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 Contact Us To provide feedback on the Community Policing Dispatch, e-mail the editorial board at CPDispatch@usdoj.gov. To obtain details on COPS Office programs, publications, and resources, contact the COPS Office Response Center at 800-421-6770 or AskCopsRC@usdoj.gov   **U.S. Department of Justice** 
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 **Concerns of Rural Law Enforcement:
          What We Heard from the Field** September 2019 | Volume 12 | Issue 8
  When many Americans think of police departments, they  envision big agencies with large numbers of detectives, forensic specialists,  and SWAT teams at the ready. But about half of our law enforcement departments have  fewer than 10 officers, according to a 2015 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics,1 and approximately 70 percent of them serve communities of fewer than  10,000.2 These small, usually rural, communities have the same problems  that their counterparts in metropolitan areas have, including substance abuse,  violent crime, and homelessness. But small towns have small tax bases, which  results in less funding for personnel, training, equipment, technology and  other resources that local, state, and tribal law enforcement need to prevent  crime and maintain public safety. Listening Sessions and Discussions in Five States To help them acquire the support they need, the COPS  Office partnered with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA),  and the National Police Foundation to conduct listening sessions with rural law enforcement leaders. During the spring  and summer of 2019, they held these meetings with representatives of police  departments and sheriffs’ offices in South Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Iowa, and  Montana. The purpose was to hear personally about the challenges  rural law enforcement departments face, identify and assess their most pressing  needs, and advise them about procedural innovations and promising practices  that could work in their communities. Critical Challenges Need to be Addressed In meetings attended by as many as 90 law enforcement  professionals, a wide variety of challenges were discussed, including the  following: The increase of opioid and methamphetamine  related suffering and crime
        Recruitment problems of competing with urban  police department salaries
        Lack of staffing for joint efforts such as highway  drug interdiction teams
        Expense of body worn cameras, mobile computers,  and license plate readers
        Lack of resources for dealing with mental health  issues
        The strain on small staffs of processing emergency  detention orders (EDO)
        Time consumption and other difficulties of  applying for grant funding
        Additional technology needed for forensic  investigations These sessions also served as opportunities to provide  information about existing resources that could support rural law enforcement,  including federal grant funding opportunities, online resources, and ongoing  DOJ technical assistance programs. COPS Office Director Phil Keith described a successful regional  law enforcement program in Texas, where an eight-county drug interdiction team was formed, and noted that training and technical assistance can be provided  for agencies interested in developing a similar program. Solutions and Opportunities from Government and the Field Along with each state’s U.S. Attorney, representatives  from the COPS Office and BJA engaged with the local law enforcement leaders to  identify methods for meeting the challenges they discussed. These included local  grass roots solutions as well as existing federal programs, such as these: Grant money from the National Highways  Transportation Safety Board for addressing traffic safety and crime
        Use of the National Integrated Ballistic  Information Network (NIBIN) and electronic fingerprinting equipment to respond  to firearms crimes
        Information sharing on close calls and lessons  learned with fellow law enforcement officers through the National Police Foundation’s  Averted School Violence and the LEO Near Miss programs
        School safety grants, a bulletproof vest  program, and other funding support from the COPS Office and BJA
        The use of drones by some departments to relieve  some staffing needs by performing search and rescue and other duties
        Cost-free training from the U.S. Secret Service  for crime scene searches, evidence collection, and processing
        The Project Safe Neighborhoods program for law  enforcement officials, prosecutors, and community leaders to identify and  develop solutions for violent crime problems
        Streamlined COPS Office grants for innovative  projects with one page applications and fast approval process
        The VALOR Initiative for no-cost officer safety  and wellness training
        The Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical  Assistance Center (CRITAC), which provides training and technical assistance  through a partnership with the International Association of Chiefs of Police  (IACP) These are just a few of the many topics discussed at the listening  sessions. Much more needs to be heard—and done. As Director Keith noted, the  nation’s small and rural law enforcement deserve greater attention and support  from the federal government. An Ongoing Effort with Additional Forums and Support To that end, the group plans to conduct additional rural  policing forums in Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, and North Dakota. For  more information on these forums,  please email Tawana  Elliott. The information  gathered during these listening sessions will be used to develop a report that  will be provided to the field. As Jon Adler, Director of BJA, said in addressing one of  the meetings, the BJA and the nation’s U.S. Attorneys have the back of local  law enforcement. This guarantee was seconded by Director Keith for the COPS  Office, and both men noted that their offices are available to assist all agencies  with their law enforcement issues. Faye Elkins
        Sr. Technical Writer References:1. Brian A. Reaves, Local Police Departments, 2013: Personnel, Policies, and  Practices (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2015), 1, https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/lpd13ppp.pdf.2. Reaves, Local Police Departments, 2013 (see note 1),  3. Tweet
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