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**Director's Corner:              Working with Local Communities to Reduce Crime:The Project Safe Neighborhoods National Conference**
 February 2019 | Volume 12 | Issue 1

In early December, I had the privilege of joining local law  enforcement officials, federal prosecutors, and other U.S. Department of  Justice partners from across the country at the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN)  National Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

PSN is a federally funded program that provides funding and  resources to establish crime reduction task forces and develop individualized  strategies that meet the needs of the local jurisdiction. Interagency  collaboration is key—law enforcement, prosecutors, and probation and parole  offices spanning the local, state, and federal environments all must work  together to make communities safe again. Local community organizations also  play an integral role in communicating and garnering support for these  strategies amongst community members.

PSN provides the infrastructure and the funding stream to  make all of this happen. And it’s a strategy that’s been found to work before.  A 2010 study, published in the *Journal of  Quantitative Criminology*, examined PSN sites that were active between 2000  and 2006, and found that violent crime reduction in cities implementing PSN  outpaced comparable cities that did not.1

Throughout the conference, I heard from law enforcement  officials about the importance of this initiative and the impact it’s making on  their communities. I chaired a panel on community policing and discussed the  important and influential work being done in the Prince George’s County  (Maryland), Dallas (Texas), and Asheville (North Carolina) Police Departments  to build stronger connections with their communities to address violent crime.  In some cases, these connections were previously strained, but through hard  work and dedication, these chiefs are helping to change the narrative by  changing the reality. 

If there is one thematic takeaway that summarizes the PSN  National Conference, it is this: Local law enforcement and the communities they  serve are in the best position to identify their needs and develop solutions to  their problems. And when we support that philosophy at the federal level, we  can help make a major impact on crime and improve the lives of citizens across  this nation.

In the same vein, we reengineered the COPS  Office Collaborative Reform Initiative for Technical Assistance (CRI-TA)  last year to take on a “by the field, for the field” approach. And the field is  responding. To date, we have fielded nearly 100 requests from law enforcement  agencies seeking assistance on topics such as crime analysis, performance  management, mass demonstrations, active shooter response, Comstat for citizens,  and de-escalation training. We’ve also pledged to provide CRI-TA services to  PSN sites and consulted with them during the national meeting in December.

The criminal justice community works best when we work together  and listen to one another, and PSN is a living, breathing example of that. At  the COPS Office, we continue to strive to play our part and support the men and  women in blue with resources, training, and technical assistance on their most  pressing issues. 

 – Director  Keith

References:   1.Edmund  McGarrell et al., “Project Safe Neighborhoods and Violent Crime Trends in US  Cities: Assessing Violent Crime Impact,” *Journal  of Quantitative Criminology*26 (2010), 165–90.                         
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