As one arm of the criminal justice system, law enforcement is responsible for maintaining social and public order. RAND research is relevant to many issues affecting law enforcement agencies in the United States, with a focus on public safety, quality policing and community policing, and the recruitment and retention of quality officers.
PERIODICAL
Stories discuss Iran's nuclear threat, social security for Mexico's aging population, programs to help veterans and their families, the costs of crime and the value of police officers, psychological operations in Afghanistan, the U.S. health insurance mandate, legal representation in murder cases, marijuana legalization, U.S. competitiveness in educational achievement, and Louisiana's plan for a sustainable coast.
PERIODICAL
An infographic presents findings from RAND's Cost of Crime Calculator — the new tool, by quantifying the tangible and intangible costs of crime, can help cities decide how best to invest their crime-control dollars.
REPORT
Police workforce readiness requires careful and consistent personnel development to ensure that needed skills and knowledge are recognized, appropriately utilized, and fostered. A RAND methodology developed for the U.S. Air Force may be applicable to law enforcement agencies, too.
REPORT
Historically, police agencies have measured their performance against a restricted set of crime-focused indicators, but modern police officers must be prepared to take on a wide variety of roles. Performance measures should be multidimensional to capture this complexity. This report describes some key considerations in designing measures to evaluate law enforcement agencies and includes a detailed review of some international best…
PROJECT
The New Orleans Police Department launched a new crime-fighting plan in late January, with the title "SOS: Save Our Sons." The plan was developed using policing research similar to the findings of RAND's Center on Quality Policing.
REPORT
Pattern and trend analysis and systematic randomness can be used to position U.S. border security personnel and equipment effectively for interdiction, and in some circumstances the combined approach is competitive with perfect surveillance.
REPORT
The Dallas Police Department received a $5 million grant in 2006 to install laptops and video recorders in patrol cars and thus modernize its operations. RAND evaluated the initiative and found it to be generally successful, despite some implementation problems.
REPORT
In 2006, the Communities Foundation of Texas allocated $10 million to the Dallas Police Department to establish the W. W. Caruth Jr. Police Institute. An evaluation of the institute's first course considered participants' opinions of the course's impact on their approach to their jobs, their relationships with supervisors and subordinates, and their sense of solidarity with their coworkers.
COMMENTARY
The high cost of crime to society suggests that adding police officers may give large cities a sizable return on their investments, write Greg Ridgeway and Paul Heaton.
REPORT
This report discusses the status of cold-case investigations in the United States and examines factors associated with successful ones, reporting a survey of law enforcement agencies about their current practices for investigating cold cases and an analysis of four agencies' files.
REPORT
Advances in technology are driving significant changes in day-to-day police operations, but criminals can employ the same technologies that police do. Therefore, the key to the future of policing is not technology, but the ways in which forces adapt it to their purposes.
REPORT
Mexico has undertaken reforms in recent years to professionalize its police. This report draws on the literature on corruption and personnel incentives and analyzes police reform in Mexico. It addresses the roots of corruption and the tools that could be used to mitigate it and provides an initial assessment of the reforms' effectiveness. The results suggest some progress, though police corruption still remains high and more work is…
REPORT
The methods employed, as well as those recommended for future studies, are applicable to any law enforcement agency interested in attracting and identifying high-quality applicants more efficiently.
MULTIMEDIA
Just days before the end of his tenure, Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton joined Greg Ridgeway, director of the RAND Safety and Justice Program, in this dialogue about the effect of mounting constraints on city and state resources and the state of public safety in Los Angeles and California.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Discusses an array of methods that have been used to assess, using data on stops made by police officers, the existence or extent of racially biased policing.
REPORT
An innovative econometric approach developed by RAND Europe allows researchers to estimate crime rates and the number of police officers needed to control crime in Britain, and offers local governments the opportunity to consider how to save money on policing while still maintaining public safety.
MULTIMEDIA
In this July 2011 Congressional Briefing, Lois Davis discusses adjustments made by law enforcement agencies to strengthen their counterterrorism and homeland security capabilities, and the new funding challenges faced by police departments since 9/11.
REPORT
In March 2009, the Dallas Police Department (DPD) began a unique partnership with two local universities, the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at Dallas: The Caruth Police Institute (CPI) provides officer training and serves as the DPD's research and problem-solving arm. This report examines the extent to which CPI is meeting its goals, obstacles to implementation, and how CPI has responded to these challenges.
PERIODICAL
This RAND Review cover story describes RAND's research and analysis of sexual orientation and U.S. military personnel policy relating to the likely repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'
JOURNAL ARTICLE
A public safety message aimed at improving gun law awareness was found to have an effect on new gun buyers' behaviors, particularly in regards to reports of stolen guns, which more than doubled as a result.
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