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**U.S. Department of Justice** Office of Community Oriented Policing Services  145 N Street, N.E.  Washington, DC 20530 www.cops.usdoj.gov×  Menu  - Home
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**New Law Enforcement Resources for Combating Animal Cruelty**
 December 2018 | Volume 11 | Issue 12

On November 8, 2018, the Office of Community Oriented  Policing Services (COPS Office) and the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) released  new resources for combating animal cruelty. Animal abuse has long  been linked with other forms of antisocial behaviors and criminal violence. It is  estimated that animal abusers are five times more likely than those who do not  abuse animals to commit violent crimes against people, four times more likely  to commit property crimes, and three times more likely to have a record for  drug or disorderly conduct offenses.

*Animal  Cruelty as a Gateway Crime* assists in building the capacity of  all participating law enforcement agencies to recognize that animal cruelty  crimes can serve as precursors to more violent crimes, as a co-occurring crime  to other types of offenses, and as an interrelated crime to other offenses such  as domestic violence and elder abuse. Armed with this knowledge, law  enforcement officers (assigned both to patrol and to investigative duties) can  take steps both to solve current crimes and to prevent future crimes from  occurring.

To complement the white paper, the COPS Office and NSA  also released a new “Animal Cruelty” app available free on either the iTunes  App Store or Google Play Store. This law enforcement tool will help  officers and deputies recognize and investigate instances of animal cruelty.  The app is designed as an informational and awareness tool that contains the  following resources:
- Response.  Checklist of questions to ask when responding to a variety of calls for service  (domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, and dogfighting)
- Training.  Contains a series of mini-training videos:
Animal Cruelty  and Its Nexus with Other Crimes
Recognizing  Animal Abuse
Animal Abuse by  Children

- Resources.  Contains links to valuable resources
- Evidence.  A reminder to take photos or videos of evidence that can be stored on your  camera or servers connected to your phone

To learn more about these resources, please visit the Animal  Cruelty as a Gateway Crime project site.

   Nazmia Comrie, Senior Program Specialist   COPS Office

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