The Department of Justice (DOJ) released a bulletin on March 15, 2018 unveiling its Collaborative Reform Initiative (CRI) Technical Assistance Center (TAC) program engineered to provide technological boosts to local law enforcement agencies. Ordinarily, smaller municipal police departments are hard-pressed to fund any technical prowess programs as well as maintain a formidable footprint in the fast-moving field of computer science technologies.
In the DOJ press release, Attorney General Jeff Sessions expounded: “Better training and the more sophisticated policing strategies were key reasons for 20 years of declining crime in America.”
Attorney General Sessions added,”I believe that continuing to advance our technical sophistication can help us reduce crime once again, and that’s why we’re investing in CRI-TAC. Improving access to training for our state and local law enforcement partners will mean better policing and a safer America.”
The collaborative effort guided and funded by the Justice Department comprises law enforcement leadership and performance-based expertise from a credible cadre of institutions embodying and codifying the police profession: the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP); the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP); the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA); the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEA); the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA); the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy Associates (FBINAA); the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE); the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST); and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA).
That is a robust body of law enforcement executives and highly-experienced police administrators, and just the kind of ingredients and police program implementations promised by President Donald Trump throughout his 2016 campaign and thereafter. Aside from the ostensibly obstacled pathway, President Trump has not wavered from backing the blue and seems loyal to his campaign principles engendering pro-law enforcement tenets, support, and funding. The Technical Assistance Center concept is one such example.
Post-presidential election, mere weeks warming the Oval Office seat, President Trump signed pro-law enforcement and anti-crime executive orders on February 9, 2017: “Today the President signed three Executive Orders to fight crime, gangs, and drugs; restore law and order; and support the dedicated men and women of law enforcement.”
President Trump iterated, “…the most important crime-fighting measure is to stand behind the officers who are on the front lines. The people who risk their lives every day to protect Americans need to know they are supported 100 percent.” Implicit in President Trump’s messaging is the Technical Assistance Center’s purpose of serving and backing the thin blue line warriors on a local level while under the national umbrella.
“For the Field, By the Field”
It is an age-old hiccup that local law enforcement agencies—the vast majority of the roughly 18,500 police entities operating in the United States—lack the necessary tools and information-sharing technology. Sometimes, the same reason for underequipping cop shops is the same as for understaffing: budget burdens.
As International Association of Chiefs of Police president and LaGrange, Georgia police Chief Louis M. Dekmar said as the host of today’s midyear conference, “The IACP is excited to work alongside eight leading law enforcement leadership and labor organizations to build and deliver this comprehensive technical assistance center that can support the diverse agencies and communities around the U.S. with customized solutions for the field, by the field.”
To a street cop’s ears, the trumpeting of “for the field, by the field” is refreshing and esteem-boosting. Any occupation performed by any trained and certified professional appreciates near-utopian deliverance from resources previously unattainable and/or unaffordable.
As AG Sessions said at the Nashville, Tennessee midyear conference hosted by IACP: “We want to be a force-multiplier for you. We can reach defendants where you can’t—across state lines, across our borders, and even across oceans. And we can provide you with expertise and intelligence that can help you succeed.”
The TAC initiative compels me to reminisce my police career duty days, when often enough, I fumbled with technology which was offered by whatever money was found by my municipality. It is pure rhetoric to say that non-metropolis, smaller police agencies hardly have enough for the bare essentials to perform police duties, let alone techno instrumentation and the training to go with it.
More often than not, smaller law enforcement departments make-do with grassroots efforts such as an cop or two who happens to be DIY-types with some advancements in computer science. That know-how was passed-down informally to field personnel. That information-sharing was typically car-to-car behind a church or school.
The fusion of formal/informal subject matter expertise is what we had to complete the mission as optimally as possible.
Sometimes, an impromptu squad meeting was convened by the sergeants and corporals to “cover” how-to-do-this-or-that with whatever software the city was able to afford. Those were some of the most protected classroom studies I ever had, as were the business premises where we “held class.”
Indeed, police academies offer in-service courses for cops, and some had everything to do with computer-resources for investigative prowess. Only problem was (is), cost-prohibitive registration impacting our police budget hindered enrolling our cops. Moreover, even if the funds were somehow scrounged, the same budget woes often precluded attendance based on staffing deficiencies.
“This new model puts law enforcement agencies in the driver’s seat and provides support, resources, and assistance by using this ‘by the field, for the field’ model. It fulfills my pledge to respect local control and accountability, while still delivering tailored technical assistance,” elucidated Attorney General Sessions.
You may likely be able to form a picture of how precedent from federal government opening up its vast stores of resources for the small-town local cops to more-aggressively and quite confidently go about investigations and close cases with forensic finesse is Mardi Gras for those in law enforcement circles. The happy ending is serving crime victims more adequately stemming from partnership with federal authorities.
In February 2017, President Trump more than alluded to aligning governmental machinations and federal law enforcement mechanisms for our nation’s multifaceted and diverse police forces, proudly placing “…the government firmly on the side of federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement. This will ensure that funding supports officers on the street, and anyone who tries to do them harm will be aggressively prosecuted.”
As a career member of the nation’s largest police officers’ union, I delight in the summation stated by Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury who conjoined the TAC expertise with a direly troubled police climate, offering the following salvo: “The National Fraternal Order of Police is honored to be a partnering member of this initiative. We view our participation as critical to the delivery of quality training opportunities to front line officers who have dedicated their lives to the protection of the public under some of the most adverse conditions we have seen in recent times.”
In his speech before the IACP and conglomerate member organizations in attendance at today’s conference, AG Sessions telegraphed, “I am pleased that IACP has worked so closely with us on the Collaborative Reform Technical Assistance Center—which will provide training, advice, and expertise for law enforcement officers across America.”
Montgomery County, Maryland police Chief Tom Manger echoed Mr. Canterbury’s sentiments, saying, “The expertise of our combined membership will help provide solutions to some of the most challenging problems facing law enforcement in our commitment to service throughout our communities.”
Hear-hear!
