COPS Training Portal

Although the past several decades have seen a steady decrease in violent crime statistics, homicides and violent crimes continue to have a devastating impact on many of our nation's communities. With long-term social implications and staggering economic consequences, even minimal levels of violent crime diminish the quality of life in affected communities. In response, homicide and violent crime reduction (HVR) remains a top priority for police agencies throughout the nation. The challenge is addressing violent crime with effective interventions and countermeasures. Instead of guessing or speculating on which HVR strategies work best, many agencies are turning to evidence-based policing practices (EBPP) to address the unique needs of the communities they serve.

Applied Evidence-Based Policing Practices: Homicide and Violent Crime Reduction is designed as a rapid eLearn course that provides an overview of the concept of evidence-based policing and examples of practices that have been shown to reduce homicides and violent crime. Crafted with all levels of police practitioners in mind, this course bridges the gap between research and practice. 

On-screen text, videos and narration in a user-friendly eLearn environment allows participants to start, stop and resume the training based on their schedules. Participants should expect to spend approximately 2 - 4 hours exploring the resources provided in this dynamic and timely course.

This tuition-free online training was developed by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2015-CK-WX-K022 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

Audience:

This course is ideal for law enforcement managers and decision makers, including but not limited to agency heads, directors, command staff, managers, and supervisors in agencies of all sizes. However, the content is also applicable to all law enforcement and criminal justice professionals, as well as any community-policing stakeholders.

How Tribes can "TAP" into Critical Crime Data: COPS Funding in Action
Intelligence-Led Community Policing, Community Prosecution, and Community Partnerships
Las Vegas After-Action Assessment: Lessons Learned from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's Ambush Incident
Managing the Group Violence Intervention: Using Shooting Scorecards to Track Group Violence
The Integration of Crime Analysis into Patrol Work: A Guidebook
U.S. Attorney General's Summit on Violent Crime: Summary of Key Factors, Promising Strategies and Additional Steps

Changing Perceptions is a video-based simulation in which learners assume the roles of three different law enforcement officers in an interactive movie, make decisions for these officers and experience the consequences of their choices.  The program trains officers on the effect of implicit bias and gives them the information and skills they need to reduce and manage their biases. Additionally, by allowing officers to experience the same encounter from two perspectives (officer and possible suspect) simultaneously, this program provides officers an insight into the biases that some members of the community may harbor toward police and why those biases exist.

The primary aim of this simulation-based program is to define implicit bias, and to dramatize through interactive scenarios that policing based on bias can be unsafe, ineffective, and unjust. The opening video will serve as an introduction to the concept of implicit bias, while the three modules will focus separately on safe, effective, and just policing decisions and behavior.

The learning objectives are:

• Recognize that bias is a normal human attribute—even well-intentioned people have bias
• Articulate the fundamental concepts of the science of human bias
• Describe how unconscious or implicit bias works in the human mind
• Describe the potential impact of bias on officers’ perceptions and behavior
• Articulate the impact biased policing has on community members
• Articulate the impact of biased policing on their law enforcement organizations
• Apply skills for reducing their biases
• Analyze their options with a fair and impartial policing lens

This 3 module course takes an average of 1 hour to complete and the intended audience is law enforcement personnel.

This tuition-free online training was developed by WILL Interactive and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2016-CK-WX-K015 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

Related COPS Resources

Fair and Impartial Policing

Since the early 1980s, the principles of community policing have been a driving force in American law enforcement. Yet for all of its past success, community policing may never have been as vital to law enforcement and the well-being of our communities as it is today. Community Policing: Improving Police Efficacy and Building Trust (CPIPEBT) explores how emerging issues are necessitating a commitment to the key components of community policing: partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving.

The course includes an examination of the current state of policing—both locally and nationally— addressing a multitude of factors that challenge the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies and the well-being of the communities they serve. CPIPEBT urges participants to explore the principles and practices of community policing as a means of achieving the public safety mission with greater efficiency by gaining and maintaining public trust and engaging the community in the shared responsibility of effective policing.

This tuition-free online training was developed by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2014CWXK027 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Course Time: Approximately 30 to 45 minutes including the pre and post tests.

Course Description: In the United states, an estimated 9 million children are at risk because they live in homes where a parent or other adult misuses drugs or alcohol. This course is designed to help law enforcement officers and other professionals develop awareness of the potential impact of using a multidisciplinary approach to meet the needs of Drug Endangered Children. Explore how we can all work together to improve the lives of drug-endangered children.

Target Audience: Law enforcement, child welfare, medical, legal, education and first responders.

For more information on Drug Endangered Children, please contact National DEC

Drug Identification - Stimulants is an interactive course in a series of Drug Identification training modules. This course explores and identifies the various types of commonly used stimulants such as pharmaceutical stimulants, cocaine, methamphetamine, and natural stimulants. Participants will learn how to employ the appropriate actions and safety measures when responding to stimulant-related law enforcement requests.

Participants should expect to spend approximately 1 hour reviewing the content and resources in this course.

This tuition-free online training was developed by the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2017-CK-WX-K007 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

This Ethical Considerations for Asset Forfeiture Course is provided by the Department of Justice. Asset forfeiture is an important and vital law enforcement tool.   It helps strengthen cases, weaken or dismantle criminal enterprises, and return assets to victims of crimes.  But like all tools, law enforcement and prosecuting authorities must use it appropriately.  The purpose of this training is to ensure a command of when and how to properly seize assets for federal forfeiture so that you can protect the rights of the public while also protecting your case and yourself.  Misusing asset forfeiture laws and ignoring asset forfeiture policies can have serious implications.

Module 1 – Overview and Purposes of Asset Forfeiture

This module discusses some of the numerous ways that asset forfeiture fulfills the mission of law enforcement.  

Module 2 – Concerns about Asset Forfeiture

This module discusses three criticisms of forfeiture: corruption, fairness, and a lack of accountability. 

Module 3 – Asset Forfeiture Best Practices

This module provides some best practices when considering the seizure of assets.

Module 4 – Federal and State Cooperation

This module discusses how state and local law enforcement can cooperate with their Federal law enforcement counterparts to ensure a successful and proper seizure and forfeiture of assets.

Module 5 – Asset Forfeiture Resources

The prevalence of “invisible wounds” among the veteran population is growing. One in five veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depression, but only half of those who need treatment seek medical help. Serious mental health challenges connected to military service such as depression, PTSD and anxiety have direct ties to substance abuse and homelessness, taking a heavy toll on those who have served. Law enforcement is often called to respond when a veteran is in crisis as they face significant challenges of reintegration into civilian society. 

The Introduction to Public Safety De-escalation Tactics for Military Veterans in Crisis course is designed to enhance the skills and capabilities of law enforcement officers and relevant first responders when encountering critical incidents involving veterans who may be in crisis.  The course aims to improve officer safety by providing students an understanding of PTSD and other challenging factors for veterans, provide proven verbal de-escalation techniques and reference to resources available to veterans to cope.

At the end of the course, the participant will recognize signs a person is a veteran and the multitude of factors that maybe impacting the veterans’ ability to reintegrate into their communities. Upon completion of the course, a participant will be able to practice multiple verbal de-escalation tactics to be used in crisis encounters with veterans to defuse potentially violent situations. 

The core curriculum is designed for direct dissemination to law enforcement practitioners and relevant first responders.

• Pre-Assessment
• Module 1: Veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Module 2: De-Escalation for Veterans in Crisis
• Module 3: Interactive Assessment
• Post-Assessment & Course Evaluation
• Resources: https://leic.tennessee.edu/de-escalation/

School Resource Officers (SROs) are essential to achieve safer schools.  SROs and school administrators need training on school climate: school physical and learning environments, relationships, engagement, and safety.  

Preventing Problems by Promoting Positive Practices (P5) is an interactive online course designed to provide participants with an innovative school climate model and school climate enhancement practices.  The course covers hot topics on:

• Environmental design, focused on crime prevention and wellness promotion
• Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) 
• Adolescent brain and behavioral development 
• Implicit bias and microaggressions
• Differentiated responding to discipline for SROs vs. school administrators 

 The course uses interactive quizzes, matching activities, and an action plan process to actualize school climate change.  

Related Resources

Community Oriented Policing Services. "Community Partnerships."

Center for Problem-Oriented Policing

Course Time: Approximately 30 to 45 minutes including the pre and post tests.

Course Description: This course describes how prenatal substance exposure has the potential to cause a variety of physical and developmental challenges for Drug Endangered Children (DEC) throughout their lives. You will be able to recognize the part you play in identifying children who are at risk, begin the earliest possible intervention even while still in utero, and understand your ability to change the trajectory of the child's life. Intervention begins by starting a conversation using interviewing techniques and providing resources and sharing information with community partners.

Target Audience: Law enforcement, child welfare, medical, legal, education and first responders.

For more information on Drug Endangered Children, please contact National DEC

Supporting Your Mission: An Introduction to the National Police Foundation’s Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) Near Miss Reporting System is an interactive online course designed to provide participants with a basic awareness and understanding of the National Police Foundation’s LEO Near Miss reporting system funded by the United States Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office).  LEO Near Miss is designed to save lives. It is a web-based system that allows law enforcement officers a means to anonymously share their personal experiences surviving near miss events so that other officers may apply the lessons learned when facing similar situations. 

In this introductory course, participants explore the impact and importance of near miss reporting and discover ways in which both individual law enforcement officers and entire organizations can use the system to help ensure their safety, and the safety of fellow officers. The course features video interviews with law enforcement practitioners currently engaged in near miss reporting, as well as examples of the types of near miss reports published by the National Police Foundation. It provides an overview of the purpose, features and benefits of using the system, which is accessed via the website leonearmiss.org.

This tuition-free online training was developed about the National Police Foundation’s LEO Near Miss reporting system by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2018-CK-WXK-001 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice and National Institute of Justice funded the National Policing Institute (formerly the National Police Foundation) to implement a project in 2015 to track incidents of averted school violence on a national level. As of April 2018, 51 reports had been filed, although it is suspected that many more incidents have gone unreported. An “averted incident” is defined as a planned violent attack on school grounds that is prevented before injury or loss of life has occurred. In tracking these incidents, five key actions have been identified to improve school safety, ranging from well-defined and practiced active shooter plans to focused plans promoting personal relationships with students. Also listed as a key action is the development and consistent involvement of a multi-functional case-management team for review of concerning behavior. [1] These teams, commonly referred to as Behavioral Intervention Teams (BIT) are the focus of this introductory training module.

In the United States, schools provide a safe and healthy learning environment for approximately 55 million children . Schools are expected to keep children safe every day, but during traumatic events, this objective becomes the primary focus of teachers, administrators, and school staff members. 

Reunification is the process of reuniting children with their parents or guardians after an emergency or disastrous event at their school. In these situations, a traditional student release process is unsafe and often lacks the necessary organization. According to the National Association of School Psychologists, the reunification of students with their primary caregivers is crucial for the reestablishment of social support after a traumatic event, and is often the only mental health crisis intervention needed . A reunification plan is part of a comprehensive emergency plan to ensure the safety of the whole school community. 

This training is designed to help educational stakeholders develop and implement a school reunification plan. Upon completion of this training, learners will be able to: 

• Identify emergency situations that require a reunification plan

• Define terminology associated with a reunification plan

• Define the purpose and components of a reunification plan

• Determine the purpose and components of a response map, and

• Identify the roles required in a reunification plan

Participants should expect to spend approximately 1 hour reviewing the content and resources in this course.

This tuition-free online training was developed by the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2017-CK-WX-K007 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

School Resource Officers (SROs) are essential to achieve safer schools.  SROs and school administrators need training on school climate: school physical and learning environments, relationships, engagement, and safety.  

Preventing Problems by Promoting Positive Practices (P5) is an interactive online course designed to provide participants with an innovative school climate model and school climate enhancement practices.  The course covers hot topics on:

• Environmental design, focused on crime prevention and wellness promotion
• Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) 
• Adolescent brain and behavioral development 
• Implicit bias and microaggressions
• Differentiated responding to discipline for SROs vs. school administrators 

 The course uses interactive quizzes, matching activities, and an action plan process to actualize school climate change.  

Related Resources

Community Oriented Policing Services. "Community Partnerships."

Center for Problem-Oriented Policing

Course Time: Approximately 30 to 45 minutes including the pre and post tests.

Course Description: This course describes how prenatal substance exposure has the potential to cause a variety of physical and developmental challenges for Drug Endangered Children (DEC) throughout their lives. You will be able to recognize the part you play in identifying children who are at risk, begin the earliest possible intervention even while still in utero, and understand your ability to change the trajectory of the child's life. Intervention begins by starting a conversation using interviewing techniques and providing resources and sharing information with community partners.

Target Audience: Law enforcement, child welfare, medical, legal, education and first responders.

For more information on Drug Endangered Children, please contact National DEC

This elearning program provides an overview of after-action reviews and their application as an effective organizational learning tool and powerful community policing strategy.

The one-hour course equips law enforcement personnel with the basic understanding of when and in what circumstances an after-action may be best utilized, as well as how to conduct impactful reviews that result in written reports, including guidance on ways to organize, document, and communicate the findings of an after-action review.

The course includes an assortment of multi-media resources which participants can utilize within the course itself, and after they’ve completed it.

This tuition-free online training was developed by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) and was supported by cooperative agreement 2015-CK-WX-K003 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

Changing Perceptions is a video-based simulation in which learners assume the roles of three different law enforcement officers in an interactive movie, make decisions for these officers and experience the consequences of their choices.  The program trains officers on the effect of implicit bias and gives them the information and skills they need to reduce and manage their biases. Additionally, by allowing officers to experience the same encounter from two perspectives (officer and possible suspect) simultaneously, this program provides officers an insight into the biases that some members of the community may harbor toward police and why those biases exist.

The primary aim of this simulation-based program is to define implicit bias, and to dramatize through interactive scenarios that policing based on bias can be unsafe, ineffective, and unjust. The opening video will serve as an introduction to the concept of implicit bias, while the three modules will focus separately on safe, effective, and just policing decisions and behavior.

The learning objectives are:

• Recognize that bias is a normal human attribute—even well-intentioned people have bias
• Articulate the fundamental concepts of the science of human bias
• Describe how unconscious or implicit bias works in the human mind
• Describe the potential impact of bias on officers’ perceptions and behavior
• Articulate the impact biased policing has on community members
• Articulate the impact of biased policing on their law enforcement organizations
• Apply skills for reducing their biases
• Analyze their options with a fair and impartial policing lens

This 3 module course takes an average of 1 hour to complete and the intended audience is law enforcement personnel.

This tuition-free online training was developed by WILL Interactive and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2016-CK-WX-K015 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

Related COPS Resources

Fair and Impartial Policing

Since the early 1980s, the principles of community policing have been a driving force in American law enforcement. Yet for all of its past success, community policing may never have been as vital to law enforcement and the well-being of our communities as it is today. Community Policing: Improving Police Efficacy and Building Trust (CPIPEBT) explores how emerging issues are necessitating a commitment to the key components of community policing: partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving.

The course includes an examination of the current state of policing—both locally and nationally— addressing a multitude of factors that challenge the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies and the well-being of the communities they serve. CPIPEBT urges participants to explore the principles and practices of community policing as a means of achieving the public safety mission with greater efficiency by gaining and maintaining public trust and engaging the community in the shared responsibility of effective policing.

This tuition-free online training was developed by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2014CWXK027 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Dissociative anesthetics are a class of drugs that can make users feel detached from reality and their environment and also distort how they see the world. These drugs can change the user’s perceptions of sight, sounds, tastes, smells and feeling. They inhibit pain by cutting off the brain’s perception of pain. 

This training covers two of the most popular dissociative anesthetics: PCP and ketamine.  The course will review the chemical composition and physical properties of PCP as well as the dangers involved in the handling and manufacturing of the drug. The training will also discuss the following on PCP and ketamine: 

• methods of ingestion
• associated paraphernalia
• common street names

Physiological impacts, signs and symptoms of overdose will also be examined for both drugs.

Drug Identification - Stimulants is an interactive course in a series of Drug Identification training modules. This course explores and identifies the various types of commonly used stimulants such as pharmaceutical stimulants, cocaine, methamphetamine, and natural stimulants. Participants will learn how to employ the appropriate actions and safety measures when responding to stimulant-related law enforcement requests.

Participants should expect to spend approximately 1 hour reviewing the content and resources in this course.

This tuition-free online training was developed by the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2017-CK-WX-K007 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

The Homeless Outreach Service Team (HOST) program was developed to bring Salt Lake City (Utah) police and community outreach workers together to identify homeless individuals and connect them to community resources. 

The objectives were to encourage police to make referrals to services rather than issue citations and to decrease panhandling by encouraging the public to give money to homeless service providers instead.

In 2012, the Salt Lake City Police Department received an award from the COPS Office to expand the HOST program to fund a public awareness campaign, coordinate strategic planning efforts, and train homeless individuals to assist with outreach efforts.

Primary Audience: The intended audience for this interactive publication is anyone interested in homeless outreach efforts and specific strategies that have been implemented to address this issue.

Authors: Erin B. Worwood, MCJ; Jessica Seawright, BSW; Robert P. Butters, PhD

Original Publication: October 5, 2016

This interactive report is optimized for Chrome and Safari web browsers. There are no audio components.

This 5-part video series, Police and Dog Encounters: Tactical Strategies and Effective Tools to Keep Our Communities Safe and Humane, is the product of a collaborative partnership between the National Canine Research Council, Safe Humane Chicago and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office).

These roll call videos, along with the companion publication The Problem of Dog-Related Incidents and Encounters, discuss tools, practices, and procedures that contribute to effective responses to dog-related incidents and encounters where dogs are present. They are designed to help develop skills for law enforcement in effective strategies in assessing a dog’s environment; what dog posture, vocalization, and facial expressions mean; options for distracting and escaping from a dog; defensive options in dealing with a dog; asking the right questions in dog investigations; and effective gathering of dog evidence and report writing. The primary goals include ensuring public and officer safety and considering community needs and demands. 

Each video in the series is available in English and Spanish, and may be accessed via the COPS Training Portal in two ways: played directly through your logged-in COPS Training Portal user account; and/or downloaded, saved and played offline, directly from your device. 

Audience: The target audience for the training videos is sworn law enforcement officers of all ranks and positions.

This 5-part series, Procedural Justice: Roll Call Training for Law Enforcement, was developed by the Center for Public Safety and Justice (CPSJ) at the University of Illinois - Chicago with support from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) through cooperative agreement 2012CKWXK005.

This video series, along with its accompanying Presenter’s Guide, was developed to reinforce internal and external procedural justice concepts. Each scenario/video in the series may be accessed via the COPS Training Portal in two ways: played directly through your logged-in COPS Training Portal user account, and/or downloaded, saved and played offline, directly from your device. Each scenario is meant to be used in a separate roll call training; each roll call training is designed to be approximately 20 minutes in duration.

This roll call training should not be substituted for in-depth internal or external, front-line, supervisor, executive level, civilian staff or community procedural justice training. The roll call series should – over a period of time – reinforce the broader awareness of procedural justice and its core principles, and affirm the importance of utilizing procedural justice as a means of increasing police legitimacy with the public as well as organizational legitimacy with employees. The roll call trainings reinforce how enhancing the public’s perception of police legitimacy increases voluntary community compliance and community support, which may as a result, improve officer and community safety.

Audience: The target audience for the 5-part Procedural Justice Roll Call Training is sworn law enforcement front-line officers who have participated in procedural justice training; preferably the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services approved Procedural Justice for Law Enforcement: Organizational Change through Decision Making and Policy and Procedural Justice for Law Enforcement Front-line Officers.

However, the material is relevant to sworn law enforcement personnel at all organizational levels and could be creatively used as prompts for community dialogues.

The Call: Serving Those with Behavioral and Cognitive Disabilities continues the advancement of community policing by further enhancing mental illness training for law enforcement professionals through e-learning. This course is a choose-your-own-journey training program where learners assume the role of playable characters in an interactive simulation-based program. Playing as three different officers in three different scenarios, participants experience in real time what it is like to respond to calls involving individuals with cognitive or behavioral conditions that may cause impairment. Each module (Introduction, Knowing the Signs and Crisis Intervention) challenges learners to make quick decisions in response to the situations unfolding in front of them. Learners then experience the consequences of their choices. This course provides all law enforcement professionals, from new officers to seasoned veterans, best practice recommendations from leading experts in the field of mental health awareness and response.

Participants should expect to spend approximately one hour exploring the content and resources in this course.

Crime Reduction: Enforcement and Prevention Strategies is an interactive online course designed to provide participants with an overview of best practices for crime reduction, including guidelines for implementing an organizational model for crime reduction at all levels within a police department. The course offers useful strategies for problem solving in order to develop immediate, short-term, and long-term responses to crime within a community. The guidance provided in this course is not intended to be prescriptive; rather, it is designed to be adaptable and generally applicable to law enforcement practitioners.

Ethical Decision Making: Policing with Principled Insight is a thought-provoking eLearn course that explores the practice of decision making and the ethical principles that support effective policing. In one of its most impactful and rewarding endeavors to date, VCPI partnered with the USDOJ, COPS Office to create the Ethical Decision Making: Policing with Principled Insight program. As part of this larger initiative, this course stresses that police ethics are not just an after-thought or a means of discouraging bad behavior. Instead, ethics are a controlling insight that inform and guide police practitioners from an internal, personal capacity.This innovative eLearn course invites participants to join a 2500 year-old conversation on ethical decision making while exploring realistic, modern day challenges faced by policing professionals.

Recognizing that for policing professionals, public trust, integrity, and liability hinge on each and every decision, this is crafted as a concise and relevant course addressing the realities of policing in the 21st century.  Designed with the practitioner in mind, Ethical Decision Making: Policing with Principled Insight includes on-screen text, videos, and narration in a user-friendly eLearn environment that allows participants to start, stop, and resume the training based on their schedules.  Although it requires a minimum of 2 hours of uninterrupted run-time, participants should expect to spend approximately 4 hours completing this dynamic and timely course.

This tuition-free online training was developed by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) and was originally supported Cooperative Agreement 2012-Ck-WX-K011 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

COPS Evaluation Brief No. 3: Creating a Culture of Integrity
Crime Prevention Research Review No. 10: Legitimacy in Policing
Racial Reconciliation, Truth-Telling, and Police Legitimacy
"That's Not Fair!" Policing and Perceptions of Fairness
The Case for Procedural Justice: Fairness as a Crime Prevention Tool
The State of Policing in the United States, Volume 1

In 2013, the COPS Office reached out to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to provide assistance to the Newtown (Connecticut) Police Department in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Michael Kehoe, Newtown’s Chief of Police at the time, asked NAMI to write a guidebook for chiefs on how to safeguard officer mental health in the early days after a mass casualty event. He said that events like Sandy Hook rewrite the rules—for dealing with the media, for coordinating with other agencies, and for officer mental health. His hope was that other chiefs would benefit from the lessons he learned.

With Chief Kehoe’s leadership, NAMI convened an expert advisory group of police chiefs who had experienced mass casualty events in their communities, along with the mental health professionals who advised them, to gather lessons learned and guidance for other chiefs.  NAMI also sought guidance from numerous police leaders, mental health professionals, and trauma and media experts. The result is this e-Guide, which educates chiefs and command staff about officer mental wellness, provides steps to preparing for the mental health impact of a mass casualty incident, and walks them through the crisis and the aftermath.

While the lessons shared in this e-Guide focus on mass casualty events, traumatic experiences are an everyday event for police officers. Responding to car accidents, homicides, child abuse, domestic violence, and other negative events are part of the job. Personal accounts in the guide make clear that these incidents can build up and lead to mental health problems like depression, PTSD, alcohol abuse and even suicide.

While events like Sandy Hook have raised awareness of the challenges that officers face, the day-to-day impact of police work is much greater. Fortunately, there are many steps that law enforcement leaders can take now to build resilient agencies, whether or not they ever experience a mass casualty incident. There are also ways to prepare for the possibility of such an incident. This e-Guide can serve as a resource for agencies interested in getting started.

This interactive e-Guide is based on the 2016 written publication of the same name, which was funded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). The online version you are accessing has been created by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) via cooperative agreement number 2018-CK-WXK001 awarded by the COPS Office.

Although the past several decades have seen a steady decrease in violent crime statistics, homicides and violent crimes continue to have a devastating impact on many of our nation's communities. With long-term social implications and staggering economic consequences, even minimal levels of violent crime diminish the quality of life in affected communities. In response, homicide and violent crime reduction (HVR) remains a top priority for police agencies throughout the nation. The challenge is addressing violent crime with effective interventions and countermeasures. Instead of guessing or speculating on which HVR strategies work best, many agencies are turning to evidence-based policing practices (EBPP) to address the unique needs of the communities they serve.

Applied Evidence-Based Policing Practices: Homicide and Violent Crime Reduction is designed as a rapid eLearn course that provides an overview of the concept of evidence-based policing and examples of practices that have been shown to reduce homicides and violent crime. Crafted with all levels of police practitioners in mind, this course bridges the gap between research and practice. 

On-screen text, videos and narration in a user-friendly eLearn environment allows participants to start, stop and resume the training based on their schedules. Participants should expect to spend approximately 2 - 4 hours exploring the resources provided in this dynamic and timely course.

This tuition-free online training was developed by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2015-CK-WX-K022 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

Audience:

This course is ideal for law enforcement managers and decision makers, including but not limited to agency heads, directors, command staff, managers, and supervisors in agencies of all sizes. However, the content is also applicable to all law enforcement and criminal justice professionals, as well as any community-policing stakeholders.

How Tribes can "TAP" into Critical Crime Data: COPS Funding in Action
Intelligence-Led Community Policing, Community Prosecution, and Community Partnerships
Las Vegas After-Action Assessment: Lessons Learned from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's Ambush Incident
Managing the Group Violence Intervention: Using Shooting Scorecards to Track Group Violence
The Integration of Crime Analysis into Patrol Work: A Guidebook
U.S. Attorney General's Summit on Violent Crime: Summary of Key Factors, Promising Strategies and Additional Steps

Although the past several decades have seen a steady decrease in violent crime statistics, homicides and violent crimes continue to have a devastating impact on many of our nation's communities. With long-term social implications and staggering economic consequences, even minimal levels of violent crime diminish the quality of life in affected communities. In response, homicide and violent crime reduction (HVR) remains a top priority for police agencies throughout the nation. The challenge is addressing violent crime with effective interventions and countermeasures. Instead of guessing or speculating on which HVR strategies work best, many agencies are turning to evidence-based policing practices (EBPP) to address the unique needs of the communities they serve.

Applied Evidence-Based Policing Practices: Homicide and Violent Crime Reduction is designed as a rapid eLearn course that provides an overview of the concept of evidence-based policing and examples of practices that have been shown to reduce homicides and violent crime. Crafted with all levels of police practitioners in mind, this course bridges the gap between research and practice. 

On-screen text, videos and narration in a user-friendly eLearn environment allows participants to start, stop and resume the training based on their schedules. Participants should expect to spend approximately 2 - 4 hours exploring the resources provided in this dynamic and timely course.

This tuition-free online training was developed by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2015-CK-WX-K022 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

Audience:

This course is ideal for law enforcement managers and decision makers, including but not limited to agency heads, directors, command staff, managers, and supervisors in agencies of all sizes. However, the content is also applicable to all law enforcement and criminal justice professionals, as well as any community-policing stakeholders.

How Tribes can "TAP" into Critical Crime Data: COPS Funding in Action
Intelligence-Led Community Policing, Community Prosecution, and Community Partnerships
Las Vegas After-Action Assessment: Lessons Learned from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's Ambush Incident
Managing the Group Violence Intervention: Using Shooting Scorecards to Track Group Violence
The Integration of Crime Analysis into Patrol Work: A Guidebook
U.S. Attorney General's Summit on Violent Crime: Summary of Key Factors, Promising Strategies and Additional Steps

Comprised of four modules, the course explores partnerships, problem solving and organizational transformation as they relate to specific issues and challenges facing today's law enforcement professionals and the communities they serve.  As such it is a valuable and appropriate training opportunity for a wide variety of law enforcement and public-safety professionals, ranging from new hires to experienced personnel, as well as community leaders, business owners and other community stakeholders.

Utilizing a blended learning approach, Community Policing Defined prompts users to actively navigate through the course's comprehensive content which includes on-screen text, graphics and narration. This design feature allows adult learners the flexibility to determine their own pace and sequence for completing the course.  Although Community Policing Defined requires a minimum of 4 hours of uninterrupted run-time, participants should expect to spend between 8 and 12 hours to complete the course.

This tuition-free online training was developed by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2009-RM-WX-K001 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

Related COPS Resources
Building Relationships of Trust: Moving to Implementation
Community Policing in the New Economy
Kalamazoo, Michigan: Using Community Policing to Create a "Wow" Department
Law Enforcement Spotlight: Mitakuye Oyasin (We are all related) - The Intersection of Cultural Beliefs and Community Policing with the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety
Rank and File: Leaders in Building Trust and Community
State Police and Community Policing
The COPS Office: 20 Years of Community Oriented Policing

This Ethical Considerations for Asset Forfeiture Course is provided by the Department of Justice. Asset forfeiture is an important and vital law enforcement tool.   It helps strengthen cases, weaken or dismantle criminal enterprises, and return assets to victims of crimes.  But like all tools, law enforcement and prosecuting authorities must use it appropriately.  The purpose of this training is to ensure a command of when and how to properly seize assets for federal forfeiture so that you can protect the rights of the public while also protecting your case and yourself.  Misusing asset forfeiture laws and ignoring asset forfeiture policies can have serious implications.

Module 1 – Overview and Purposes of Asset Forfeiture

This module discusses some of the numerous ways that asset forfeiture fulfills the mission of law enforcement.  

Module 2 – Concerns about Asset Forfeiture

This module discusses three criticisms of forfeiture: corruption, fairness, and a lack of accountability. 

Module 3 – Asset Forfeiture Best Practices

This module provides some best practices when considering the seizure of assets.

Module 4 – Federal and State Cooperation

This module discusses how state and local law enforcement can cooperate with their Federal law enforcement counterparts to ensure a successful and proper seizure and forfeiture of assets.

Module 5 – Asset Forfeiture Resources

For over three decades, the principles of community policing have been a driving force in American law enforcement.  Yet for all of its past success, community policing may never have been as vital to law enforcement and the well being of our communities as it is today.  New Perspectives on Community Policing is a free, web-based training course that examines how change, emerging issues, and threats are necessitating a reinvigorated commitment to the key components of community policing:  community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving. 

The course introduces this new perspective on community policing and offers an overview of the dramatic shifts and challenges that are faced by law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. New Perspectives on Community Policing also offers problem-solving tools, examples of successful police and community partnerships, and numerous community-policing resources.

New Perspectives on Community Policing has been developed as a modular online training that will require an absolute minimum of 4 hours to complete. However its technology-enhanced design allows participants to start, stop, and resume the training based on their schedules and the demands of the day. Flexible, interactive, and relevant, the course offers participants an outstanding opportunity to gain new insights on community policing and its role in today's complex world.  It is ideal for all law enforcement and criminal justice professionals, as well as any community-policing stakeholders.

This tuition-free online training was a joint partnership between the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) and the Western Community Policing Institute (WCPI), and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2008-CK-WX-K003 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

Related COPS Resources

Answering the Call to Mentor: 21st Century Policing through Youth Engagement
Engaging Police in Immigrant Communities
Police Perspectives: Building Trust in a Diverse Nation - No. 1. How to Increase Cultural Understanding
Police Perspectives: Building Trust in a Diverse Nation - No. 2. How to Serve Diverse Communities
Recommendations on Advancing Community Policing in the Pasco Police Department

School Resource Officers (SROs) are essential to achieve safer schools.  SROs and school administrators need training on school climate: school physical and learning environments, relationships, engagement, and safety.  

Preventing Problems by Promoting Positive Practices (P5) is an interactive online course designed to provide participants with an innovative school climate model and school climate enhancement practices.  The course covers hot topics on:

• Environmental design, focused on crime prevention and wellness promotion
• Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) 
• Adolescent brain and behavioral development 
• Implicit bias and microaggressions
• Differentiated responding to discipline for SROs vs. school administrators 

 The course uses interactive quizzes, matching activities, and an action plan process to actualize school climate change.  

Related Resources

Community Oriented Policing Services. "Community Partnerships."

Center for Problem-Oriented Policing

Course Time: Approximately 30 to 45 minutes including the pre and post tests.

Course Description: This course describes how prenatal substance exposure has the potential to cause a variety of physical and developmental challenges for Drug Endangered Children (DEC) throughout their lives. You will be able to recognize the part you play in identifying children who are at risk, begin the earliest possible intervention even while still in utero, and understand your ability to change the trajectory of the child's life. Intervention begins by starting a conversation using interviewing techniques and providing resources and sharing information with community partners.

Target Audience: Law enforcement, child welfare, medical, legal, education and first responders.

For more information on Drug Endangered Children, please contact National DEC

Supporting Your Mission: An Introduction to the National Police Foundation’s Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) Near Miss Reporting System is an interactive online course designed to provide participants with a basic awareness and understanding of the National Police Foundation’s LEO Near Miss reporting system funded by the United States Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office).  LEO Near Miss is designed to save lives. It is a web-based system that allows law enforcement officers a means to anonymously share their personal experiences surviving near miss events so that other officers may apply the lessons learned when facing similar situations. 

In this introductory course, participants explore the impact and importance of near miss reporting and discover ways in which both individual law enforcement officers and entire organizations can use the system to help ensure their safety, and the safety of fellow officers. The course features video interviews with law enforcement practitioners currently engaged in near miss reporting, as well as examples of the types of near miss reports published by the National Police Foundation. It provides an overview of the purpose, features and benefits of using the system, which is accessed via the website leonearmiss.org.

This tuition-free online training was developed about the National Police Foundation’s LEO Near Miss reporting system by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 2018-CK-WXK-001 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Course Time: Approximately 30 to 45 minutes including the pre and post tests.

Course Description: This course describes the long-term impact and needs of Drug Endangered Children (DEC) throughout their childhood and into their adulthood.  You will learn how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) such as growing up in households where substance use and drug activity are present impacts children long-term including cognitive deficits, emotional risks, high-risk behavior, and health problems.  The course also addresses the importance of early intervention and building resilience that can change the trajectory of a child’s life and help to break the multigenerational cycle of substance abuse.

Target Audience: Law enforcement, child welfare, medical, legal, education and first responders.

For more information on Drug Endangered Children, please contact National DEC