COPS Office to provide technical assistance to Boston Police Department

The U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services announced on Aug. 8 that it will engage with the Boston Police Department to provide a review and assessment of operations within the Boston Police Department’s Human Resources section.

The review will determine whether processes and structures within the human resources area can be adapted to increase operational efficiencies and effectiveness. The assistance comes through the COPS Office Collaborative Reform Initiative’s Critical Response program, in conjunction with the National Policing Institute (a Critical Response provider).

Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer applauded the Boston Police Department for requesting the review.

“We know that agencies that are transparent about the work that they do and how they do it increase their ability to build public trust and advance public safety,” he said.

COPS Office Director Hugh Clements Jr. said his office has seen the positive changes that agencies undergo when they commit to the type of assistance offered under the Critical Response program. That commitment, he said, “has a big impact on public trust.”

The Collaborative Reform Initiative encompasses three programs offering services to state, local, territorial, and Tribal law enforcement agencies: the Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center, Critical Response, and Organizational Assessment programs. (Visit cops.usdoj.gov/collaborativereform for details.)

This continuum of services is designed to:
• Build trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve
• Improve operational efficiencies and effectiveness
• Enhance officer safety and wellness
• Build agencies’ capacity for organizational learning and self-improvement
• Promote community policing practices nationwide

The highly customizable Critical Response program is designed to provide targeted technical assistance to state, local, territorial, and Tribal law enforcement agencies experiencing high-profile events, major incidents, or sensitive issues of varying need.

The COPS Office is the part of the Justice Department responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Justice Department agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime-fighting strategy with grants, a range of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. The COPS Office has appropriated more than $20 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local, territorial, and Tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of approximately 138,000 officers.