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Welcome to the RAND Center on Quality Policing

Research for Action

The RAND Center on Quality Policing (CQP) provides research and analysis on contemporary police practice and policy. By determining what practices are most cost-effective and results-oriented, the Center's work helps law enforcement agencies across the United States make better operational decisions and consistently perform at their best.

Today's police forces confront tough issues, including:

• identifying the best ways to spend policing dollars
• recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce
• defining what it means to police effectively and then evaluating performance
• improving police-community relations
• preventing racial profiling
• reducing community violence
• sharing intelligence within and across agencies
• choosing the safest non-lethal weapons

Research done at the Center focuses on four interrelated areas-best practices, performance measurement, use of technology, and force planning-to deliver results that help departments solve these and other problems.

The Center is part of the Safety and Justice Program within RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment.

Featured Project

Police Recruitment and Retention Clearinghouse

Recruitment and retention of officers is an increasing challenge for police agencies. Overwhelmed by day-to-day operations, police agencies typically do not have the time, resources, or expertise to find resources that could improve their recruitment and retention efforts. The Center for Quality Policing's Police Recruitment and Retention Clearinghouse is a searchable database of information that departments can use to meet their staffing needs.

Read More

Featured Publication

Assessing NYPD to Determine Best Practices on Firearm Training and Discharge Avoidance — Jun. 9, 2008

More opportunities for thorough training, closer monitoring of lower-rated police officers, and incorporating non-lethal devices can help further reduce the already minute probability that an NYPD officer fires their weapon.

Full Document Research Brief Author Statement

Featured Activity

National Summit on Recruitment and Retention — Jun. 17 & 18, 2008

Recruitment and retention of police officers is an increasing challenge for police agencies. In response, the RAND Center on Quality Policing is gathering police leaders from across the U.S. and is hosting a National Summit on Police Recruitment and Retention in the Contemporary Urban Environment.

Register Here

Recent Publications and Activities

Community Policing and Violence Prevention in Oakland — Jan. 8, 2008

An assessment of the first-year progress of community-policing and violence-prevention programs in Oakland funded by Measure Y found that implementation of community policing has been delayed, but violence-prevention programs have been implemented as planned.

Full Document

NYPD Pedestrian Stop Patterns Mostly Racially Neutral, with Some Trouble Spots — Nov. 20, 2007

Pedestrian stops made by New York police officers during 2006 reveal that minorities were frisked more often than whites in Staten Island, and by a small number of individual officers, but stops in most areas of the city show smaller differences.

Full DocumentRelated News Release Research Brief Commentary

Caruth Dallas Police Institute lands at the University of North Texas following RAND study - January 8, 2008

Following the recommendation of a RAND study to identify an optimal strategic investment in the Dallas Police Department, the Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) granted $9.5 million to the University of North Texas to create the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Dallas Police Institute.

Read CFT Press Release

Reviewing Police-Community Relations in Cincinnati - Dec. 21, 2007

Having pledged in 2002 to collaborate in efforts to resolve social conflict, improve community relations and avoid litigation, the Cincinnati Police Department, Fraternal Order of Police, and American Civil Liberties Union asked RAND to review their progress. Findings from Year 3 of the study are now available.

Full Document 2007 Report Full Document 2006 Report Full Document 2005 Report

Human Trafficking Problem Hits Close to Home - Oct. 19, 2007

While many of us think of human trafficking-both sex and labor trafficking-as occurring mostly in foreign countries, it is a growing national concern, and one that often hits home in local communities. Center staff examined the response to human trafficking in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio, and identified the need for greater awareness among first responders and residents as well as for greater collaboration among federal officials, local criminal justice practitioners, child welfare workers, and service providers.

Full DocumentNews Release

Improving Recruitment and Retention in New Orleans - March 30, 2007

Hurricane Katrina created unprecedented staffing challenges for the New Orleans Police Department. Center staff analyzed the problems and developed lessons for the City based on RAND's experience with large personnel systems.

News Release Research Brief Full Document

Seminar on Improving Recruitment and Retention

Police agencies across the nation are struggling to develop and maintain qualified workforces. Center staff members participated in Northwestern University Center for Public Safety's Recruitment and Retention Graduate Retraining Seminar, which was open to all law enforcement professionals.

Learn more about the event: (http://nucps.northwestern.edu/events/grs06/grs06.asp )

Identifying Characteristics that Facilitate and Impede Community Policing in the U.S. - May 23, 2006

Environmental and structural characteristics influence community policing, but they are also interrelated, suggesting that the implementation process is complicated and unique for each community.

Abstract and Ordering Information (routledge.com)

Police Personnel Crisis Needs Federal Leadership - May 23, 2006

Communities around the United States are having a hard time recruiting and retaining police officers. They need help from the federal government to meet enormous new challenges - including fighting terrorism - that go far beyond traditional local crime-fighting duties.

Full Article (RAND Review) Commentary

Using State and Local Intelligence in the War on Terrorism - Dec. 7, 2005

State and local law enforcement agencies may be uniquely positioned to augment federal intelligence capabilities in the war on terrorism, but they would benefit from increased funding, training, and oversight.

Full Document

Local Police Should Address Recruitment and Retention Challenges - Nov. 16, 2005

Local police agencies struggling to attract and retain high-quality law enforcement officers should develop long-range planning strategies to help meet their future labor needs.

Full DocumentNews Release