Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

COPS Organizational Chart

History

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) was created through the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to advance the practice of community policing by the nation’s state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies through information, technical assistance, training and grant resources.  The COPS Office is headed by a Director appointed by the Attorney General, and is organized into directorates, comprising key operational divisions and several functional areas.

Mission

The COPS Office is the federal component 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 variety of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served. The COPS Office has been 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.

Major Functions

The major functions of the COPS Office are to:

• Advance effective policing practices through the direct award of competitive, discretionary grants to law enforcement agencies across the United States and its territories.
• Develop innovative programs that respond directly to the emerging needs of state, local, and tribal law enforcement, to support law enforcement’s prevention and reaction to crime and disorder.
• Ensure grantees meet the programmatic conditions, terms, and requirements of their awards by conducting strategic on-site visits and enhanced office-based grant reviews for at-risk agencies.
• Engage and support law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve to advance public safety.
• Assist law enforcement agencies in implementing Presidential Executive Orders, guidance emanating from the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, and other Administration priorities to support law enforcement and effective policing.
• Implement the COPS Hiring Program (CHP) which provides resources to support the hiring of sworn law enforcement personnel nationwide, while implementing administrative reforms that seek to align local law enforcement agencies with an array of evidence-based strategies to combat violent crime in partnership with communities. Increased community policing capacity has been shown to help law enforcement agencies identify problem factors driving crime, understand the nature of problems, and more effectively solve and resolve specific crimes. In addition, law enforcement agencies are more effective at crime reduction when they adopt policies and practices that promote fairness, legitimacy, and positive community partnerships which builds and re-enforces trust between law enforcement and the communities they protect and serve.
• Provide a range of services to law enforcement agencies including training, consultation, peer-based learning, analysis, and in-depth assessments through the Collaborative Reform Initiative. The Collaborative Reform Initiative is a program that assists law enforcement agencies across the nation in identifying and implementing organizational improvements and reforms, and includes the Collaborative Reform Initiative – Technical Assistance Center (CRI-TAC), the Critical Response Program, and the Organizational Assessment Program.
• Implement the School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) to provide grant awards to states, units of local government, Indian tribes, school districts, and law enforcement agencies to improve security at schools to include law enforcement training and measures to improve security (e.g., metal detectors, locks, lighting, and technology for expedited notification of an emergency).
• Implement the National Blue Alert Network, which promotes rapid dissemination of information to law enforcement, the media and the public about violent offenders who have killed, seriously injured, or pose an imminent threat to law enforcement, or when an officer is missing in connection with official duties.  Implementation includes working with law enforcement agencies to develop Blue Alert plans, issuing voluntary guidelines and recommendations, maintaining a national Blue Alert information repository, providing education and technical assistance, and managing the National Advisory Group comprised of Blue Alert stakeholders.
• Develop and oversee the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMWHA) Program to improve the delivery of, and access to, mental health and wellness services for law enforcement officers through training and technical assistance, demonstration projects, peer mentoring mental health and wellness, and suicide prevention programs.
• Convene stakeholders around the most critical issues in public safety facing our nation, resulting in reports that inform the law enforcement field and move issues forward in policy discussions nationwide.
• Provide subject matter expertise on emerging issues in law enforcement, engaging with leading voices in the field on the critical issues in policing through the management of forums, videos, and audio podcasts.
• Promote collaboration between law enforcement and community members to develop innovative initiatives to prevent crime.
• Partner with law enforcement experts, the academic community, and other stakeholder organizations to develop and produce guidebooks and resources, reports, best practices and other information products for the field that highlight ongoing and new law enforcement issues and/or successful community policing strategies.  Provide lessons learned from grant funded projects to the law enforcement field across the country.
• Develop state-of-the-art training to enhance law enforcement officers’ problem-solving and community interaction skills.
• Manage innovative community policing pilot programs and applied research projects.
• Provide current information about community policing and COPS Office programs to grantees, the public, and the media, as well as representatives of interested local, state, and national organizations and local and state law enforcement and elected officials.
• Ensure timely and accurate responses to and participation in media inquiries, interviews, and public events.