Welcome to the OnPolicing Series
OnPolicing captures the thoughts of some of the country’s most important voices on contemporary policing. It is intended to stimulate debate about the state of policing and the myriad of challenges involved in controlling crime, disorder, and terrorism in a democracy like ours. The opinions are the authors’ own and may not represent the official position of the National Policing Institute.
Force Multipliers in Action: Advancing Policing Through Strategic Innovation
By: Jim Burch, NPI President Innovation is a powerful tool in law enforcement. Identifying what works and how best to use it can be a force multiplier, which is especially valuable as agencies face resource challenges. When considering innovations in policing, technological advances rightfully come to mind. But that’s only part of the…
Fourth Amendment Limitations on DNA Collection, Procurement, and Retention
To solve crimes and unearth new leads for cold cases, law enforcement agencies across the country learned to properly and efficiently use deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. DNA technology, vital to ensuring accuracy and fairness in the criminal justice system, can be used to solve crimes in two ways. In cases where the suspect is identified,…
Building Bridges: How Communication Accommodation Can Drive Stronger Community Partnerships
Police in the U.S. are faced with the ongoing challenge of forging positive relationships with the communities they serve. Communities are not one homogenous group, however, and some relationships are more significantly strained in communities that have a long history of conflict with the police. Communication mediates these relationships and can play a significant role…
Prioritizing Cold-Case Murders: What Law Enforcement Executives Can Do
The U.S. is facing a cold-case homicide crisis. According to recent UCR data, experts estimate our nation has 250,000 unsolved murders, a staggering number that increases by about 6,000 each year. These unsolved murders represent a direct threat to public safety in communities across the country. Law enforcement agencies do not have an endless number…
Large Language Models: Using ChatGPT for Police Leaders
Earlier this year, one of NPI’s Executive Fellows, Chief Jason Potts, published an article on PoliceOne exploring the use of ChatGPT in police writing. This month, we are adding this article to our OnPolicing Blog with recent updates from the chief and his fellow authors, Sergeant Michael Billera, Chief Chris Catren (ret.), and Deputy Chief…
Interim Chief vs. Appointed Chief: Distinctions with a Difference
What is the distinction between an interim chief and an appointed chief? What are the challenges, the opportunities, the pitfalls – if any? Change is a constant in policing; in recent years, moreover, there have been rapid levels of change at the executive level. A law enforcement officer promoted to captain today could find him-…
Organizational Culture By Design
Cultivating and sustaining positive relationships with the community is fundamental to effective democratic policing. These relationships, together with the quality of police-public interactions, govern the perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy. Law enforcement agencies are constantly working to strengthen community relationships by ensuring community members are treated with dignity and respect, displaying trustworthy motives,…
A Review of Patrol Techniques to Reduce Serious Injury and Fatality Crashes
In 2018 and 2019, the Iowa State Patrol (ISP) implemented the Fatality Reduction Enforcement Program (FREE) in collaboration with research partners from George Mason University (GMU). GMU’s evaluation suggests that FREE reduced crashes involving impaired driving in the program area by 18% in year one and may have contributed to more significant reductions in speed-related…
The Need for Relationship-Based Policing
Over the last several years, law enforcement has acknowledged the need to improve trust and build relationships within their communities. Police departments have relied on community- oriented policing (COP) to address this need; however, police can do more to strengthen these efforts. Research has shown that while community policing is beneficial for improving public satisfaction,…
Rapport Building in Interviews and Interrogations: Translating Research to Practice
Communication is a key mediator of relationships and can increase or diminish trust in relational settings (e.g., Thomas et al., 2009). Recently, interactions between the police and those policed have been at the forefront of national conversations, especially interactions involving underserved populations. How police communicate with the public has received increased attention by academics and…
Time to Get Serious About Police Education
There hasn’t been a serious national discussion about police education across the USA for over 40 years, since the National Advisory Commission on Higher Education for Police Officers (HEPO) reported in the 1970s. Today, while there is lots of talk about making policing more scientific and more evidence-based, the focus seems to be on the…
988 Lifeline is a Key Resource for Law Enforcement
In 1983, Dr. Arlie Russell Hochschild coined the term emotional labor after she examined two occupations, flight attendants and bill collectors, whose job descriptions centered largely on engaging with the public (1). At the end of her study, Dr. Hochschild concluded that these occupations require an individual to manage their feelings and emotions that occur…