics, or technology by a police department may have a negative impact on public trust and may increase the difficulty of achieving effective policing in contemporary law enforcement. Leaders within law enforcement agencies will benefit from a deeper understanding of digital trust and its implications to their organizations and profession. This webinar explored the importance of building digital trust in law enforcement agencies. Digital trust between the police and their stakeholders allows for the use of promising technology while mitigating risks associated with the implementation and use of this technology.

EPIC is a program developed by the NOPD in an effort to educate and support their officers in the practice of peer intervention. Through EPIC, the NOPD trains members of its department to identify and safely intervene when they believe a person is at risk for doing something that would harm themselves and/or others. This peer approach to 'policing' one another has proven to be effective for the NOPD in preventing harm and promoting officer wellness. The goal of this webinar is to highlight and bring awareness to this proactive, team-focused program as a solution to the officer safety issues that law enforcement faces today. This webinar will explore the efforts that went into gaining support for the program, steps for implementation, challenges faced, and lessons learned.

In 2003, 18 percent of Tampa, Florida’s, retail theft was reported to the Tampa Police Department (TPD) by Walmart. The retailer had the highest percentage of shoplifting in the TPD’s jurisdiction—higher than the next four retail stores combined. The TPD and Walmart instituted a working partnership in an effort to mitigate the high rates of retail theft and reduce recidivism and calls for service. The purpose of this webinar is to highlight and bring awareness to this creative partnership/program as an option to fight crime.

Project Green Light is a public-private community partnership in Detroit, Michigan, aimed at improving neighborhood safety, promoting the revitalization and growth of local businesses, and strengthening the Detroit Police Department’s (DPD) efforts to deter, identify, and solve crime. Project Green Light began with eight gas stations that installed real-time camera connections with police headquarters. The DPD and the city devote staff to effectively receive, monitor, and analyze video feeds from Project Green Light partners, now integrated into Detroit’s Real Time Crime Center. Project Green Light businesses experienced an 11 percent reduction in violent crime in 2017 compared to 2016. This webinar will explore Detroit’s Project Green Light and lessons learned from the city regarding implementation of the project to reduce crime and violence. The webinar will also examine the rationale of the Project Green Light initiative; the implementation strategy; and some of the lessons learned, successes, and challenges.

The Cure Violence Health Model applies the methodologies associated with the control of disease outbreaks: interrupting transmission of the disease, reducing the risk of the highest risk, and changing community norms. By viewing violence as contagious and treating it using a health approach, this model has proven effective in reducing violence in multiple jurisdictions across the country and internationally. The overall goal of this webinar is to educate through discussion how violence is an epidemic that can be prevented. This webinar will explore the science behind the Cure Violence Health Model and lessons learned from jurisdictions implementing the Cure Violence Health Model to reducing crime and violence. Make it Happen (Crown Heights, New York), a community-based violence reduction initiative is based on the Model. In the webinar, we will also examine the rationale of the Make it Happen initiative; the implementation strategy; and some of the lessons learned, successes, and challenges.