Roadmap to Help Law Enforcement Fight Violent Crime Unveiled at DOJ Summit
Law enforcement leaders recently gathered in Indianapolis for the Department of Justice (DOJ) Violent Crime Reduction Summit, which focused on ways to reduce violent crime, particularly gun violence.
In attendance were federal law enforcement, state, local, and tribal law enforcement, U.S. Attorneys, prosecutors, and other criminal justice officials.
At the summit, DOJ released a new Violent Crime Reduction Roadmap to serve as a “one-stop shop” guide for law enforcement agencies to reduce violent crime.
The goal is to help agencies develop, implement, and evaluate strategies that focus on prevention, intervention, and response. It also provides suggestions on ways to improve trust between law enforcement local communities.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Roadmap during his opening keynote.
“We have spent two and a half years using every available resource to combat the violent crime spike we saw during the pandemic, and this is a guide to the programs and strategies that we have seen work,” said Attorney General Garland.
Ten Essential Actions
The Roadmap is organized around ten essential actions to reduce violent crime. The essential actions are derived from the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) Violent Crime Working Group, which studied the issue.
In each section, DOJ outlines how DOJ resources can support jurisdictions through grant funding, technical assistance, training assistance, and other means.
The ten essential actions are:
· Set a clear goal; commit to saving lives by stopping violence.
· Identify the key people and places driving the violence.
· Create a citywide plan for engaging key people and places.
· Engage key people with empathy and accountability.
· Address key locations used place-based policing and investment.
· Place responsibility for violence reduction efforts at the top.
· Emphasize healing with trauma-informed approaches.
· Invest in anti-violence workforce development.
· Set aside funding for new stakeholders and strategies.
· Commit to continuous improvement based on data, evidence, and peer-to-peer learning.
The Police Executive Research Forum, which is funded by the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance, will provide training and technical assistance to local jurisdictions on implementing the ten essential actions and guide them on properly using DOJ resources.
In addition to the roadmap, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta focused on partnerships, saying cooperation is critical to reducing violent crime, noting that DOJ grants and programs are key to reaching communities.
“We are brokering alliances, across disciplines and across levels of government, to give us the best chance of reducing violence in our communities,” said Associate AG Gupta at the summit. “Addressing violent crime requires every member of the community, a deep investment of social capital, and a strong commitment from all sectors.”
Violent Crime Trending Down
Associate AG Gupta noted that violent crime is once again trending downward, resuming trends seen from the early 1990s to the COVID-19 pandemic, when violent crime spiked.
However, she noted that hate crimes rose in 2022 and “the rate of nonfatal violent victimizations, many of which are never reported to police, rose last year — though, again, the rate is far below its peak three decades ago.”