U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Bureau of Justice Assistance
U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

810 Seventh Street NW.

Washington, DC 20531

Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Attorney General

Laurie O. Robinson

Assistant Attorney General

Denise E. O'Donnell

Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance

Office of Justice Programs 

Innovation • Partnerships • Safer Neighborhoods

www.ojp.gov

Bureau of Justice Assistance

www.bja.gov

NCJ 235702

The Office of Justice Programs (OJP), headed by Assistant Attorney General Laurie O. 

Robinson, provides federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and 

control crime, administer justice, and assist victims. OJP has six components: the Bureau 

of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the 

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; the Office for Victims of Crime; 

and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and 

Tracking. More information about OJP can be found at www.ojp.gov.
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | i

To The Speaker of The houSe 

of repreSenTaTiveS and The 

preSidenT pro Tempore of The SenaTe:

P

ursuant to the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, as amended by the AntiDrug Abuse Act of 1988 (Public Law 100-690), in accordance with Section 522, I am pleased to 

transmit the Bureau of Justice Assistance Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2010.

This report also includes information pursuant to:

■ Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-351, Section 522(b) [42 U.S.C. 

3766b(b)]), addressing grants made under the Edward Byrne Memorial Grant Program.

Second Chance Act of 2007: Community Safety Through Recidivism Prevention (Public Law 110-

199, Section 5 [42 U.S.C. 17503]).

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-322 [42 U.S.C. 3796ff 

et seq.]), addressing the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for State Prisoners (RSAT) Formula 

Grant Program. 

■

■

Respectfully submitted,

Denise E. O’Donnell 

Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance 

Washington, D.C. 

September 2011

FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | iii

T

he Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), a component of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office 

of Justice Programs, was created in 1984 to help America’s local, state, and tribal governments 

reduce violence and restore security in communities and thereby improve the efficiency and 

effectiveness of our nation’s criminal justice system. For nearly 30 years, BJA’s mission has been to 

promote sound policy, develop effective partnerships with the field, promote accountability, offer 

technical assistance and training, and encourage local control of the programs the agency supports. 

BJA’s leadership, along with the varied services we provide, has been essential to both identifying and 

putting into practice the most up-to-date, evidence-based approaches to criminal justice.

This Report to Congress describes the funding, technical assistance, and diverse resources BJA 

provided in fiscal year (FY) 2010 to support jurisdictions in their efforts to reduce and prevent crime. 

We are proud to highlight the many examples of communities and organizations throughout the 

nation that used BJA’s resources to make a difference in their communities. 

The diversity of projects and activities has been impressive, ranging from the first-ever Smart 

Policing National Meeting, which enabled the Smart Policing community to share best practices 

and collaboration on goals; to launching a new JAG Showcase that highlights the most innovative, 

results-oriented projects that have been funded with Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant 

money in the past several years; to developing community-based transition facilities to address the 

needs of offenders in secure facilities who would not otherwise have access to reentry services; to 

modifying the Drug Court model to include Veterans’ Treatment Courts that serve veterans struggling 

with addiction, serious mental illness, and/or co-occurring disorders, including serious, undertreated 

ailments like post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries, both of which can produce 

higher rates of drug abuse, domestic violence, and other criminality.

BJA also administers programs like the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Program, a unique 

partnership among the Department of Justice and local, state, federal, and national public safety 

organizations, which provides death and education benefits to survivors of fallen law enforcement 

officers, firefighters, and other first responders. To honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice, in 

May 2010, during National Police Week, the PSOB Office introduced “The Heroes Walk,” a visual 

display of photographs and key information regarding each fallen law enforcement officer whose 

claim the PSOB Office had recently determined or received.
iv | Solutions for Saf er Communities

Yet another successful program has been the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative, 

which enables law enforcement agencies to appropriately identify and share suspicious activity data, 

“connect the dots,” and protect communities against terrorism. During FY 2010, training emerged 

as one of the top priorities of the initiative, with a focus on training chief executives, fusion center 

analysts, and frontline officers. 

As BJA’s Director, it is an honor to see how technical assistance, training, funding, and other resources 

from BJA have enabled communities to build exciting, worthwhile projects tailored to their local needs 

and conditions. Some of the most successful crime enforcement and prevention initiatives within this 

report highlight the good ideas that are generated in the field. I applaud the many achievements of 

the men and women in our communities who, with the support of BJA and collaborative efforts at 

the state and local levels, have made such a difference in their communities.

BJA is proud to have played a role in these successes, as well as those of the numerous programs and 

initiatives that BJA has funded in FY 2010. For more details about these programs, including success 

stories, links to the resources mentioned, and online access to data on BJA funding by state and 

locality, visit the online version of this report at www.bja.gov/AR. 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | v

Message From the Director .................................................................................. iii

FY 2010 At-A-Glance ............................................................................................ vii

FY 2010 Programs

Enhancing Law Enforcement Initiatives ................................................................1

Honoring America’s Public Safety Officers ..........................................................13

Advancing Information Sharing and Technology 

To Fight Crime and Protect the Homeland ..........................................................17

Countering Terrorism and Planning for Emergencies ..........................................25

Managing Offenders ..........................................................................................29

Breaking the Cycles of Mental Illness, Substance Abuse, 

and Crime .........................................................................................................37

Supporting Innovation in Adjudication ...............................................................43

Addressing Crime and Justice for American Indians 

and Alaska Natives .............................................................................................49

Preventing Crime and Empowering Communities ..............................................51

Protecting and Supporting Victims of Crime .......................................................57

Building Capacity ...............................................................................................59

Acronyms and Abbreviations ..............................................................................63

Appendixes (online at www.bja.gov/AR)

FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | vii

T

he Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) strengthens the nation’s criminal justice system and 

helps America’s local, state, and tribal governments reduce and prevent crime and 

violence. 

In fiscal year (FY) 2010, BJA focused its programmatic and policy efforts on providing a wide range 

of resources to law enforcement, courts, corrections, treatment, justice information sharing, and 

community-based partners to address emerging and chronic crime challenges nationwide. 

BJA delivers resources to state, local, and tribal communities and justice agencies with an emphasis 

on partnerships and promoting data-driven and evidence-based practices and policies to improve the 

efficiency and effectiveness of the justice system. At the same time, BJA encourages innovation and 

testing of new strategies to meet the unique needs of the communities it serves.

In FY 2010, BJA focused on several key justice priorities facing America’s communities. These priorities 

addressed the Department of Justice’s strategic goals and objectives and included:

■ Supporting state and local law enforcement in identifying and preventing terrorist incidents.

Improving state and local efforts to reduce and prevent violent crime, including gang, gun, and 

drug crime, through data-driven and evidence-based strategies.

Ensuring fairness and access to justice by improving the capacity of indigent defense and America’s 

courts.

Addressing economic and financial crime, including mortgage fraud, consumer fraud, and 

intellectual property crime.

Supporting smart and effective approaches to offender reentry and justice reinvestment.

Promoting interoperability and information sharing to improve the ability of state and local law 

enforcement and justice agencies to share criminal intelligence, while at the same time ensuring 

respect for privacy rights and civil liberties.

■

■

■

■

■
viii | Solutions for Saf er Communities

A brief look at a few of the many programs administered by BJA in FY 2010 reveals the following:

Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants provided more than $450 million to 50 states, 

the District of Columbia, and 5 territories for local, state, and tribal justice initiatives.

The Bulletproof Vest Partnership Program distributed more than $37 million to over 4,100 

jurisdictions. 

Public Safety Officers’ Benefits were approved for 144 FY 2010 claims to provide benefits to 

survivors of America’s fallen heroes.

The Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative assisted states and local communities 

nationwide in overcoming obstacles to sharing information appropriately and securely.

State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training Program trainers delivered nearly 80 workshops 

on terrorism interdiction, investigation, and prevention to more than 6,500 law enforcement 

professionals. 

The Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI) Program Management Office 

was established in March 2010 to coordinate existing resources and further develop and deploy NSI. 

Second Chance Act funds of more than $82 million allowed communities to provide critical services 

to returning offenders and ensure necessary accountability. 

Justice and Mental Health Partnerships Collaboration funding provided $10.2 million for 62 sitebased grants to states and units of local government, and intensive training and technical assistance 

was provided to 43 FY 2009 grantees.

Adult Drug Court funding of $29 million enabled 110 jurisdictions to develop and implement drug 

treatment courts.

Tribal Initiatives were bolstered through three programs totaling approximately $36 million for 

courts, treatment, and corrections efforts, which were awarded through the Department of Justice’s 

Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation. 

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)—a partnership of BJA, the Federal Bureau of 

Investigation, and the National White Collar Crime Center—registered more than 300,000 complaints 

for analysis by IC3 experts.

Through the Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Initiative, 41 task forces are in operation, and 

BJA, in partnership with the Office for Victims of Crime, released a strategy and operations e-guide.

These and other BJA efforts reflect the dedication, commitment, and successes of a nation of justice 

partners who believe that more can always be done to help reduce and prevent crime and enhance 

the criminal justice system.
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | ix

Breaking the Cycle, $148

Managing Offenders, $490.4

Protecting and Supporting

Victims of Crime, $24.5

Enhancing Law Enforcement, $545

Supporting Innovation in

Adjudication, $92

Countering Terrorism, $10

American Indians and Alaska Natives, $50

Advancing Information Sharing

and Technology, $90

Honoring America’s Public Safety Officers, $70.1

Building Capacity, $30.4

Preventing Crime, $60.5

Formula Grants, $519

Payments, $70.1

Reimbursement, $394

Tribal Initiatives, $50

Other Discretionary

Programs, $247

RISS, $45

Congressionally Selected Awards, $185.3

Second Chance Act, $100

FY 2010 Appropriations for BJA-Appropriated Programs (in $ millions)

FY 2010 Funding by BJA Program Areas (in $ millions)* 

*Does not include congressionally selected awards

FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 1

C h a p t e r 1

Enhancing Law EnforcEmEnt 

initiativEs

T

he Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) 

supports initiatives that address the 

prevention, suppression, and subsequent 

reduction of violent crime and gang activity 

and provides resources, including training and 

technical assistance (TTA), to law enforcement 

agencies and the communities they serve. These 

initiatives include smart policing, multiagency 

task forces, forensics, drug market intervention, 

mortgage fraud, intellectual property, officer 

safety, and leadership development. More 

information on these initiatives and their success 

stories can be found in the online annual report, 

available at www.bja.gov/AR.

Edward Byrne Memorial Justice 

Assistance Grant Program

The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance 

Grant (JAG) Program, the leading source 

of federal justice funding to state and local 

jurisdictions, provides states, tribes, and local 

governments with critical funding necessary to 

support a range of program areas, including 

law enforcement, prosecution and the courts, 

prevention and education, corrections and 

community corrections, drug treatment and 

enforcement, planning, evaluation, technology 

improvement, and crime victim and witness 

initiatives. JAG awards have a 4-year project 

period, but funds are distributed up front 

rather than on a reimbursement basis, allowing 

recipients to earn interest on their awards and 

generate additional funding for successful 

initiatives and future projects. 

On average, more than 40 percent of annual 

JAG funding is allocated to law enforcement 

personnel, initiatives, and equipment, including 

multijurisdictional drug and gang task forces, 

police cruisers, and less-than-lethal devices. 

In FY 2010, JAG-funded task forces reported 

disrupting 1,507 drug trafficking organizations. 

Further, 641 drug trafficking organizations 

were dismantled, and 53,651 individuals were 

arrested on felony charges and 18,352 on 

misdemeanor charges. 

In FY 2010, BJA processed 1,578 local and 56 

state applications for JAG funding totaling more 

than $450 million (approximately $300 million 

to states and territories and $153 million to 

local units of government). In addition to this FY 

2010 JAG funding, BJA also awarded more than 

$3 million in remaining 2009 American Recovery 

and Reinvestment Act funding to 120 local 

jurisdictions. 

Smart Policing Initiative

Several longitudinal studies have shown that a 

small number of offenders are responsible for 

a disproportionate amount of crime. Research 
2 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

also has shown that many of these crimes are 

clustered at specific locations or in narrow, 

easily defined areas. Therefore, effective policing 

requires a tightly focused, measurable approach 

based on sound, detailed analysis. The Smart 

Policing Initiative (SPI) builds on the concepts of 

“offender-based” and “place-based” policing. 

In October 2009, BJA partnered with the CNA 

Corporation, a nonprofit research and analysis 

institution, to provide targeted TTA to local 

police departments. SPI practices focus on 

strategic planning; effective use of traditional 

and nontraditional information sources; social 

marketing, collaboration, and community 

outreach; strategic targeting of problematic 

people and places; and the use of intelligence 

to increase police organizations’ efficiency and 

effectiveness in times of diminished public 

resources. 

To assist the SPI sites: 

■ CNA hosts monthly technical assistance 

conference calls, during which it receives 

project updates from each site and offers 

technical assistance and recommendations 

for action. 

The information gathered from these calls 

is used to develop and distribute technical 

assistance materials that directly benefit the 

Smart Policing community (e.g., reports, job 

aids, case studies, and webinars).

BJA and CNA conducted a 2-day Inaugural 

Smart Policing National Meeting in May 

2010, which marked the first opportunity 

for the Smart Policing community to meet, 

collaborate on project goals, share best 

practices, review important implementation 

components, and learn about police 

innovation. 

■

■

BJA and CNA also launched a new web site, 

www.smartpolicinginitiative.com, which 

provides a clearinghouse of data, case studies, 

podcasts, transcripts from major sessions at the 

national meeting, a secure-access discussion 

forum for the Smart Policing community, and 

other resources. 

Project Safe Neighborhoods

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is a strategy 

for reducing gun and gang crime in America 

that focuses on aggressive and coordinated 

enforcement of existing gun laws in federal and 

state courts. The PSN strategy concentrates on 

the implementation of five elements integral to 

a comprehensive, coordinated gun and gang 

crime reduction and prevention program: (1) 

partnerships, (2) strategic planning, (3) training, 

(4) community outreach, and (5) accountability. 

Over the past several years, BJA has supported 

these five elements through both direct grant 

funds and delivery of TTA to the field.

In addition to the PSN strategy—which brings 

together state and local law enforcement, 

corrections, the local community, and other 

key stakeholders in the local jurisdictions—BJA 

also coordinates the national PSN Anti-Gang 

Training, which is tailored to address the 

concerns of criminal justice practitioners at 

multiple levels as well as intervention/prevention 

personnel and community members. There are 

four program tracks: 

■ The 1-day Executives Track is presented in 

a roundtable format for key leaders and 

decisionmakers to increase their awareness 

about, and develop a strategy for addressing, 

local criminal gang issues and initiatives.

The 21⁄2-day Line Law Enforcement Track 

provides law enforcement officers, corrections 

personnel, and probation and parole officers 

with information to help them address 

relevant issues.

 The 21⁄2-day Investigators and Prosecutors 

Track enables these professionals to explore 

gang topics in depth.

■

■
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 3

In FY 2010 BJA, through the CenTF Program 

(www.iir.com/Justice_Training/centf), conducted 

26 training events for nearly 1,500 law 

enforcement professionals representing 42 

states and 2 territories. BJA worked with 

nationally recognized subject matter experts to 

promote effective task force management and 

command, increase officer safety awareness, 

and increase task force operational effectiveness 

through CenTF’s Task Force Commander and 

Methamphetamine Investigation Management 

Workshops. 

CenTF’s Center for Task Force Leadership and 

Integrity (CTFLI) provided restricted-access, 

web-based training to 2,160 law enforcement 

officers. The distance-learning training focused 

on some of the most critical areas of task force 

organization and operations management, 

such as “Executive Leadership”; “Task Force 

Commander Leadership and Management”; 

and “Safeguarding Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil 

Liberties in Task Force Operations.”

National Forensic Science 

Training and Technical 

Assistance Program

Investigating and solving crimes often requires 

collaboration from myriad practitioners 

throughout the criminal justice system. BJA’s 

collaboration with the National Forensic 

Science Technology Center (NFSTC) is focused 

on providing TTA to the law enforcement, 

forensic science, and legal communities to 

promote collaboration and provide educational 

opportunities in forensic science, policy, and 

practice. The TTA was accomplished through an 

annual training symposium on a specific forensic 

science discipline or subject, and through the 

provision of specialized onsite TTA. In addition, 

BJA will be developing a unique training 

package for criminal justice practitioners in 

multiple fields that will address the intersection 

of forensics and policy and practice.

■ The 21⁄2-day Intervention and Prevention Track 

provides specific information for educational 

and other professionals who interact with 

gang-involved youth.

During FY 2010, BJA and its national partners 

accomplished the following:

■ Delivered 18 PSN Anti-Gang trainings to 

a total of 5,133 sworn and non-sworn 

personnel throughout the United States, 

with 6 scheduled for 2011. 

Partnered with the National District Attorneys 

Association (NDAA), enabling it to publish 

a newsletter on civil gang injunctions and a 

monograph titled Firearms Identification in 

the Forensic Science Laboratory.

Responded to 50 more requests for 

supplemental TTA than had been made in 

2009. 

Provided approximately $11.8 million in direct 

grants for local PSN initiatives. These grants 

supported the delivery and implementation of 

the PSN strategy to the communities and task 

forces within the districts as they continued 

to expand their gang and gun reduction 

efforts. Each of the 93 federal judicial districts 

was eligible to apply for a formula-based 

allocation, based on crime and population.

Provided $2.9 million to support critical PSN 

TTA activities in those jurisdictions with a high 

volume of gun- and gang-related crime.

■

■

■

■

Center for Task Force Training 

In response to escalating multijurisdictional 

crime and criminal organizations, local law 

enforcement has turned increasingly to 

multiagency task forces. BJA, in partnership with 

the Institute for Intergovernmental Research 

(IIR), administers the Center for Task Force 

Training (CenTF) Program to support these task 

forces.
4 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

In August 2010, NFSTC hosted an Impression 

and Pattern Evidence Symposium—cosponsored 

by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), BJA, 

and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 

Laboratory Division—which brought together 

more than 300 professionals from the law 

enforcement, forensic science, and legal 

communities to encourage information sharing, 

promote collaboration, and provide unique 

educational opportunities for impression and 

pattern evidence examiners. A post-conference 

survey revealed that:

■ 98.8 percent of respondents would consider 

attending another Impression and Pattern 

Evidence Symposium.

95 percent of attendees were either 

“satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the overall 

symposium (59.3 percent were very satisfied; 

36 percent were satisfied).

When asked if the symposium content was 

appropriate and informative, attendees gave 

the conference a 4.45 rating on a scale of 1–5 

(1 = very unsatisfied, 5 = very satisfied).

■

■

National Forensic Academy

Forensic investigations have become an 

increasingly important part of the administration 

of justice throughout the nation. Recently, 

forensic science in the United States has been 

described as “badly fragmented” and in need 

of standardization. Forensic practitioners, 

like so many other professionals, have found 

themselves doing more with reduced resources 

while also experiencing heightened scrutiny due 

to the popularity of crime-related media. There is 

a clear need for quality, interdisciplinary forensic 

training that affords the forensic practitioner 

the opportunity to become more effective as 

a practitioner and also provides a network of 

other forensic personnel and experts that he or 

she can call upon as a resource.

The National Forensic Academy (NFA) at the 

University of Tennessee offers an intensive 10-

week training opportunity that provides law 

enforcement personnel in the field of forensic 

investigation with theoretical knowledge, 

practical application, and hands-on, realistic 

training while also enriching the forensic 

network of every attendee. 

Begun in 2001 and funded by BJA since 2005, 

NFA has been the benchmark for forensic 

training because it increases the effectiveness 

of all of its graduates. Through its partnership 

with NFA, BJA is working to address the 

need for standardized training for forensic 

practitioners. Currently, NFA has 495 graduates 

from 47 states, the District of Columbia, and the 

Icelandic Police.

NFA brings together forensic experts from a 

multitude of disciplines who provide not only 

theoretical knowledge and demonstrations of 

forensic techniques, but also an opportunity for 

participants to apply what they have learned 

in realistic, hands-on exercises. In addition to 

the training that forensic practitioners receive 

during their time with NFA, they are also the 

beneficiaries of an extensive network made 

up of the instructors who make themselves 

available for assistance long after the 

practitioner has graduated. NFA also provides 

an opportunity for forensic practitioners to 

study for and attain International Association 

for Identification certification while they are 

participating in the NFA program.

During 2010, NFA developed and delivered a 

40-hour shooting-incident reconstruction course 

as a result of ongoing requests from forensic 

practitioners. In addition, NFA hosted the 4th 

biennial Forensic Symposium in Nashville, 

Tennessee. Nearly 200 forensic practitioners 

attended and were given the opportunity to 

hear about best practices, lessons learned, and 

emerging forensic technology in addition to 

meeting many other forensic practitioners who 

broadened their professional network.
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 5

In FY 2010 alone, NFA delivered:

■ Three 10-week sessions.

Numerous 40-hour specialized forensic 

training courses.

More than 30,000 contact hours of 

professional forensic training.

■

■

Returning Veterans Project

Current U.S. military actions in the Middle East, 

including the deployment of National Guard and 

Reserve units, are having a serious impact on 

law enforcement agencies around the country. 

In the years since the 9/11 bombings, sworn law 

enforcement and correctional officers who serve 

in our nation’s reserve and guard units have 

been deployed for extended periods of time 

with their military units, often returning with 

either physical injuries or post-traumatic stress 

disorder (PTSD). Both may affect an officer’s 

ability to return to his or her pre-deployment 

criminal justice position, thus impacting his or 

her agency’s staffing levels and fiscal budgets.

In partnership with the International Association 

of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and its Employing 

Returning Combat Veterans as Law Enforcement 

Officers project, BJA created a series of 

guidebooks to assist both officers and agencies 

with the reintegration process following 

military deployments and to help agencies and 

individuals seeking employment to navigate 

the recruitment, training, and integration of 

former military personnel into our nation’s law 

enforcement agencies. The guidebooks were 

released in both hard copy and electronically, 

and: 

■ IACP received a total of 392 requests for 

the guidebooks from various agencies 

and organizations in the first 2 months of 

availability. 

A total of 5,522 hard copies of the veterans’ 

guides and 3,216 of the leaders’ guides 

■

were distributed in the final 2 months of FY 

2010. BJA also made copies available at law 

enforcement conferences across the country.

Approximately 9,770 documents were 

downloaded from IACP’s web site during this 

same 2-month period.

IACP began development of a user’s survey 

for the guidebook and a guidebook for the 

families of veterans; both will be completed in 

FY 2011.

■

■

Drug Market Intervention 

In FY 2008, BJA, through the Project Safe 

Neighborhoods initiative, developed a 

training continuum for local teams interested 

in implementing an open-air Drug Market 

Intervention (DMI) initiative that was commonly 

referred to as the “High Point model.” DMI 

is a strategy that uses focused deterrence, 

intervention, and prevention to effectively 

eliminate illegal open-air drug markets and the 

crime, violence, and disorder associated with 

them. 

The BJA-sponsored DMI training initiative, in 

partnership with Michigan State University 

(MSU), consists of a continuum of three trainings 

for up to 10 target sites interested in replicating 

the strategy. The first training consists primarily 

of presentations on the foundational elements 

of the strategy by various representatives from 

jurisdictions that have already implemented 

it. The second and third trainings build on the 

initial training by adding additional presentations 

on more advanced topics such as working 

with the media, how to collect data for 

performance measures, funding and resources, 

and sustainability issues. These later sessions 

also focus on problem solving through breakout 

sessions, in which teams have the opportunity 

to work with peers within their discipline as 

well as with other teams to work through the 

obstacles and challenges that they are facing 
6 | Solutions for Safer Communities

in implementing the strategy. They also have 

opportunities to consult with representatives 

from other successful communities that have 

experienced similar challenges and are able to 

provide counsel and advice.

Each selected site’s team consists of a law 

enforcement officer, a local prosecutor, 

a community leader, and a social service 

provider, who attend all three trainings. Each 

team receives a site visit from a BJA technical 

assistance provider along with ongoing support 

to help local teams adapt the model to their 

unique local context. In addition, BJA’s national 

partners have developed a training manual for 

target sites that interested jurisdictions may use 

to implement DMI locally. 

Through the DMI Round III Training and 

Technical Assistance Request for Commitment 

(RFC), a total of eight applications were 

accepted by MSU, BJA, and DOJ for the 

following sites: Flint, Michigan; Guntersville, 

Alabama; Jacksonville, Florida; Lake County, 

Indiana; Montgomery County, Maryland; 

Quinault Indian Nation, Washington; Roanoke, 

Virginia; and New Orleans, Louisiana. 

During FY 2010, BJA’s national partners 

produced the following deliverables:

■ MSU continued to maintain and make 

upgrades to the public DMI web site 

(drugmarketinitiative.msu.edu) as well as the 

secure site. 

MSU worked with the Center for Court 

Innovation to produce the High Point video. In 

addition to uploading the video to the public 

web site, MSU distributed more than 50 

copies at trainings and meetings. 

The DMI Implementation Guide and Lessons 

Learned (www.bja.gov/pdf/DMIGuide.pdf) was 

updated and used as a training product and 

for technical assistance requests. 

■

■

Bulletproof Vest Partnership

Although overall crime in the United States 

was down in 2010, deadly assaults against law 

enforcement officers rose by more than 20 

percent. Efforts continue to develop protective 

body armor that provides maximum protection 

with increased coverage and comfort wearability.

The Bulletproof Vest Partnership (BVP) 

Program was created by Congress through the 

Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act to help 

state and local jurisdictions purchase body armor

vests for use by law enforcement agencies. 

Eligible state and local jurisdictions submit 

applications online in the BVP system (www.ojp.

gov/bvpbasi) based on the number of officers in 

the jurisdiction and the vest replacement cycle 

used by each law enforcement agency in the 

jurisdiction.

As a consequence of a new vest standard 

established by the National Institute of Justice, 

in FY 2010, BJA updated the vest information 

in the BVP system to display only the latest, 

NIJ-certified vests. Additionally, a 50 percent 

match waiver was completed in the BVP grants 

management system to allow jurisdictions 

in financial hardship to use 100 percent of 

available BVP funds toward the purchase of 

a bullet-resistant vest. BJA also worked with 

national organizations, such as IACP, to ensure 

that all jurisdictions, especially those that have 

not applied previously, are aware of the program 

and the application requirements. 

In FY 2010, BJA awarded more than $37 million 

to over 4,100 jurisdictions. 

Preventing Suicide Among 

Law Enforcement Officers

Suicide by law enforcement officers has 

increased significantly over the past decade, 

yet little has been done to directly address this 

issue. More officers die by their own hand 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 7

than by homicide or other line-of-duty deaths, 

yet training is developed as if the opposite 

were true. BJA recognizes the need to increase 

awareness about this problem and develop 

comprehensive tools to combat it. 

In FY 2008, BJA partnered with the Florida 

Regional Community Policing Institute (FL 

RCPI) at St. Petersburg College to support 

the In Harm’s Way: Law Enforcement Suicide 

Prevention Program. The goal of this program is 

to improve the probability that law enforcement 

officers contemplating suicide will seek help 

from mental health professionals, help command 

staff and peers recognize the behavioral red 

flags of a potential law enforcement suicide 

victim, foster an understanding about the myths 

and misconceptions of suicide, and reduce the 

rate of suicide among law enforcement officers 

over the long term. 

Experts agree that suicide is complex and 

multifactorial, yet with prevention education 

and awareness, it is highly preventable. The 

intent of this program is to provide information 

to law enforcement command staff and officers 

about suicide prevention so that they can in 

turn educate and provide awareness to their 

colleagues. By offering train-the-trainer sessions 

and conference presentations, the program 

enables police practitioners to get the tools and 

information necessary to implement awareness 

and prevention programs at their respective 

agencies. Upon request, speakers make 

presentations for the states’ chiefs and sheriffs 

associations and at key trainings and meetings 

to provide critical information, which can assist 

in bringing about a change in a police culture 

that tends to close its collective eyes to the 

topics of stress management, PTSD, and suicide. 

The FL RCPI web page (http://PoliceSuicide.

SPCollege.edu) offers a plethora of resources, 

camera-ready materials that can be adapted 

for local departments and then reproduced, a 

speakers’ bureau, and a host of other cuttingedge materials. 

During FY 2010, as BJA’s national partner, FL 

RCPI accomplished the following:

■ Held six “Law Enforcement Suicide: Tactics for 

Prevention and Intervention” train-the-trainer 

classes across the country.

Held two In Harm’s Way: Law Enforcement 

Suicide Prevention conferences (New Jersey 

and Texas). 

Developed and maintained the In Harm’s Way: 

Law Enforcement Suicide Prevention web 

site, which contains articles and publications 

on the topics of stress management, crisis 

intervention, and peer support.

Spoke at six summits, conferences, meetings, 

and executive trainings across the country 

on the topic of law enforcement suicide 

prevention. 

■

■

■

Mortgage Fraud

Mortgage fraud played a large role in the 

economic downturn starting in 2007. The FBI 

estimates that mortgage fraud costs $4–$6 

billion in losses annually, with foreclosure rates 

in some communities exceeding 20 percent. The 

best, if not the only, way to attack this type of 

fraud is through multijurisdictional task forces, 

prosecution, and prevention. 

The BJA mortgage fraud program has two major 

components:

1. Grants to state and local agencies to support 

prevention, detection, investigation, and 

prosecution of mortgage fraud. In FY 2010, six 

grants totaling more than $7.7 million were 

added to the eight awards made in 2009. 

2. A four-member training and technical 

assistance consortium formed in FY 2010 

to provide state and local agencies and task 

forces with TTA on all facets of mortgage 

fraud, later adding an award to NDAA. The 

other consortium members are the National 
8 | Solutions for Safer Communities

White Collar Crime Center, National Crime 

Prevention Council, and St. Petersburg 

College Center for Public Safety Innovation. 

National Gang Center

Street gangs are a serious problem in many U.S. 

communities. Reducing the number of crimes 

they commit and improving the quality of life 

in affected neighborhoods is a high priority for 

BJA. To that end, BJA partners with the Office 

of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

(OJJDP) to fund the National Gang Center 

(NGC), which for more than 15 years has 

contributed to reductions in gang-related crime 

and violence. 

NGC provides national leadership and 

information to policymakers and researchers, 

and resources, training, and technical assistance 

to practitioners nationwide by:

■ Conducting research on gangs, including the 

National Youth Gang Survey administered 

annually since 1995, thereby providing 

information about the nature of the national 

gang problem.

Identifying new and promising antigang programs and best practices and 

disseminating information via the NGC web 

site (www.nationalgangcenter.gov) and other 

media.

Providing TTA to communities that are 

planning and implementing anti-gang 

strategies. 

Providing specialized training to law 

enforcement.

■

■

■

NGC also developed and delivered the Gangs 

in Indian Country curriculum, a basic training in 

gang investigations especially designed for tribal 

law enforcement officers and state and local 

officers who partner with them. In addition, 

NGC subject matter experts delivered 6 hours 

of specialized training on gang prevention and 

intervention to a total of 1,245 persons at PSN 

Anti-Gang trainings around the United States. 

Reducing Officer Injuries

Policing is a high-risk profession in which officers 

face a variety of dangers every day. Although 

administrators are committed to protecting 

their law enforcement officers, thousands are 

needlessly injured, disabled, or killed each year. 

However, little to no effort is made to document 

and track non-assault related police officer 

injuries. Many members of the law enforcement 

and research fields have acknowledged this 

deficiency and identified the lack of useful 

data as a hindrance in their abilities to provide 

recommendations for safeguarding officers. 

Agencies need the information and tools 

necessary to address areas of vulnerability 

and thereby to reduce the number of injuries 

suffered by police officers.

The Reducing Officer Injuries project is 

conducting a pilot study to identify and 

document the cause and magnitude of all 

reported injuries sustained by law enforcement 

officers from 18 participating agencies. The 

information gleaned from the project will be 

used to develop practical resources to help law 

enforcement agencies identify and respond to 

officer vulnerabilities for injury. This program 

seeks to aid everyone within and associated with 

the law enforcement community both personally 

and financially. 

In FY 2010, BJA partnered with IACP to 

thoroughly examine and quantify how officers 

are getting hurt by conducting a pilot study 

that tracks a spectrum of injuries to police 

officers. From the data obtained, policy-relevant 

strategies will be developed to reduce risk 

and minimize injuries. During FY 2010, IACP 

accomplished the following:
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 9

■ Convened an advisory group, consisting of 

law enforcement executives, representatives 

from research and medical fields, and private 

industry entities, which designed the data 

collection tool for the study. 

Converted the data collection tool into an 

online format and implemented it using a 

secure web site.

Conducted site visits to each of the 

participating agencies to provide an overview 

of the project’s scope and expectations and to 

provide training on how to properly complete 

the online tool for consistency in reporting. 

Conducted preliminary analysis of the data 

and created and disseminated an initial report 

with basic injury data to the participating 

agencies. 

■

■

■

Smaller Law Enforcement 

Agency Technical Assistance 

Program

IACP, in partnership with BJA, provides training, 

technical assistance, and support services to 

law enforcement executives across the country, 

particularly those from smaller agencies serving 

a population of 50,000 or less, through the 

Smaller Law Enforcement Agency Technical 

Assistance Program (Smaller Agency Program). 

There are approximately 15,000 smaller and 

tribal law enforcement agencies in the United 

States, and the mission of the Smaller Agency 

Program is to provide them with access to 

affordable training, technical assistance, 

policy support, and other resources. While 

smaller agencies make up the majority of law 

enforcement agencies in the country, they are 

often faced with limited access to training and 

resources that are tailored to their unique needs.

In FY 2010, the Smaller Agency Program and its 

New Police Chief Mentoring Project had several 

accomplishments:

■ Trained more than 1,900 law enforcement 

leaders through the Smaller Agency 

Certificate Track at the IACP Annual 

Conference in Denver.

Trained more than 600 law enforcement 

leaders at onsite regional training events.

Provided mentoring services to more than 50 

new executives from smaller agencies.

Disseminated the Big Ideas for Smaller Law 

Enforcement Agencies e-newsletter to a 

subscription list of more than 5,800 law 

enforcement leaders.

Maintained a web site with resources that 

include electronically archived editions of Big 

Ideas for Smaller Law Enforcement Agencies,

the Best Practices Guide series, sample 

community and internal surveys, and other 

valuable tools for smaller agency executives. 

The site receives approximately 65,000 hits 

annually.

■

■

■

■

Law Enforcement 

Leadership Initiative

Criminal justice organizations have always 

sought quality leaders. Discovering and 

developing individuals to be the next generation 

of leaders is extremely demanding, especially for 

those in law enforcement. Examining the needs 

for the next generation of 21st-century law 

enforcement leaders has been a priority of BJA 

for the past 6 years. 

In FY 2010, BJA funded two separate but 

complementary projects to examine law 

enforcement’s leadership needs. Under the 

heading of BJA’s Executive Session on Police 

Leadership, St. Petersburg College and the 

Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) 

were funded for a 3-year period to examine 

leadership needs and challenges. Both these 

projects have been designed to challenge 
10 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

the cultural issues in law enforcement with 

the intent of redesigning the current law 

enforcement model to meet future precipitous 

budget challenges. St. Petersburg College has 

been exploring how best to develop quality 

next-generation leaders. Specifically, the college 

will identify what next-generation leaders 

will need to be collocation builders, thought 

leaders, or community leaders. Or, alternatively, 

determine if there should be different models 

of leadership to prepare individuals. PERF is 

examining the leadership challenges in three 

specific law enforcement agencies: Manchester, 

England; New Orleans, Louisiana; and San 

Francisco, California.

St. Petersburg College and PERF have held 

their initial executive session meetings and are 

now drafting case studies and competencies 

requirements for future leaders, which should be 

completed in late 2011. 

Intellectual Property Crime

BJA recognizes that intellectual property (IP) 

rights enforcement must be a priority of law 

enforcement. Innovation—whether in creative, 

high-technology, automotive, life sciences, 

or countless other industries—is central to 

growing the United States’ economy and getting 

more Americans back to work. For America’s 

innovative businesses to remain competitive in 

a global economy, they need protection from 

criminals here and abroad who would steal 

their creations and replace them with cheap 

or dangerous imitations. IP enforcement is 

about more than just protecting businesses 

from economic loss, however. It is also about 

protecting Americans from dangerous goods 

ranging from counterfeit pharmaceuticals to 

lead-tainted jewelry. Finally, research has shown 

that IP crimes are closely related to and support 

other crimes, including violent crime. 

The improved coordination of IP rights 

enforcement efforts among federal, state, 

and local authorities is a high priority of 

the Department of Justice. BJA’s Intellectual 

Property Enforcement, Training, and Technical 

Assistance Program (IP Grant Program) assists 

state and local law enforcement agencies and 

educational institutions in providing resources 

for IP crime prevention, response, and TTA 

efforts. In FY 2010, BJA made approximately 

$4 million available to support these efforts, 

with 14 jurisdictions receiving funding to 

reimburse expenses related to performing 

criminal enforcement operations; educating the 

public to prevent, deter, and identify criminal 

violations of IP laws; establishing task forces 

to conduct investigations, forensic analyses, 

and prosecutions; and acquiring equipment to 

conduct investigations and forensic analysis of 

evidence. In addition, BJA awarded grants to 

the National White Collar Crime Center, the 

National Association of Attorneys General, 

and the National Crime Prevention Council 

to enhance TTA to state, local, and tribal law 

enforcement agencies so they may increase 

their capacity to respond to IP crime. BJA 

also engaged in extensive outreach efforts 

by kicking off its national training initiative in 

Baltimore, Maryland on September 14, 2010 

and holding an Intellectual Property Rights 

Summit in Pasadena, California on September 

30, 2010.

In FY 2010, BJA also implemented a grantee 

reporting program that will collect important 

performance information about crime in 

grantee jurisdictions, such as the number 

of arrests and charges filed, the number 

of counterfeit organizations identified and 

dismantled, and the value of cash and property 

seized. 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 11

Real Crimes in Virtual Worlds

Criminal activities in online gaming communities 

and virtual worlds are on the rise, and criminals 

are using popular games such as World of 

Warcraft, online communities such as Second 

Life®, and social media tools to commit a 

wide range of crimes. These are real crimes 

committed in virtual worlds. 

The purpose of the Addressing Crime in Virtual 

and Online Gaming Worlds program—which is 

administered by Drakontas LLC in partnership 

with Drexel University—is to enhance the 

capacity of state and local law enforcement 

personnel to investigate traditional crimes that 

are committed using unconventional, modern 

technologies. These technologies, which include 

gaming consoles and modern handheld devices, 

have Internet connections that enable users to 

interact via embedded social communication 

tools, which criminals exploit to commit social 

and economic crimes.

This program addresses the issue of crimes in 

virtual and online gaming worlds through the 

delivery of a comprehensive, 1-day training 

session and an online reference library, both 

of which are focused on the various types of 

crimes being committed, the means by which 

they are being carried out using the embedded 

communications tools in gaming systems, and 

the forensic tools and techniques available to 

law enforcement to investigate these incidents. 

The primary beneficiaries of this training 

program are state and local law enforcement 

practitioners, namely investigators and digital 

forensics personnel; however, the broader 

criminal justice community stands to benefit 

from additional awareness and training on these 

issues as well.

Accomplishments in FY 2010 include:

■ Development of training curricula and an 

online reference library.

■ Delivery of in-person training to 192 law 

enforcement personnel at 9 sites across the 

country.

Demonstrable increase in knowledge retention 

of course materials through the delivery of 

pre-/post-test assessments, reflecting an 

average increase of 47 percent.

Delivery of 2 webinars to 168 practitioners 

and industry representatives.

■

■

Rural Law Enforcement—

Leading by Legacy

Rural law enforcement agencies face resource 

limitations that create significant challenges 

as they serve and protect the citizens in 

their communities. These limitations are only 

exacerbated by the current economic crisis. 

Rural agencies are often under-staffed, with a 

majority of the sworn officers having only a high 

school education. The chief executives of many 

rural law enforcement agencies are considered 

“working chiefs” and, in addition to fulfilling 

administrative duties, serve the community 

by responding to calls for service, covering 

patrol functions and so on and, in general, 

function as patrol officers. The strain of this 

additional workload inhibits the executive from 

being connected to regional, state, or federal 

resources. Compounding the strain of added 

workloads, executive leadership training is not 

readily available or accessible to police leaders in 

rural areas.

The Leading by Legacy program was funded 

through the FY 2009 American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act funds set aside to provide 

training and technical assistance to rural law 

enforcement agencies. The program provides 

onsite training in rural areas of the United 

States, webinars, trainings on CD–ROM, 

and technical assistance site visits to small 

rural agencies. Onsite trainings are limited 
12 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

to 30 participants and are designed to allow 

participants to become actively engaged in small 

group exercises and interact with the cadre of 

trainers. 

In FY 2010:

■ Two Leading by Legacy trainings were held, 

with a total of 56 law enforcement executives 

and command and first-line, supervisory-level 

staff completing the training.

■ The Leading by Legacy web page (www.

theiacp.org/PublicationsGuides/Projects/

LeadingbyLegacy/tabid/687) averaged 1,000 

visits each month. 

The Leading by Legacy program received 

nearly 200 applications from persons 

interested in attending future trainings, and 3 

of the 5 future trainings planned are already 

at capacity. 

■
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 13

C h a p t e r 2

honoring amErica’s 

PubLic safEty officErs

of these, 144 have been approved, and the 

survivors have been provided with PSOB benefits 

to assist them during such a tragic time. Also in 

FY 2010, a total of 249 education claims were 

approved for funding to spouses and children 

of America’s fallen and catastrophically injured 

law enforcement officers, firefighters, and first 

responders to pursue their dreams of higher 

education. Many of these families have shared 

with PSOB that they could never have achieved 

their professional goals without this vital funding 

from DOJ.

In FY 2010, the PSOB Office unveiled its firstever PSOB Call Center. The center is fully staffed 

Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

BJA and the PSOB Office want survivors and 

agencies that experience a line-of-duty death or 

catastrophic injury to know that PSOB Cares—

beginning with a live voice on the other end 

of the telephone line when the first call for 

assistance is made.

Also in FY 2010, the PSOB Office updated the 

PSOB Information Kit and distributed the kit to 

nearly 60,000 public safety agencies across the 

United States. The kit includes an updated fact 

sheet and easy-to-use checklists for submitting 

claims, a poster agencies can display in a break 

room or common area, and an emergency card 

with PSOB contact information that can be 

duplicated and distributed among officers. 

these of

t

hroughout the country, public safety officers 

watch over neighborhoods and work to 

make communities safer. BJA respects 

ficers’ devotion and their willingness 

to place themselves in danger to protect the 

nation’s citizens. BJA is honored to administer 

the following programs, which recognize 

the nation’s public safety heroes and their 

selfless dedication to their communities. More 

information on these initiatives can be found 

in the online annual report, available at 

www.bja.gov/AR.

Public Safety Officers’ 

Benefits Program 

The Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) 

Program (www.psob.gov) provides death and 

education benefits to survivors of fallen law 

enforcement officers, firefighters, and other 

first responders, as well as disability benefits to 

officers catastrophically injured in the line of 

duty. PSOB is a unique partnership among the 

Department of Justice (DOJ); local, state, and 

federal public safety organizations; and national 

organizations.

As of September 29, 2010, BJA’s PSOB Office 

had received a total of 286 new public safety 

officer death claims and 67 new disability claims. 

Of the new death claims filed in FY 2010, 180 

of them have been reviewed and determined; 
14 | Solutions for Safer Communities

Exploring new initiatives to further support 

survivors and surviving agencies, the PSOB 

Office in FY 2010 partnered with the Officer 

Down Memorial Page, the Concerns of Police 

Survivors, and the National Fallen Firefighters 

Foundation to pilot grants to conduct proactive 

outreach to public safety agencies nationwide to 

increase awareness of the PSOB death, disability, 

and education programs, as well as to provide 

effective technical assistance to the field when 

filing PSOB death claims. 

An exceptional time of year for BJA and the 

PSOB Office is that of National Police Week 

each May when the nation comes together in 

Washington, D.C. to recognize the supreme 

sacrifice of those who have fallen in the line 

of duty in the previous year. In FY 2010, the 

PSOB Office held its first National Police Week 

event, “The Heroes Walk,” a visual display of 

photographs and key information regarding 

each fallen law enforcement officer whose 

claim the PSOB Office determined benefits 

for or received from October 1, 2009 to May 

2010. Displayed in BJA’s longest corridor 

between “a thin blue line” of ribbon, hundreds 

of photographs served as a somber yet aweinspiring reminder of those who keep America’s 

communities safe—and who willingly lay down 

their lives for this cause.

Public Safety Officer 

Medal of Valor

Every day, public safety officers risk their lives 

to protect America’s citizens and communities. 

To honor that commitment, Congress passed 

the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor Act of 

2001, which created the Public Safety Officer 

Medal of Valor (MOV), the highest national 

award for valor by a public safety officer. The 

medal is awarded annually by the President or 

Vice President to public safety officers who have 

exhibited courage, regardless of personal safety, 

in the attempt to save or protect human life.

BJA oversees the MOV initiative (www.

medalofvalor.gov) and manages the award 

process, which culminates in an awards 

ceremony presided over by the President 

or the Vice President and attended by local 

and national media, national public safety 

organizations, and other stakeholders. The 

awards ceremony highlights on a national stage 

the service and many sacrifices of public safety 

officers across the nation. 

The most recent MOV ceremony and reception 

were held on September 22, 2010 and 14 

Medal of Valor recipients from 2007–08 and 

2008–09 and their families were honored. 

During the 2010 open nomination period, which 

closed July 31, 2010, the Medal of Valor Office 

received 106 applications from 22 states and the 

District of Columbia for consideration for the 

2009–10 MOV. 

Law Enforcement Congressional 

Badge of Bravery 

Congress passed the Law Enforcement 

Congressional Badge of Bravery Act of 2008 

to honor acts of bravery by federal, state, and 

local law enforcement officers while in the 

line of duty. The act establishes two award 

categories, the Federal Law Enforcement 

Congressional Badge of Bravery and the State 

and Local Law Enforcement Congressional 

Badge of Bravery, each with its own review 

board. Under the act, the Attorney General 

may award, and a Member of Congress or the 

Attorney General may present in the name of 

Congress, a Congressional Badge of Bravery 

(CBOB) award to a federal, state, or local law 

enforcement officer who is cited by the Attorney 

General, upon the recommendations of the 

Review Boards. Officers will receive the CBOB 

for performing acts of bravery while in the line 

of duty that resulted in injury or that put the 

officers at risk of serious personal injury 

or death. 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 15

During FY 2010, Congress directed BJA to 

develop and oversee the CBOB Program, 

which manages the application process 

through its online CBOB nominating system. 

The CBOB Office will also collaborate with the 

congressional offices of each recipient and 

provide those offices with the CBOB award and 

its appurtenances. The congressional offices 

will then jointly present the CBOB award to the 

recipient from their districts. The presentation 

of the CBOB in a public ceremony will provide a 

platform for Congress and the Attorney General 

to honor the bravery and sacrifices of law 

enforcement officers across the nation.

During FY 2010, BJA:

■ Collaborated with the Office of General 

Counsel, OJP, and DOJ to clarify provisions of 

the act.

Developed policies and procedures necessary 

to operate this national award program.

■

■ Collaborated with OJP, Congress, and 

designated national law enforcement 

organizations to seek and receive the 

appointments of members to the Federal 

and the State and Local Review Boards.

Collaborated with the Institute of Heraldry 

and the Commission of Fine Arts to 

design the CBOB medals, ribbons, and 

appurtenances.

Conducted a public outreach effort to inform 

law enforcement organizations across the 

nation about the CBOB Program.

Developed in partnership with Lockheed 

Martin, the CBOB web site (www.bja.gov/

CBOB) and online application system, which 

opened for its first application period in 

December 2010. 

■

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■

FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 17

C h a p t e r 3

advancing information sharing 

and tEchnoLogy to fight crimE 

and ProtEct thE homELand

the Program Manager, Information Sharing 

Environment, to achieve their informationsharing missions. Global serves as the formal 

vehicle for local, state, and tribal justice 

entities to provide recommendations to the 

U.S. Attorney General promoting standardsbased electronic information sharing and 

interoperability throughout the justice and public 

safety communities. 

Several hundred representatives from leading 

organizations within the justice community 

volunteered countless hours to the Global 

Initiative through participation on the Global 

Advisory Committee (GAC) and Global’s five 

working groups. In FY 2010, Global (www.

it.ojp.gov/global) continued to lead the way 

in supporting the development of national 

standards and promoting information 

sharing in the areas of privacy, intelligence, 

infrastructure, and security. The Global working 

groups produced many valuable products and 

influenced many positive outcomes. Some key 

examples are:

■ The Global Infrastructure/Standards 

Working Group (GISWG) made significant 

progress in developing the Justice Reference 

Architecture (JRA)—a technical framework 

based on service-oriented architecture 

standards attuned to the needs of the justice 

community. Several robust resources were 

developed to enable and guide adoption of 

A

information sharing, ther

ccess to timely and accurate information 

is at the heart of an effective criminal 

justice system. BJA’s commitment to 

efore, is reflective of 

its commitment to improving the operation 

of the criminal justice system as a whole. 

Criminals know no boundaries, and neither 

should information. The following programs 

each represent an important component of 

justice information sharing: some relate to 

policy and legal issues; some to program/project 

management; and some to technical standards 

and software. Collectively, BJA hopes to support 

a body of work that, with the support of the 

Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative, 

will incrementally and steadily improve the use 

of information sharing and technology in the 

justice community to put the right information 

in the right hands at the right time. More 

information on these initiatives and success 

stories can be found in the online annual report, 

available at www.bja.gov/AR.

Global Justice Information 

Sharing Initiative

In FY 2010, DOJ’s Global Justice Information 

Sharing Initiative (Global) helped DOJ bureaus, 

as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland 

Security (DHS), the Office of the Director 

of National Intelligence, and the Office of 
18 | Solutions for Safer Communities

this standard technical architecture. Detailed 

specifications also were developed to facilitate 

the sharing of fingerprints, arrest warrants, 

and terrorist screening center encounters.

■ The Global Privacy and Information Quality 

Working Group (GPIQWG) finalized three 

significant products intended to help 

local, state, and tribal agencies—as well 

as their state and urban area fusion center 

information-sharing partners—protect 

individual privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights 

and increase data quality and secure data 

privacy.

■ The Global Security Working Group (GSWG) 

continued to provide guidance on the safe 

and secure transmission of data between 

jurisdictions. This work is intended to promote 

agency comfort with sending data outside 

its sphere of direct control through tools 

that secure data protection and policies 

that help ensure that shared information is 

not misused or handled improperly. GSWG 

produced a reference library consisting of a 

comprehensive set of standards, guidelines, 

and specifications for technical implementers 

and policymakers that provides for a national 

federated identity and privilege management 

capability.

■ The Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council 

(CICC)/Global Intelligence Working Group 

(GIWG), along with other local, state, tribal, 

and federal partners, addressed a multitude 

of issues relating to the collection, handling, 

and dissemination of criminal intelligence 

information.

These products have proved to be central to 

national efforts to combat terrorism and criminal 

activities that have a possible nexus to terrorism, 

with an emphasis on helping state, local, tribal, 

and federal agencies secure the privacy, civil 

rights, and civil liberties of individuals. This work 

also includes recommendations for updates 

to the 2007 National Strategy for Information 

Sharing.

Privacy and Civil Liberties 

Protections: State Privacy Policy 

Technical Assistance Program 

Today’s increased security needs not only dictate 

enhanced information sharing but also highlight 

the need to balance privacy protection and 

justice information access. DOJ takes protecting 

individuals’ right to privacy and civil liberties 

protections seriously. BJA believes that the 

dissemination and use of personally identifiable 

information must be driven by sound and 

effective policies and practices. 

In FY 2010, BJA was involved in numerous 

privacy-related initiatives for state, local, 

and tribal justice entities, as well as for state 

and major urban area fusion centers. BJA, 

in collaboration with the Global Privacy and 

Information Quality Working Group, continued 

to assist state, local, and tribal justice entities 

in ensuring that personal information is 

appropriately collected, used, and disseminated 

through the adoption of privacy and information 

quality policies. 

In FY 2010, the following key accomplishments 

were realized:

■ BJA, in partnership with the National 

Governors Association (NGA), founded 

the NGA Privacy Policy Academy, which 

provided a one-time $25,000 stipend to two 

state justice information-sharing agencies 

to perform privacy impact assessments and 

develop privacy protection policies. The sites 

(CONNECT, a multistate justice informationsharing effort among Alabama, Kansas, 

Nebraska, and Wyoming, and Hawaii’s 

Integrated Justice Information Sharing 

Program) met with Global privacy technical 

assistance providers and NGA representatives 

throughout 2009 and 2010 to perform 

privacy impact assessments and to develop 

privacy policies for their justice informationsharing programs. The academy’s efforts will 

culminate in a best practices and lessons 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 19

learned product, as well as model policies for 

use by state-level agencies nationwide. 

In October 2010, the first in a new GPIQWG 

Biometric Series debuted—an educational 

primer titled Privacy and Information Quality 

Issues: Justice Agency Use of Biometrics.

This primer makes the case for privacy and 

information quality policies in the collection, 

sharing, and storage of biometrics; provides 

useful quick-reference charts (or frameworks) 

for gauging privacy and information quality 

risks; summarizes biometric privacy and 

information quality issues; illustrates scenarios 

of biometric use; and contains guidance and 

resources for addressing complex issues. 

■

28 C.F.R. Part 23 Training

In FY 2010, BJA partnered with the Institute 

for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) to support 

the Criminal Intelligence Systems Operating 

Policies (28 C.F.R. Part 23) Training and Technical 

Assistance Program (www.iir.com/Justice_

Training/28cfr/default.aspx). The program 

outlines privacy guidelines for law enforcement 

agencies that operate federally funded, 

multijurisdictional criminal intelligence systems. 

Understanding and conforming to these 

guidelines is critical to advancing information 

sharing across disciplines and jurisdictions.

The training program covers the definition 

of intelligence; the legislative history of 

28 C.F.R. Part 23; the collection, storage, 

and dissemination of criminal intelligence 

information; and the review and purge of 

data. To further emphasize the importance 

of information sharing among our nation’s 

law enforcement professionals, the training 

also addresses national information-sharing 

trends and the value of protecting the privacy, 

civil rights, and civil liberties of individuals. 

Agency-designated individuals responsible 

for the collection or management of criminal 

information are encouraged to complete this 

training.

During FY 2010, BJA’s national partners trained 

more than 4,400 law enforcement professionals 

on 28 C.F.R. Part 23. The following are 

highlights from this training effort:

■ IIR developed and delivered training on 

28 C.F.R. Part 23 to more than 400 law 

enforcement professionals.

IIR published and maintained online 28 C.F.R. 

Part 23 training and provided training to more 

than 4,000 law enforcement participants via 

the web site.

All 72 state and urban area fusion centers 

have received 28 C.F.R. Part 23 training.

IIR provided technical assistance to state, local, 

and tribal law enforcement agencies, including 

policy reviews, onsite technical assistance, and 

office-based responses to e-mails and phone 

calls.

■

■

■

National Information Exchange 

Model Program

FY 2010 was an active year for the National 

Information Exchange Model (NIEM) program 

(www.niem.gov). The fiscal year began with 

the closing of the 2009 NIEM National Training 

Event, held in Baltimore, Maryland. Nearly 700 

attendees were present, representing 21 federal 

agencies, 32 states, and more than 100 private 

industry partners. A variety of tracks served to 

educate partners from all backgrounds, from the 

executive and policy branches to architecture 

and software engineering. The educational focus 

ensured that participants walked away from the 

event with an expanded knowledge of the value 

of NIEM and its practical application to support 

information sharing. 

Several outreach initiatives were conducted 

in addition to the national event. The NIEM 

Town Hall served as an opportunity for new 

voices in the NIEM community to come forward 

and advocate new program directions and 

activities. In addition, a partnership effort with 
20 | Solutions for Safer Communities

the Office of Management and Budget resulted 

in a survey of all executive branch agencies on 

their current or potential use of NIEM which, in 

turn, garnered a significant amount of positive 

feedback—some from unexpected places, 

where new information-sharing efforts are now 

anticipated to grow. 

During FY 2010, the most significant new 

federal partnership for NIEM was that with the 

Department of Health and Human Services 

(HHS). The partnership was formalized with 

the signing of the NIEM Memorandum of 

Understanding, establishing HHS as the third 

signatory, joining DOJ and DHS. Activities 

going forth are expected to bring new insights 

into how NIEM can support the major efforts 

underway in the health community to digitize 

health records and improve the electronic 

sharing of those records when appropriate. 

HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, 

a current partner in NIEM’s Children, Youth, and 

Family Services domain, is also tasked with the 

establishment of a new human services domain, 

which will become HHS’s first sponsored domain 

in the NIEM community.

The NIEM data model itself is gaining 

capabilities, as the domain independence tools 

and concepts are finalized. These tools will 

allow domains to independently coordinate 

and submit their data content, without waiting 

for NIEM program action. This in turn will 

enable faster, more agile adoption of the latest 

technical requirements in the model. The 

NIEM training program also took a major step 

forward, delivering a new curriculum-based 

model to allow greater customization and 

audience-specific content to maximize training 

effectiveness. This new training curriculum 

will soon take its place alongside other online 

training tools, thereby enabling NIEM to offer 

comprehensive, consistent training across a 

variety of media.

National Motor Vehicle Title 

Information System 

Vehicle theft and cloning have become a 

profitable business for organized criminals, with 

the profits often used to fund additional criminal 

activity and terrorism. In addition, automobile 

theft and fraud negatively impact public safety 

and often result in tremendous financial losses 

to the public. The National Motor Vehicle Title 

Information System (NMVTIS) is an electronic 

system designed to protect consumers from 

fraud and unsafe vehicles and to keep stolen 

vehicles from being resold. It is a tool that assists 

states and law enforcement in deterring and 

preventing title fraud and other vehicle-related 

crimes.

NMVTIS (www.nmvtis.gov) is a powerful tool 

that:

■ Allows state titling agencies to instantly and 

reliably verify a vehicle’s title before issuing 

a new title and facilitates the electronic 

exchange of information between states to 

improve titling efficiency and reduce fraud. 

Assists law enforcement with its investigations 

of crimes involving vehicles, including vehicle 

theft rings, violent crimes, drug crimes, 

financial crimes, and smuggling. 

Provides consumers with access to information 

on the vehicle’s current title, including brand 

and odometer data, and about whether the 

vehicle has been designated as a junk or 

salvage vehicle (including those determined 

to be a total loss), so that the consumer 

may make a better informed decision about 

whether to purchase the vehicle. 

■

■

FY 2010 NMVTIS accomplishments include:

■ The NMVTIS Law Enforcement Search Tool 

was made available through the Regional 

Information Sharing Systems (RISS) to all law 

enforcement agencies. 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 21

■ All states, except Illinois and the District of 

Columbia, were participating in NMVTIS 

(i.e., providing data to NMVTIS, performing 

title verifications using NMVTIS, and/or in 

development to do so).

A total of 22 million salvage or total loss 

records were input in NMVTIS.

■

Regional Information Sharing 

Systems and RISSafe Program

In FY 2010, BJA partnered with the six RISS 

regional centers and a technology support 

center to provide a nationwide informationsharing and investigative support program. 

The program serves thousands of local, state, 

federal, and tribal law enforcement and public 

safety agencies in all 50 states, the District of 

Columbia, U.S. territories, Australia, Canada, 

England, and New Zealand. Hundreds of 

thousands of officers, analysts, and other 

criminal justice personnel rely on the RISS 

program (www.riss.net) for secure informationsharing capabilities, analytical support, 

equipment loans, training and publications, 

field services support, and technical assistance.

■ The RISS Secure Intranet (RISSNETTM) houses 

and provides access to millions of pieces 

of data, offers bi-directional sharing of 

information, connects disparate systems, and 

acts as the communications infrastructure for 

more than 600 resources and investigative 

tools. 

Almost 100 systems are connected or pending 

connection to RISSNET. Authorized users 

can access the RISS Criminal Intelligence 

Databases, the RISS National Gang Program 

(RISSGang), the RISS Automated Trusted 

Information Exchange, and the RISS Officer 

Safety Event Deconfliction System (RISSafe).

RISSafe stores and maintains data on planned 

law enforcement events—such as undercover 

operations—with the goal of identifying and 

■

■

alerting affected agencies of potential conflicts 

that may affect law enforcement efforts. 

From its inception through September 30, 

2010, a total of 252,779 operations were 

entered into RISSafe, resulting in 82,078 

identified conflicts. The RISS Officer Safety 

Website (www.riss.net/Resources/RISSafe) is 

dedicated to providing law enforcement with 

timely officer safety information and a secure 

means to exchange and share officer safetyrelated information.

■

National Criminal Intelligence 

Resource Center 

The National Criminal Intelligence Resource 

Center (NCIRC), a partnership effort of BJA and 

IIR, provides criminal justice professionals with 

a multitude of resources for law enforcement 

intelligence operations. NCIRC (www.ncirc.

gov) provides a centralized location for training 

and technical assistance resources, including 

criminal intelligence standards, policies, and 

guidelines and 28 C.F.R. Part 23 online training. 

The web site has resources for implementing 

the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan,

privacy information relating to intelligence 

systems, information on the Nationwide 

Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative 

(NSI), a Criminal Intelligence Training Master 

Calendar, Fusion Center Resources, and new and 

emerging resources and initiatives. 

The center maintains both a public site and a 

secure site. The public site provides criminal 

justice professionals with access to numerous 

resources for local, state, tribal, and federal 

law enforcement intelligence operations and 

practices. The secured site—accessible through 

RISSNETTM, Law Enforcement Online (LEO), and 

Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN)-

Intel—provides additional law enforcement and 

homeland security resources, including policies, 

techniques, best practices, and lessons learned; 

training and technical assistance opportunities; 
22 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

resources for fusion centers via the DHS/DOJ 

Fusion Process Technical Assistance Program; 

and contact information for intelligence 

units, fusion centers, and organizations and 

associations.

During FY 2010, NCIRC accomplishments 

included the following:

■ The NCIRC site continues to be one of the few 

resources that can be accessed by multiple 

secure but unclassified (SBU) networks. 

During the past year, NCIRC continued to 

make additional resources available to all its 

users and became the center access point 

for NSI and Global’s Criminal Intelligence 

Coordinating Council.

■

Public Safety Data 

Interoperability 

BJA partnered with the Integrated Justice 

Information Systems Institute (IJIS Institute) and 

the Association of Public-Safety Communications 

Officials–International (APCO) to address several 

critical information-sharing needs for the 

public safety community as a whole, and first 

responders in particular. The Public Safety Data 

Interoperability (PSDI) project is a collaborative 

effort among public safety communities, 

including law enforcement, the fire service, 

emergency medical services, and transportation. 

This project helps public safety professionals at 

all levels of government to explore, define, plan, 

and implement standards that will further data 

interoperability in this realm. 

Led by a steering committee composed of both 

government practitioners and private industry 

representatives, and supported by technical 

working teams and subject matter experts, in FY 

2010 the project engaged in the development of 

several value-added reference papers: 

■ Priority Exchange List for Local Communication 

Centers 

■ Guide to Information Sharing and Data 

Interoperability for Local Communication 

Centers

Revision Assessment for the Incorporation 

of Fire and EMS Functions to the Law 

Enforcement CAD Functional Specifications

■

Additionally, the project supported the upgrade 

of the External Alarm Interface exchange 

specification from a deprecated standard 

(Global Justice XML Data Model) to the National 

Information Exchange Model. The committee’s 

work on the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) 

functional standards allows for the provision 

in 2011 of comprehensive guidance for 

unified CAD systems that incorporate public 

safety dispatching operations with that of law 

enforcement-specific systems.

Economic, Electronic, and 

High-Tech Crime Initiatives

In FY 2010, BJA partnered with the National 

White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), the National 

Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), the 

National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), 

and SEARCH’s High-Tech Crime Training Services 

division to deliver training, investigative support, 

research, technical assistance, and tools to 

local, state, and federal justice and public 

safety agencies nationwide. This training and 

assistance is aimed at combating economic, 

electronic, and high-tech crime with a specific 

focus in FY 2010 on increasing investigations 

and prosecutions for intellectual property crime 

and mortgage fraud. 

BJA’s partners developed a variety of no-cost 

tools that have become widely accepted 

within the law enforcement and computer 

forensics communities and have recently 

completed a nationwide white collar crime 

victimization survey. NW3C produced and 

administered practical training targeted to 

law enforcement through more than 25 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 23

classes, including cybercrime investigation, 

computer forensics, intelligence analysis, and 

financial crime investigation. NW3C’s work 

with academia spans the gamut of research 

from forensic software tool development to 

social science research and work relating to 

the vicarious trauma experienced by criminal 

justice personnel. NW3C, NAAG, and NDAA 

collaboratively developed intellectual property 

crime and mortgage fraud training. SEARCH 

provided a wide assortment of classroomled training on subjects ranging from digital 

forensics and investigation tools to the use of 

social media. SEARCH additionally provided 

customized technical assistance to more than 50 

agencies.

During FY 2010, BJA’s national partners 

accomplished the following: 

■ NW3C’s investigative support section provided 

assistance that resulted in the ordering of 

more than $26 million in criminal restitution. 

More than 9,000 students from more than 

4,000 agencies participated in NW3C training. 

SEARCH provided 12 unique training 

courses to a total of 614 students. Course 

presentations included “Core Skills for the 

Investigation of Cellular Devices,” “Social 

Networking Sites: Investigative Tools and 

Techniques,” and “Advanced Responders: 

Search and Seizure of Networks.”

■

■

Justice Information 

Exchange Model Program

In FY 2010, BJA continued its longstanding 

partnership with the SEARCH Group and 

delivered a pre-release version of the Justice 

Information Exchange Modeling (JIEM) tool, 

version 5.0. This important tool has been used 

in countless justice improvement projects to 

document and analyze information-sharing 

requirements between agencies. JIEM 5.0 

provides significant feature enhancements, 

including greater connectivity and alignment 

with data- and service-oriented technology 

standards (National Information Exchange Model 

and Global Reference Architecture [GRA]) and 

the ability to capture and implement technical 

privacy requirements that are applicable to 

information sharing. JIEM 5.0 automates the 

process of capturing information exchange 

business requirements and transforming them 

into GRA-compliant service specifications.

The JIEM tool is provided free-of-charge to 

practitioners and developers who support 

all levels of government across the spectrum 

of justice and public safety upon completion 

of a training class and certification process. 

Certification of JIEM tool users is designed 

to ensure that, upon completion of training, 

the student is prepared to conduct justice 

information exchange modeling activities at a 

high level of proficiency. 

During FY 2010, BJA’s national partner, SEARCH, 

accomplished the following:

■ Continued to train and support users of the 

prior version of JIEM (4.1) by conducting 4 

online (webinar) classes, which were attended 

by 23 participants from jurisdictions across the 

country. 

Launched an online training class that was 

completed by 13 individuals. With the release 

of JIEM 5.0, SEARCH will transition all training 

to the online training format, which reduces 

overall costs and makes JIEM more accessible 

and affordable to users. 

Continued to develop JIEM reference models, 

which are templates of common exchange 

scenarios that can be used as starting points 

for exchange modeling activities, thereby 

saving time and effort as well as promoting 

consistency nationwide. SEARCH is in the 

process of adding reference models for the 

Logical Entity Exchange Specification (LEXS), 

privacy policy implementation, and the 

offender reentry process. In all, JIEM provides 

■

■
24 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

a comprehensive tool and methodology that 

assists agencies in implementing informationsharing capabilities across all levels of 

government and is an important part of BJA’s 

information-sharing strategy.

Cross-Boundary Information 

Sharing Competitive Grant 

Program

The Cross-Boundary Information Sharing 

Competitive Grant Program supports 

innovative cross-boundary information-sharing 

implementation projects at the state and local 

levels that focus on enabling data exchanges 

between disparate components of government 

that have a significant impact on criminal justice 

issues. Examples of entities that may be included 

in cross-boundary exchanges under this 

program are: 

■ Corrections.

Homeland security.

Prosecution.

Courts.

Juvenile justice.

Public safety.

Criminal intelligence.

Labor and workforce development.

Reentry services.

■

■

■

■

■

■

■

■

■ Defense.

Law enforcement.

Social and family services.

Education.

Mental health.

Substance abuse.

Health and human services.

Probation and parole.

Transportation.

■

■

■

■

■

■

■

■

The eight grantees competitively selected in FY 

2010 to participate in this program possess a 

demonstrated need and readiness to address 

significant cross-boundary information-sharing 

challenges by implementing technical and 

business solutions at the operational level. 

These solutions leverage and are consistent with 

many of the DOJ Global tools and resources. 

All the grantees have established crossagency collaborative teams to oversee their 

efforts, developed (or are working to develop) 

robust governance structures to maximize 

the effectiveness of their projects, and made 

commitments to share outcome data and 

performance metrics with BJA to assist future 

efforts to implement best practices and effective 

technology solutions. A total of $3.75 million 

was awarded to the eight grantees. 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 25

C h a p t e r 4

countEring tErrorism and 

PLanning for EmErgEnciEs

program by staying informed of current counterterrorism trends and tactics. 

Each course is delivered by subject matter 

experts and is specifically designed to meet the 

needs of the target audience—from the streetlevel officer to the executive. Topics include 

terrorism/extremism orientation, interdiction, 

investigation, and prevention. The program also 

provides research and training via the web site. 

During FY 2010, the SLATT Program:

■ Trained its 100,000th law enforcement officer 

since the program’s inception.

Delivered nearly 80 workshops upon request 

to more than 6,500 law enforcement 

professionals.

Distributed more than 66,000 counterterrorism publications and CD–ROMs to law 

enforcement. 

Used its subject matter experts to support 

several BJA meetings that addressed the 

increased threat from radicalized individuals 

and groups and from domestic extremist 

groups that target law enforcement. 

Partnering with BJA, SLATT researched and 

developed comprehensive curricula to address 

the growing issue of radicalization, including 

a component oriented to campus law 

enforcement.

■

■

■

BJA continued its support of terrorism 

awareness training for law enforcement 

agencies and communities as well as its 

partnership with the Department of Homeland 

Security in support of nationwide fusion 

centers. Further, BJA established the Nationwide 

Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative Program 

Management Office. More information on 

these initiatives and success stories can be 

found in the online annual report, available 

at www.bja.gov/AR.

State and Local 

Anti-Terrorism Training

Through the State and Local Anti-Terrorism 

Training (SLATT®) Program, BJA works to increase 

the effectiveness of state, local, and tribal 

law enforcement professionals in countering 

terrorism. The SLATT Program’s primary purpose 

is to provide law enforcement personnel with 

specialized preincident information training 

and the resources needed to combat domestic 

terrorism and extremist criminal activities. 

The SLATT Program addresses the issue 

of terrorism prevention by delivering a 

comprehensive set of educational programs and 

tools to state, local, and tribal agencies, both 

onsite and via its web site, www.SLATT.org. 

Our law enforcement agencies benefit from the 
26 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

■ Began a Training Impact Assessment 

Methodology study, under BJA’s direction. The 

program worked with a team of academic and 

subject matter experts to develop stronger, 

scientifically based measurements that 

objectively assess the effectiveness of SLATT’s 

training programs. The new evaluation process 

is expected to commence in FY 2011. 

Added several new resources to its web site, 

including a video series titled “Discussions 

on Terrorism” and the Terrorism Incidents 

Database, which allows users to search 

terrorism-related incidents using criteria 

utilized by the Nationwide Suspicious Activity 

Reporting Initiative.

■

Communities Against Terrorism

In FY 2010, BJA partnered with the Institute 

for Intergovernmental Research to counter 

terrorism through the Communities Against 

Terrorism (CAT) program. The program provides 

law enforcement agencies with a resource tool 

to engage members of the local community in 

the fight against terrorism. The CAT program 

provides industry-specific information on 

activities associated with the planning and 

preparation of a terrorist attack. Industry 

practitioners know what is normal in their 

business arena, and the CAT program leverages 

this specialized knowledge by enhancing the 

ability of practitioners to detect activities that 

could potentially have a terrorism connection. 

Informed community members who know how 

to report potentially suspicious behaviors can be 

an invaluable resource to law enforcement. The 

partnership between the community and law 

enforcement is essential to the success of antiterrorism efforts and benefits both entities. 

During FY 2010, the CAT program produced the 

following materials:

■ Developed and vetted resource materials for 

three industries: general aviation airports, 

parks and public lands, and bus and train 

terminals.

Distributed more than 10,300 CD–ROMs 

containing program materials to law 

enforcement agencies.

Made program materials available on 

www.SLATT.org; nearly 2,300 files were 

downloaded from the site. 

■

■

Fusion Center Training and 

Technical Assistance

To facilitate the development of a national 

fusion center capability, BJA and DHS’s National 

Preparedness Directorate (NPD) partnered in 

2007 to develop the Fusion Process Technical 

Assistance Program and Services. DHS and 

DOJ have also partnered with several other 

agencies and organizations to provide additional 

training and technical assistance services to 

fusion centers. This program has played a 

key role in helping fusion centers implement 

the Global Fusion Center Guidelines and the 

Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s 

(ODNI) Information Sharing Environment 

Implementation Plan, as well as meet the 

capabilities identified in the Baseline Capabilities 

for State and Major Urban Area Fusion Centers

and critical operational capabilities. 

In FY 2010, the program delivered more than 26 

services to fusion centers, including a train-thetrainer program for privacy/civil liberties officials 

at fusion centers in partnership with the DHS 

Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the 

Privacy Office. The training programs were held 

in conjunction with the regional fusion center 

directors’ meetings, also sponsored by the 

Fusion Process Technical Assistance Program. 

Under the Fusion Center Privacy Policy Technical 

Assistance Program, fusion centers have 

made substantial progress in drafting and 

implementing policies designed to protect 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 27

the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of 

individuals who are the subjects of information 

and intelligence collected by the centers. Of 

the 72 fusion centers recognized by DHS and 

the FBI, 67 centers (48 primary/state centers 

and 19 recognized/regional centers) have sent 

their policies to BJA’s Privacy Policy Technical 

Assistance Review Team. At the end of FY 

2010, 25 centers had completed the BJA Privacy 

Policy Technical Assistance Review and were 

determined by DHS to have met the Information 

Sharing Environment (ISE) Privacy Guidelines 

requirements. By January 2011, 50 of the 72 

fusion centers had approved privacy policies.

In FY 2010, BJA, DHS, Global, the FBI, ODNI, 

the Program Manager for the Information 

Sharing Environment (PM–ISE), and the Bureau 

of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives 

(ATF) sponsored the 2010 National Fusion 

Center Conference, held February 23–25, 2010 

in New Orleans, Louisiana. This fourth annual 

conference enabled fusion center personnel 

to receive TTA and other support to help them 

achieve a baseline level of capability and meet 

the goals identified in the National Strategy for 

Information Sharing. The event also supported 

the ultimate goal of establishing an integrated 

national network of state and major urban area 

fusion centers. The conference attracted nearly 

900 attendees from state and major urban area 

fusion centers, as well as representatives from 

federal agencies that support these centers, and 

provided more than 30 breakout sessions, which 

focused on identifying promising practices, 

lessons learned, and additional resources on 

how to implement the baseline capabilities. The 

conference also included a series of hands-on 

labs that highlighted several initiatives, including 

privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights protection; 

facial recognition projects; and suspicious activity 

reporting. 

Nationwide Suspicious Activity 

Reporting Initiative Program 

Management Office 

On December 17, 2009, DOJ was named the 

Executive Agent to establish and operate the 

Program Management Office (PMO) for the 

Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) 

Initiative (NSI), taking on responsibility for 

coordinating existing resources and managing 

additional support to further develop and deploy 

NSI. In March 2010, the PMO (nsi.ncirc.gov) 

was established within BJA to coordinate the 

implementation of NSI through the cooperative 

efforts of the state and urban area fusion 

centers and federal partners, and is utilizing 

standardized process and data structure to make 

sharing of SAR information more consistent 

while maintaining local control of the data. 

The goal of the PMO is to facilitate the 

implementation of NSI across all levels of 

government and help participating agencies 

to adopt compatible processes, policies, and 

standards that foster broader sharing of SARs, 

while ensuring that privacy and civil liberties are 

protected in accordance with local, state, and 

federal laws and regulations. Primary functions 

of the PMO include advocating on behalf of NSI, 

providing guidance to participants at all levels, 

and coordinating various efforts within NSI. 

Given the criticality of privacy and civil liberties 

issues, the PMO works collaboratively with 

and is supported by the DOJ Privacy and Civil 

Liberties Office. 

Building Communities of Trust

BJA partnered with the Office of Community 

Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), 

DHS, and PM–ISE to implement the Building 
28 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

Communities of Trust (BCOT) initiative in 

the Suspicious Activity Reporting Evaluation 

Environment sites. The purpose of the 

BCOT initiative is to encourage and improve 

information sharing among police officers, 

fusion centers, and the communities they 

serve—particularly immigrant and minority 

communities—to address the challenges of 

crime control and terrorism prevention. The 

BCOT initiative began in mid-2009 as a pilot 

project featuring roundtable discussions with 

community members and representatives 

from law enforcement and fusion centers in 

four cities. The feedback from those sessions 

resulted in the development of guidance for 

local police agencies and fusion centers on 

building relationships with residents of culturally 

diverse neighborhoods that often do not have 

strong collaborative relationships with law 

enforcement. 

During FY 2010, roundtable sessions were held 

in Boston, Miami, Seattle, and Texas, and the 

information from these sessions informed the 

publication Guidance for Building Communities 

of Trust (www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/RIC/

Publications/e071021293_buildingcommtrust_

revision.pdf), which was released in fall 2010. 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 29

C h a p t e r 5 

managing offEndErs

Second Chance Act Programs

The Second Chance Act of 2007 provides a 

comprehensive response to the increasing 

number of incarcerated adults and juveniles 

who are released from prison, jail, and 

juvenile residential facilities and returning to 

communities. More than 2.3 million individuals 

are serving time in our federal and state prisons 

and millions of people are cycling through 

local jails every year. In addition, approximately 

94,000 youth are in residential confinement 

within the juvenile justice system on any 

given day. Ninety-five percent of all offenders 

incarcerated today will eventually be released 

and will return to local communities. The Second 

Chance Act will help ensure that the transition 

individuals make from prisons, jails, or juvenile 

facilities to the community is successful and 

promotes public safety. 

Beginning in FY 2009, BJA collaborated with 

the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 

Prevention (OJJDP) in administering grant 

awards under the Second Chance Act for adult 

and juvenile target populations, awarding more 

than $28 million to states, local governments, 

and nonprofit organizations. In FY 2010, 

Congress appropriated $100 million for the 

implementation and administration of the seven 

sections of the Second Chance Act: 
30 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

■ Adult and Juvenile Demonstration Grants 

(Section 101)

Adult Mentoring Grants to Nonprofit 

Organizations (Section 211)

Reentry Courts (Section 111)

Family-Based Prisoner Substance Abuse 

Treatment (Section 113)

Program to Evaluate and Improve Educational 

Methods (Section 114)

Technology Careers Training Demonstration 

Projects for Incarcerated Adults and Juveniles 

(Section 115)

Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental 

Health Disorders (Section 201)

■

■

■

■

■

■

In FY 2010, BJA and OJJDP received more than 

1,000 applications, and made more than 180 

awards, totaling approximately $82 million. 

Also in FY 2010, FY 2009 grantees reported the 

following:

■ From October 2009 through December 2010, 

the FY 2009 Adult Demonstration grantees 

reported serving 3,829 participants.

From October 2009 through December 2010, 

the FY 2009 Second Chance Act Mentoring 

grantees reported serving 3,344 participants.

■

National Reentry Resource 

Center 

Section 101 of the Second Chance Act provides 

funding that allows for grants to state and local 

governments and federally recognized Indian 

tribes for demonstration reentry projects. In 

addition, Section 101 also provides funding for 

the establishment of the National Adult and 

Juvenile Offender Reentry Resource Center 

(NRRC), which is operated by the Council of 

State Governments Justice Center.

Established by the Second Chance Act and 

funded by BJA beginning in FY 2009, NRRC’s 

work is guided by partners representing nearly 

100 leading nonprofit organizations and service 

providers in the reentry field. NRRC provides a 

host of resources including education, training, 

and technical assistance to assist state, local, 

and tribal governments, service providers, and 

nonprofit organizations. During FY 2010, NRRC 

program accomplishments included:

■ Newsletter. NRRC distributed 9 monthly 

e-newsletters to approximately 10,000 people.

Web Site. NRRC maintains a web site, www.

nationalreeentryresourcecenter.org, which 

features a searchable library that includes 

nearly 1,000 reentry-related publications. In FY 

2010, NRRC’s web site received approximately 

495,000 total page views and approximately 

64,000 unique visitors. 

“What Works” Library. One of NRRC’s 

partners, the Urban Institute, convened 

the What Works in Reentry Roundtable in 

Washington, D.C. to obtain lessons learned 

from both the implementation and evaluation 

of federal reentry initiatives, and to solicit 

input on the development of the “What 

Works” library.

National Conference for Grantees. In 

May 2010, NRRC hosted the first national 

conference for Second Chance Act grantees. 

More than 200 representatives from FY 

2009 Second Chance Act grantee agencies 

attended this conference.

■

■

■

■ Advisory Committees. NRRC developed 

nine advisory committees that provide expert 

guidance on various key reentry issues (e.g., 

employment, education, and housing). In the 

future, a web site will be launched to provide 

distance learning tools, including an FAQ 

compendium, webinars/webcasts, at-a-glance 

guides, and practitioners’ briefs to provide 

expert guidance to grantees and the overall 

reentry field. 

■ Performance Measurement Project. A 

performance measurement project (PMP) 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 31

was initiated to gain a greater understanding 

of the Second Chance Act performance 

measurement and data collection capacity of 

Second Chance Act grantees.

State and Local Justice 

Reinvestment 

In recent decades, justice responses to crime 

relied substantially on incarceration strategies 

alone, resulting in exponential growth in 

incarceration rates; criminal justice spending 

for state, local, and tribal governments; and 

probation and parole rates. These expensive and 

unsustainable approaches also lead to jail and 

prison overcrowding, budget constraints within 

the justice system and local government, and 

overwhelmed community supervision agencies, 

programs, and service systems, which are left to 

supervise high numbers of clients. As a result, 

state, local, and tribal policymakers have been 

challenged to design policies that: 

■ Manage corrections system growth. 

Respond strategically to offender risks and 

needs based on sustainable, evidence-based 

approaches that do not jeopardize public 

safety and do ensure offender accountability. 

Coordinate existing resources and develop 

new approaches to promote successful 

offender reintegration. 

Reinvest savings generated from reduced 

corrections spending into communities. 

■

■

■

Justice reinvestment is a data-driven approach to 

reducing corrections and related criminal justice 

spending and reinvesting savings in strategies 

designed to increase public safety. The purpose 

of justice reinvestment is to manage criminal 

justice populations and allocate resources more 

cost effectively, generating savings that can be 

reinvested in evidence-based strategies that 

increase public safety while holding offenders 

accountable. States and localities engaging in 

justice reinvestment collect and analyze data on 

the factors driving the growth in criminal justice 

populations and costs, identify and implement 

changes to increase efficiencies, and measure 

both the fiscal and public safety impacts of 

those changes.

BJA’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) provides 

technical assistance and competitive financial 

support to states, counties, cities, and tribal 

authorities that are either engaged in justice 

reinvestment or are well positioned to undertake 

such work as either a Phase I or Phase II site: 

■ Phase I. These sites receive intensive, onsite 

technical assistance to start the justice 

reinvestment process, which involves engaging 

leaders and key stakeholders, conducting a 

comprehensive analysis of criminal justice 

data, and identifying strategies to reduce costs 

and increase public safety. 

Phase II. These sites receive both targeted 

technical assistance and funding to support 

the implementation of justice reinvestment 

strategies. Sites that apply for Phase II must 

have already completed all of the steps 

associated with Phase I. 

■

Research-Based Smarter 

Sentencing to Reduce Recidivism

Prosecutors, defenders, judges, and community 

corrections professionals all play critical roles in 

reducing the risk of re-offending and, through a 

systemic application of research-based practices, 

can work to reduce recidivism and facilitate 

successful offender reentry. The purpose of the 

Research-Based Smarter Sentencing to Reduce 

Recidivism Initiative, administered by the Justice 

Management Institute, is to provide training 

to multidisciplinary teams from state and local 

jurisdictions across the nation on implementing 

smarter sentencing practices to facilitate reentry 

efforts and reduce recidivism. This Smarter 

Sentencing project is designed to provide 

training to the primary stakeholders in the 

criminal justice system—prosecutors, defenders, 
32 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

the judiciary, and probation and parole—

to apply research-based practices of plea 

negotiation, sentencing, and revocation from 

community supervision in local jurisdictions. 

Its goal is to provide the knowledge and skills 

to practitioners required to develop Smarter 

Sentencing policies that will reduce reliance 

on the expensive sanction of incapacitation, 

whether in jail or prison, while enhancing public 

safety. During the earlier part of FY 2010, a draft 

Research-Based Smarter Sentencing to Reduce 

Recidivism training curriculum was pilot-tested 

with multidisciplinary teams representing five 

counties in Minnesota. After the workshop 

was evaluated, the curriculum was revised 

for a second pilot workshop for three teams 

representing counties in Arizona, California, and 

Wyoming. Subsequently, a third pilot training 

was conducted for three teams representing 

counties in Arkansas, New York, and Nebraska. 

Corrections Information 

Sharing Program

The efforts of criminal justice system 

professionals to promote public safety are 

contingent on their ability to share offender 

information across the bounds of agency and 

discipline. This is particularly true in the context 

of offender reentry. The purpose of BJA’s 

Corrections Information Sharing Program is to 

leverage technology to enhance information 

sharing between the stakeholders (corrections 

and community corrections staff, communitybased service providers, law enforcement 

officers, and others) who share responsibility for 

managing the transition of offenders from jail or 

prison back to the community in state and local 

jurisdictions across the nation. 

To address the public safety challenges posed 

by offenders returning to communities from 

jail or prison, criminal justice policymakers and 

practitioners in many jurisdictions are working 

to enhance offender reentry by building 

cross-system partnerships and improving their 

offender information-sharing capabilities. 

These efforts help to ensure that community 

corrections staff, law enforcement officers, 

community-based service providers, and others 

have access to offender information that 

supports proactive, informed decisionmaking 

regarding offender management. 

 In FY 2010, BJA selected two state agencies and 

one county-based agency to serve as Corrections 

Information Sharing pilot sites. These pilots 

are receiving technical assistance (TA) that will 

continue through FY 2011 from a BJA-supported 

team that includes a unique combination of 

subject matter and technical experts from the 

American Probation and Parole Association 

(APPA), the Association of State Correctional 

Administrators (ASCA), SEARCH (the National 

Consortium for Justice Information and 

Statistics), and the Integrated Justice Information 

Systems (IJIS) Institute. With support from the TA 

team and BJA, these pilot sites’ agencies are:

■ Enhancing their collaborative relationships 

with community-based service providers, law 

enforcement, and others involved in reentry. 

Developing and implementing policies, 

practices, and technology solutions that 

improve the timeliness, quality, and 

comprehensiveness of offender data that is 

shared among key stakeholders.

Continuing efforts to implement evidencebased practices.

Augmenting the ability of community-based 

service providers to deliver interventions to 

released offenders that reduce their likelihood 

of recidivism. 

■

■

■

Prison Rape Elimination Act

The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) 

was enacted to address the sexual abuse of 

inmates in the custody of correctional agencies. 

PREA calls for federal, state, and local corrections 

systems to have a zero-tolerance policy for 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 33

sexual abuse (prison rape) within prisons, jails, 

police lockups, and other confinement facilities. 

Section 7 of PREA established the National 

Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC) to 

(1) carry out a comprehensive legal and factual 

study of the penalogical, physical, mental, 

medical, social, and economic impacts of prison 

rape in the United States and (2) recommend 

national standards for enhancing the detection, 

prevention, reduction, and punishment of prison 

rape. Under PREA, the Attorney General must 

publish a final rule adopting national standards, 

based on independent judgment but with “due 

consideration” to the NPREC proposals. 

DOJ is committed to supporting the field’s work 

in combating sexual abuse and addressing 

the detection, prevention, reduction, and 

punishment of sexual abuse (i.e., prison rape) 

in adult prisons and jails, lockups, juvenile 

facilities, and community corrections facilities. 

In anticipation of a final rule, it is important that 

correctional agencies be made aware of existing 

resources and provided with training, technical 

assistance, and program implementation 

resources. 

During FY 2010, BJA competitively awarded a 

$13 million multiyear cooperative agreement to 

the National Council on Crime and Delinquency 

(NCCD) for the establishment of the Resource 

Center for the Elimination of Prison Rape (PREA 

Resource Center). The PREA Resource Center 

will provide services and resources to the field 

to assist in the implementation of national PREA 

standards and will further the overall goal of 

PREA of establishing zero-tolerance confinement 

cultures with respect to sexual assault and staff 

sexual misconduct.

BJA also funded an indepth cost analysis of the 

proposed draft standards to help determine 

the fiscal impact associated with their adoption 

and implementation. The data from the initial 

report was factored into final recommendations 

on PREA standards provided to the Attorney 

General.

National Parole Resource Center 

Recognizing the critical and growing importance 

of parole in assuring community safety, 

appropriate responses for victims, and the 

responsible use of public resources, BJA awarded 

funding to the Center for Effective Public Policy 

(CEPP) for the establishment of the National 

Parole Resource Center (NPRC) to help support 

and shape the future of parole as an increasingly 

effective stakeholder in the criminal justice 

system. NPRC includes a partnership with CEPP 

and the Association of Paroling Authorities 

International (APAI), in collaboration with BJA 

and the National Institute of Corrections (NIC). 

NPRC maintains links with a growing network 

of organizations that provide information and 

guidance on substantive topics and related 

resources. The mission of the NPRC is to serve 

as a:

■ Source of information, training, and technical 

assistance for paroling authorities and the 

supervision agencies that they oversee and 

with whom they collaborate. 

Forum and source of support that will enable 

parole leadership to continue to define the 

evolving role of parole in a criminal justice 

system seeking to carry out its statutory 

mandates, including community protection 

and the efficient use of public resources. 

Portal to other resources for parole, beyond 

those directly provided by NPRC, by 

establishing collaborative partnerships with 

other public and private entities seeking to 

assist paroling authorities and agencies. 

■

■

In FY 2010, NPRC accomplished the following:

■ Selected four state paroling authorities and 

their collaborative partners as Learning Sites: 

the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles, 

the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, the 

Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, 

and the South Dakota Board of Pardons and 

Paroles.
34 | Solutions for Safer Communities

■ Developed, completed, and launched NPRC’s 

web site, www.nationalparoleresourcecenter.

org, which provides a unique portal for 

information, resources, literature, events, 

and links to other sites of interest to parole 

leaders. 

■ Continued to serve as a portal to a wide range 

of resources available for paroling authorities 

and their supervision partners and secured 

the collaboration of an active advisory group 

including NIC, the National Reentry Resource 

Center, the Pew Public Safety Project, the 

Urban Institute, and the Vera Institute of 

Justice.

Completed a strategic planning effort 

that generated an agreement on a set of 

“practice targets” for paroling authorities that 

translated the principles of evidence-based 

and emerging best practices into guides to 

improve operations.

Assigned site coordinators for Learning Sites 

that planned and conducted initial site visits 

and convened retreats of each state’s parole 

board.

■

■

■ Provided ongoing training and technical 

assistance involving telephone and e-mail 

communication, development of resource 

materials, identification and links to key 

literature, links to other helpful sites, exchange 

of information on “other” parole-focused 

efforts, and regional and topical workshops. 

Began development of a “continuity 

curriculum” designed to respond to the 

challenges facing paroling authorities who are 

working to assimilate new members and to 

provide those members with the information 

and resources necessary to do their jobs most 

effectively. 

■

Risk, Needs, and Responsivity 

Simulation Tool

The evidence-based practices framework 

emphasizes that offenders should be matched 

to programs and services that are based on risk 

and need factors that are referred to as the riskneeds-responsivity (RNR) principle. The effective 

use of risk and need assessment principles is 

difficult to implement because (1) the services 

available for offenders in the community are 

often not consistent with the risks and needs 

of offenders; and (2) competing issues make 

it difficult for policymakers to consider how 

best to simultaneously manage offenders in 

the community, ensure public safety, contain 

or reduce costs, and reduce recidivism. In 

response, BJA funded a project that focuses on 

a tool that can assist agencies with using the 

RNR approach through defining the type and 

nature of correctional options available in their 

jurisdictions.

George Mason University (GMU) and the 

University of Massachusetts–Lowell (UML) 

will develop an RNR Simulation Tool to assist 

federal, state, and local jurisdictions with 

defining the types and nature of correctional 

options available in their jurisdictions. The 

RNR simulation tool will also help jurisdictions 

assess their current system, identify gaps, and 

prioritize both services and controls (e.g., drug 

testing, electronic monitoring) based on desired 

outcomes. The tool will be web-based, allowing 

jurisdictions to modify the parameters of the 

model based on the unique features of their 

jurisdictions. It will also complement efforts to 

advance the use of evidence-based practices by 

helping jurisdictions strategically review their 

existing correctional and treatment services, 

and then make choices based on maximizing 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 35

different outcomes (i.e., costs, offender change, 

and public safety) in their jurisdictions. The RNR 

simulation tool is being designed to provide, 

at the policy level, an opportunity to simulate 

the results from RNR decisions on three primary 

outcomes: size, recidivism, and cost. During 

FY 2010, the following deliverables were 

completed under this project:

■ Began discussions with correctional, 

research-oriented, and government agency 

stakeholders on the RNR model and the work 

required for this project, including a 2-day 

stakeholders meeting to test the assumptions 

of the tool. 

Hosted a web site (www.gmuace.org/

research_rnr.html) to allow access to the RNR 

Simulation Tool and to all products from the 

project. 

Continued a literature search and developed 

the RNR prototype model.

■

■

State Criminal Alien 

Assistance Program

The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program 

(SCAAP) provides federal payments to 

states and localities that incurred costs for 

correctional officer salaries as a consequence 

of incarcerating undocumented criminal 

aliens who have at least one felony or two 

misdemeanor convictions for violations of state 

or local law and were incarcerated for at least 

4 consecutive days during the reporting period. 

SCAAP funds can be used for any correctionsrelated expense, but most jurisdictions use 

SCAAP to cover salaries and overtime costs 

for their corrections officers. This maintains 

or creates jobs in jurisdictions in which the 

jurisdiction might otherwise have to remove 

officer positions due to budget cuts.

In FY 2010, 865 SCAAP awards were made, 

totaling approximately $324 million. For the first 

time, the SCAAP awards were obligated prior to 

the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2010), 

thereby ensuring that critical funds were put in 

the hands of our state and local partners. 

FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 37

C h a p t e r 6 

brEaking thE cycLEs of mEntaL iLLnEss, 

substancE abusE, and crimE

important issue for state and local governments. 

We know that many people who have mental 

illness cycle through the justice system, often 

for low-level crimes, without receiving needed 

mental health and other treatment services.

The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration 

Program (JMHCP) increases public safety 

by making use of innovative cross-system 

collaborations between criminal justice and 

mental health professionals to improve access 

to effective treatment for individuals who have 

mental illnesses or co-occurring mental health 

and substance abuse disorders. Specific activities 

include grants, support for state and local 

jurisdiction collaborations, and TTA in the areas 

of performance measurement, accountability, 

and capacity building to both competitively 

awarded states and local jurisdictions and states 

that did not receive grant awards.

In FY 2010, BJA made 62 site-based awards, 

totaling more than $10.2 million, to states and 

local jurisdictions for planning, implementing, 

or enhancing a collaborative project between 

criminal justice and mental health partners. 

Through BJA’s TTA provider, the Council of State 

Governments Justice Center, BJA continued to 

provide intensive, hands-on technical assistance 

to the 43 FY 2009 grantees. 

In FY 2010, JMHCP grantees reported serving 

1,928 offenders in corrections-based mental 

BJA oversees numerous initiatives to assist 

communities in planning, implementing, 

and enhancing criminal justice system 

diversion and intervention for offenders with 

substance abuse disorders, mental health 

disorders, and co-occurring disorders. BJA 

supports cross-system collaboration and 

partnerships among the criminal justice system 

and substance abuse and mental health 

agencies through grants, training and technical 

assistance, and policy development to help 

them address substance abuse and mental 

illness when they are the root or contributing 

cause to criminal behavior. BJA provides this 

support in contexts such as first encounters with 

law enforcement, adjudication, incarceration, 

and reentry. BJA also helps communities stem 

illegal drug production, sales, and abuse; track 

prescriptions for controlled substances to 

prevent fraud and abuse; and assist children 

who are endangered by drug manufacturing, 

sales, and abuse. More information on these 

initiatives and success stories can be found in 

the online annual report, available at www.bja.

gov/AR.

Justice and Mental Health 

Partnerships

BJA recognizes that the involvement of people 

with mental illness in the justice system is an 
38 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

health programs (39 percent) or in court-based 

programs (61 percent). The average completion 

rate for corrections-based programs was 61 

percent, and the average rate of completion of 

court-based programs was 54 percent. 

Preventing Prescription 

Drug Abuse 

The non-medical use of controlled substances is 

a serious public health concern and one whose 

incidence continues to rise. Prescription drug 

abuse poses a unique challenge because of the 

need to balance prevention, education, and 

enforcement efforts with the need for legitimate 

access to controlled substances.

The Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring 

Program (HRPDMP) provides assistance to states 

that want to plan, establish, or enhance a 

prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP). 

Program objectives include building a data 

collection and analysis system, enhancing 

existing programs’ ability to analyze and use 

collected data, facilitating the exchange of 

collected prescription data between states, 

and assessing the efficiency and effectiveness 

of the programs funded under this initiative. 

Specific activities include grants, support for 

state and local jurisdiction collaborations, and 

TTA in the areas of performance measurement, 

accountability, and capacity building to both 

competitively awarded states and states that are 

planning for a PDMP.

In FY 2010, BJA made 15 awards to states 

for planning, implementing, or enhancing a 

PDMP. By the end of FY 2010, 34 states had 

operational PDMPs. Through its TTA provider, 

Brandeis University, BJA continued to provide 

intensive, hands-on technical assistance to the 

16 FY 2009 grantees. 

HRPDMP grantees reported that in FY 2010 

more than 3.3 million reports were requested 

by users of prescription drug monitoring 

systems, including prescribers, pharmacists, law 

enforcement personnel, regulatory agencies, 

medical examiners, and drug court judges. 

Grantees reported that during this time, nearly 

125,000 stakeholders were trained on the use 

of these systems. Further, more than 24,000 

unsolicited reports were automatically generated 

in FY 2010 and sent to program participants, 

including 22,000 notifications sent to prescribers 

to alert them of suspected prescription drug 

abuse or diversion by one or more of their 

patients.

Drug Courts 

BJA’s Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant 

Program (ADCDGP) provides training, financial 

assistance, and related programmatic guidance 

and leadership to state, local, and tribal 

governments interested in establishing drug 

courts. Through ADCDGP, communities are 

able to leverage the coercive power of the 

criminal justice system to reduce recidivism and 

substance abuse among nonviolent offenders 

and increase the likelihood of successful 

rehabilitation through early, continuous, and 

intensive judicially supervised treatment, 

mandatory drug testing, and appropriate 

sanctions and other rehabilitative services. In FY 

2010, BJA made 82 drug court grant awards for 

a total of nearly $22 million.

Also in FY 2010, BJA partnered with the U.S. 

Department of Health and Human Services, 

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 

Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance 

Abuse Treatment (CSAT) to issue the firstever joint solicitation to enhance the court 

services, coordination, and substance abuse 

treatment capacity of adult drug courts. The 

purpose of this new initiative was to jointly fund 

comprehensive strategies for enhancing drug 

court capacity, allowing applicants to compete 

for access to both criminal justice and substance 

abuse treatment funds with one application. 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 39

Under this initiative, BJA awarded 28 grants 

totaling more than $7 million.

Performance Data for Drug Court 

Grantees and Participants

BJA collected the following data for the 

ADCDGP.

FY 2010 participants who received services 

from Implementation grantee service providers 

reported mixed results related to four important 

program outcomes. The number of participants 

who tested positive for drugs increased by 7 

percent between the first and fourth reporting 

periods (an average of 42 percent), and program 

violations increased considerably by 22 percent 

between the first and fourth reporting period 

(an average of 63 percent). However, grantees 

also reported that during FY 2010, the average 

rearrest rate for participants in these drug courts 

decreased, and the percentage of participants 

who reported reduced substance abuse 

increased from 73 percent to 76 percent. 

Enhancement grantees are able to enhance 

drug court operations and provide additional 

services to drug court participants. FY 2010 

Enhancement grantee service providers were 

able to enhance their drug court operations 

by recruiting participants, adding treatment 

programs and providers, adding ancillary 

services and service providers, increasing 

capacity, automating drug court cases, and 

training service providers. Performance 

Measurement Tool (PMT) data revealed that 

16,326 participants were served; 189 treatment 

programs and 97 drug treatment providers were 

added; 535 ancillary services and 271 ancillary 

service providers were added; 3,443 substance 

abuse services and 4,350 treatment slots were 

added; 6,185 drug cases were automated; 

and 613 participants received management 

information system training.

Finally, under Statewide Enhancement, state 

agencies can improve, enhance, or expand drug 

court services statewide. FY 2010 Statewide 

Enhancement grantee service providers were 

able to enhance the functions of their drug 

courts by fulfilling information requests, 

disseminating materials, and participating in a 

number of trainings. PMT data revealed that 

1,049 drug courts were operational in their state 

or territory; 2,020 requested and received drug 

court materials and information; and 1,369 

participated in the various trainings held.

Training and 

Technical Assistance

BJA funded the National Drug Court Institute 

(NDCI) to develop and deliver four curricula to 

assist drug court practitioners with specialized 

populations. Three new curricula are in 

development: addressing issues with child 

welfare, veterans, and tribal-specific drug court 

planning initiatives. The Cultural Proficiency 

curriculum was revamped by NDCI with the 

assistance of the National Development and 

Research Institute (NDRI) to improve how courts 

address cultural diversity within drug court 

programming. The curriculum is now available 

to all of the 2,400 drug courts nationally. 

In FY 2010, priorities for ADCDGP included 

building the capacity of existing drug courts to 

increase participation rates among appropriate 

target populations and meeting the needs of 

special populations—in particular, returning 

veterans. 

As a result of the outreach and technical 

assistance provided by American University, 

two common themes were identified that 

affected the success of drug court programs: 

(1) proper screening and providing services for 

persons with co-occurring disorders and (2) 

engaging and retaining young adults in drug 

court programs. Enhancing program capacity 

to address effectively these two areas is critical 

to ensuring that drug courts are serving the 

populations who need their services. 
40 | Solutions for Safer Communities

To provide a prompt and ongoing response 

to these needs, the Drug Court Technical 

Assistance Program developed an interactive 

webinar series for drug court teams, conducted 

by NDRI and headed by the drug court judge. 

These webinars are archived and accessible to all 

programs.

In partnership with SAMHSA and the 

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), BJA 

recommends that drug courts, mental health 

courts, and other problem-solving courts 

aggregate their veteran participants so that the 

full services of the VA may be utilized. Since 

2009, BJA has recognized that an increasing 

number of returning service members with cooccurring substance abuse and mental health 

issues were becoming involved in the criminal 

justice system. Thus, BJA added a component to 

the Drug Court Planning Initiative that focused 

specifically on developing a training curriculum 

for Veterans’ Treatment Courts. These hybrid 

drug and mental health courts use the Drug 

Court model to serve veterans struggling 

with addiction, serious mental illness, and/

or co-occurring disorders, including serious, 

undertreated ailments like post-traumatic stress 

disorder and traumatic brain injuries, both of 

which can produce higher rates of drug abuse, 

domestic violence, and other criminality.

Residential Substance Abuse 

Treatment for State Prisoners 

Program 

Created by the Violent Crime Control and 

Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the Residential 

Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) for State 

Prisoners Program enhances the capacity of 

states and units of local government to provide 

incarcerated inmates with residential substance 

abuse treatment, incorporate this treatment into 

their reentry planning, and deliver communitybased treatment and other broad-based 

aftercare services. In FY 2010, BJA awarded 

nearly $29.2 million to the states and territories.

BJA is working to improve all data collection 

responses and performance measurement 

collected from RSAT grantees and subgrantees. 

In fact, per performance measure data reported 

by grantees, in FY 2010, participants in the RSAT 

program had an overall completion rate of 71 

percent and, of those, 79 percent remained 

arrest-free 1 year after completion.

BJA is also working to improve RSAT 

programming by providing an array of TTA. RSAT 

TTA provides proactive, culturally competent, 

comprehensive, and user-friendly TTA services 

to BJA grantees and the RSAT field at large. 

The program assists grantees through providing 

a listserv of specified key contacts, a working 

group to guide curriculum development and 

deliver an online curriculum to cross-train 

corrections and treatment professionals, and 

related resource materials.

In FY 2010, the BJA-sponsored online RSAT TTA 

National Resource Center became operational, 

having been developed by Advocates for Human 

Potential, Inc., in partnership with Treatment 

Alternatives for Safe Communities and AdCare 

Criminal Justice Services. The center’s web site 

(www.rsat-tta.com) offers services to assist 

jail, prison, and aftercare RSAT providers. The 

services include (1) onsite TA, teleconferences, 

consultation, and speakers; (2) online crosstraining curricula for corrections and treatment 

professionals; (3) curricula on continuum of 

care, trauma-informed care, and HIV/AIDS for 

treatment professionals; (4) monthly webinars; 

and (5) an open forum for RSAT program 

personnel. 

Improving Outcomes for 

Children Exposed to 

Substance Abuse

Many professionals have witnessed the 

devastating effects experienced by children living 

in homes where methamphetamine and other 

illicit drugs are being manufactured, distributed, 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 41

and used. As a result, these professionals—

including law enforcement, social services, 

medical providers, and prosecutors—have 

begun to collaborate to protect and secure the 

interests of the child victims known as drug 

endangered children (DEC). BJA has partnered 

with the National Alliance for Drug Endangered 

Children (National DEC) to support communities 

throughout the nation in building and sustaining 

these multidisciplinary collaborations at the state 

and local levels. In FY 2010, with BJA funding, 

National DEC:

■ Continued to sustain and develop the DEC 

Leaders Network of 24 State DEC Alliances 

and more than 100 expert professionals by 

holding its annual meeting at the National 

DEC Conference in Spokane, Washington, and 

conducting a virtual Spring Summit meeting. 

Developed a partnership with DOJ’s Executive 

Office for U.S. Attorneys to work on tribal 

DEC training. To that end, National DEC 

certified two DOJ employees in the Core 

DEC Training Program and worked with the 

national Indian Country training coordinator 

to adapt the core DEC program into the Core 

DEC Training for Tribal Communities program. 

National DEC is also drafting a plan to bring 

together a tribal DEC steering committee to 

develop more tribal DEC awareness training 

and creating an agenda for a 2-day meeting 

to be held in South Carolina in 2011.

■

■ Gave 17 DEC training presentations in 7 states 

and Canada. 

Continued its series of free monthly 

webinars, with an average attendance of 

150 participants (nearly double the average 

attendance of webinars held during FY 2009). 

Webinars are archived and available for later 

viewing from the National DEC web site. 

Expanded its Online Resource Center by 

adding nearly 350 new articles, reports, and 

other resources addressing DEC-related issues, 

including a number focused on tribal issues. 

■

■

The library now has more than 650 online 

publications. The web site also offers technical 

assistance to practitioners and community 

members through an “Ask an Expert” service, 

and features a training calendar, a list of 

local events around the country, funding 

announcements, and State DEC Alliance 

contacts.

Disseminated a series of DEC-related fact 

sheets that address the various aspects of the 

DEC effort. 

Conducted outreach presentations, meetings, 

and conference calls with other similarly 

focused organizations, federal agencies, and 

legislative representatives to raise awareness 

about DEC efforts across the nation. FY 2010 

outreach efforts included:

■

■

– Participating in a press conference hosted by 

the National Jewish Medical and Research 

Center on the hazards of meth lab exposure 

and its impact on children at the American 

Industrial Health Association Conference, 

where more than 7,000 professionals 

attended.

Presenting at the summit for the BJAfunded Rural Law Enforcement Meth 

Initiative in Denver, Colorado.

Presenting information on DEC efforts 

to the Congressional Meth Caucus and 

the Drug Enforcement Administration in 

Washington, D.C.

Meeting with the Office of National Drug 

Control Policy Director and his staff to share 

information on DEC efforts taking place 

across the nation and how these efforts are 

a big part of demand reduction by helping 

to break the cycle of abuse and neglect in 

the next generation.

Presenting at the 17th Annual American 

Professional Society on the Abuse of 

Children Conference in New Orleans, 

Louisiana.

–

–

–

–

FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 43

C h a p t e r 7

suPPorting innovation 

in adjudication

incarceration, and reviving public confidence in 

the justice system. 

Under the Problem-Solving Justice Training 

and Technical Assistance Initiative, the Center 

for Court Innovation provides a wide range of 

technical assistance services to promote the 

implementation of problem-solving, communitybased practices, focusing the energies of the 

justice system on achieving more meaningful 

outcomes for victims, communities, litigants, 

and defendants. These include holding 

a national workshop, hosting structured 

site visits to demonstration court projects, 

making presentations at national and regional 

conferences, providing one-on-one technical 

assistance to practitioners, and creating 

new publications, web site features, and an 

educational video. 

In FY 2010, funding from BJA enabled the 

center to:

■ Host 600 practitioners who visited 

demonstration court projects in New York City. 

Conduct an online survey of participants in 

center-hosted site visits over the past decade. 

Sixty-five percent of survey respondents 

reported that one or more of the ideas they 

learned about on their site visit had been 

implemented in their jurisdiction.

■

P

rosecutors, judges, and court personnel 

are looking for fresh approaches to 

adjudicating offenders that will lower 

recidivism rates as well as clear cases and 

decrease court dockets. Crimes involving 

violent and nonviolent offenders require special 

efforts to ensure that these offenders are held 

accountable and that they are returned to the 

community with the help and supervision they 

need to avoid re-offending. BJA is committed 

to providing prosecutors, judges, and court 

personnel with the resources, training, and 

support they need to test new ideas. More 

information on these initiatives and success 

stories can be found in the online annual report, 

available at www.bja.gov/AR.

Problem-Solving Justice Training 

and Technical Assistance

In a time of fiscal austerity, jurisdictions across 

the country are grappling with how to reduce 

crime without relying on expensive, short-term 

jail sentences as a default setting. And given 

the current levels of disenchantment with 

government, criminal justice officials are looking 

for new ways to restore public trust in justice. 

There is mounting evidence to suggest that 

problem-solving justice can help achieve all of 

these goals: reducing crime, reducing the use of 
44 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

■ Provide indepth technical assistance to 10 

jurisdictions seeking to plan, launch, or 

strengthen community justice initiatives.

Respond to an additional 240 requests for 

technical assistance from the criminal justice 

field. 

Work with the White House Office of National 

Drug Control Policy to include the community 

court model in the nation’s new drug control 

strategy.

Create five new practitioner publications 

(Principles of Community Justice: A Guide for 

Community Court Planners; Building Support 

for Justice Initiatives: A Communication 

Toolkit; A Tale of Three Cities: Drugs, Courts 

and Community Justice; A Full Response to 

an Empty House: Public Safety Strategies 

for Addressing Mortgage Fraud and the 

Foreclosure Crisis; and Addressing Foreclosed 

and Abandoned Properties).

Plan and cofacilitate a reentry focus group 

on June 1, 2010 in Boston, which brought 

together practitioners from around the 

country to discuss court-based strategies 

for offender reintegration. The center has 

produced a report on this focus group, 

Reentry Courts: Looking Ahead.

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Community Prosecution

With difficult economic times; state, local, and 

tribal budgetary challenges; and the burgeoning 

costs of incarceration, it is more important 

than ever to efficiently and effectively manage 

the operations of the prosecutor’s office. 

Through community prosecution, prosecutors 

are embracing innovative practices that build 

partnerships with the community and their 

allied criminal justice partners while establishing 

prosecutorial priorities that are reflective of the 

communities they serve. 

The purpose of BJA’s National Community 

Prosecution Technical Assistance Initiative is 

to provide prosecutors with the skills they 

need to strengthen links between the criminal 

justice system and the community. Community 

prosecution encourages prosecutors’ offices to 

build partnerships with and define a role for 

the community in public safety. With a focus on 

crime prevention, this initiative enables state, 

local, and tribal prosecutors nationwide to 

receive the TTA necessary for them to develop 

their problem-solving skills. 

During FY 2010, BJA’s national partners—the 

Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (APA) and 

the Center for Court Innovation—produced the 

following deliverables:

■ Onsite technical assistance helped launch 

the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office’s 

Community Prosecution Initiative. 

Onsite technical assistance was provided 

to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office 

to help develop goals and objectives for its 

community prosecution efforts. 

The 6th National Community Prosecution 

Conference: The 21st Century Prosecutor saw 

a greater number of elected prosecutors in 

attendance than in previous years. 

■

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Southwest and Northwest 

Border Prosecution Initiatives

The Southwest and Northern Border Prosecution 

Initiatives (SWBPI and NBPI) provide funds to 

eligible jurisdictions in the 4 southwest and 14 

northern border states for qualifying federally 

initiated and referred criminal cases. The goal 

of the program is to reimburse jurisdictions for 

the prosecution and pretrial detention costs of 

cases that the federal government declined and 

referred to local or state jurisdictions. SWBPI 

and NBPI are different from many other BJA 

programs, as they provide reimbursements for 

costs incurred by state and local jurisdictions, 

rather than grants.
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 45

In FY 2010, BJA created a new calculation for 

reimbursing eligible SWBPI and NBPI costs, 

which is based on stakeholder feedback and 

is designed to better meet the needs of the 

grantees. Instead of having to track eligible 

cases by the hours worked, for example, the 

new calculation uses salary and total eligible 

caseload to reimburse the jurisdictions. SWBPI 

and NBPI programs reimbursed the costs 

associated with 7,855 cases that were federally 

declined and referred to the local jurisdictions 

during the FY 2010 cycle. Specifically, 49 SWBPI 

grants were awarded for approximately $37.4 

million, and 11 NBPI grants were awarded for 

approximately $2.9 million.

Capital Case Litigation Initiative

Created in 2005 by BJA after the President’s 

State of the Union address, the purpose of the 

Capital Case Litigation Initiative (CCLI) is to 

provide high-quality TTA on death penalty issues 

to attorneys and judges who litigate these cases. 

Capital case litigation consists of two trials (a 

guilt phase and a penalty phase) and is governed 

by unique evidentiary rules and processes. BJA 

recognizes that proper legal training is essential 

to help ensure reliable jury verdicts and minimize 

post-conviction litigation. 

During FY 2010, BJA’s national partners 

produced the following deliverables:

■ The National Clearinghouse for Science, 

Technology and the Law held two 2-day 

trainings. Topics covered included forensic 

pathology, the crime scene, pattern evidence, 

forensic toxicology, forensic DNA, digital 

evidence, forensic odontology, and eyewitness 

evidence. 

The National District Attorneys Association 

(NDAA) developed a new course, “Capital 

Litigation—Mental Health and Retardation,” 

which was held September 27–28, 2010 at 

the National Advocacy Center.

■

■ BJA held a 1-day kickoff meeting for FY 

2009 grantees on January 7, 2010. Grantees 

had the opportunity to ask questions of 

experts and become more familiar with the 

respective training curricula. Representatives 

from all eight grantee states were present: 

Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, 

Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. 

Criminal Courts Technical 

Assistance Project

The goal of the Criminal Courts Technical 

Assistance Project (CCTAP) is to help criminal 

courts and related agencies at the state and 

local levels improve the capacity, efficiency, and 

quality of the judicial system’s ability to respond 

to increases in the volume and/or complexity 

of criminal caseloads, particularly those dealing 

with violent crime and gang activity. CCTAP 

supports the efforts of criminal courts to 

constructively respond to the fiscal crisis that has 

been affecting the resources available for the 

court as well as for other agencies on which the 

court depends. In addition, the project promotes 

adoption of proven and promising operational 

practices by criminal courts and justice agencies, 

as they relate to due process, efficiency, modern 

concepts of court and case management, 

interagency relations, and the image of the 

judicial system in the community they serve.

During FY 2010, BJA’s national partner, 

American University (AU), completed:

■ Sixty assignments, 20 of which entailed 

requests submitted during FY 2010. An 

additional 40 entailed requests previously 

submitted for which screening and/or 

provision of services was handled during FY 

2010. In all, the CCTAP requests handled 

during the period were from 24 states plus the 

District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. 

Twenty-four onsite studies, 8 training 

programs,17 technical assistance reports, 

■
46 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

3 monographs/resource documents, and 5 

training curricula. 

Routine followup with every agency that 

received onsite technical assistance. The 

average client evaluation rating was 4.5 (out 

of 5) for each onsite assignment conducted 

during FY 2010. AU also conducted followup 

with every agency that received onsite 

technical assistance within 3 to 6 months 

following each submission of the technical 

assistance report to ascertain the actions 

taken on each recommendation submitted, 

the reasons why recommendations may have 

been rejected, if appropriate, and whether 

there is a need for any additional technical 

assistance services. Based on the followup AU 

conducted to date on assistance completed 

during FY 2010, the recommendation of 

“adoption/implementation” is reported in 

excess of 80 percent.

■

Wrongful Conviction 

Review Program

In FY 2009, at the direction of Congress, 

BJA created the Wrongful Conviction Review 

Program to provide grant funds to public and 

nonprofit entities that work to exonerate people 

who have been wrongfully convicted. The 

purpose of the Wrongful Conviction Review 

Program is to provide high-quality and efficient 

representation for potentially wrongfully 

convicted defendants in cases of post-conviction 

claims of innocence. The goals of this initiative 

are to (1) provide quality representation to 

those who may be factually innocent and 

wrongfully convicted; (2) alleviate burdens 

placed on the criminal justice system through 

costly and prolonged post-conviction litigation; 

and (3) identify, whenever possible, the actual 

perpetrator of the crime. The program supports 

the expenditure of funds to evaluate and litigate 

claims of innocence in cases in which potentially 

flawed eyewitness identification evidence 

was offered at trial; cases in which confession 

evidence, which appears to be unreliable 

or false, was offered at trial; cases in which 

forensic evidence was offered at trial involving 

(but not limited to) composite bullet lead 

analysis, fingerprints, tool marks, bite marks, 

hair microscopy, shaken baby, arson, time or 

cause of death, and/or cases involving any other 

potentially probative evidence of innocence. 

Funds may be used to help defray the costs 

of forensic reanalysis, expert consultation and 

testimony, screening/evaluation, and litigation 

services, including hiring qualified attorneys.

In addition to funding nine entities that work 

to exonerate people who have been wrongfully 

convicted, BJA provided grant funds to the 

National Association of Criminal Defense 

Lawyers (NACDL) to provide training and 

support to grantees and nongrantees. In FY 

2010, NACDL accomplished the following:

■ Held the grant program’s first national training 

event, “Litigating Non-DNA Post-Conviction 

Innocence Cases,” with 175 people from 

32 states and the District of Columbia in 

attendance. This included representatives 

from Innocence Projects and other nonprofit, 

post-conviction innocence efforts, state and 

federal public defenders, and private attorneys 

handling post-conviction cases on a courtappointed and/or pro bono basis. 

Distributed 170 DVD sets of the training 

and written materials to defense lawyers 

who handle post-conviction cases, reaching 

defense lawyers in all types of law practices.

Determined that 94 percent of the trainees/

participants who took part in pre- and posttests improved their knowledge or skill scores 

after the training.

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Holistic Advocacy

Holistic defense is an innovative, client-centered, 

and interdisciplinary model of public defense 

that addresses both the circumstances driving 

indigent people into the criminal justice system 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 47

and the consequences of criminal justice 

involvement by offering criminal, as well as 

related civil legal representation, social work 

support, and advocacy in the client community.

BJA provided funding to the Bronx Defenders 

to enable the group to launch the Center 

for Holistic Defense. The center was created 

to serve as a resource for public defenders’ 

offices, individual advocates, policymakers, and 

other criminal justice stakeholders who seek 

guidance in adopting a more holistic model of 

public defense representation. Funding from 

BJA will help the center provide step-by-step 

guidance and hands-on assistance to three 

public defenders’ offices that are pilot testing a 

more holistic practice. The Knox County Public 

Defender’s Community Law Office in Tennessee, 

Wisconsin State Public Defender, and Washoe 

County Public Defender in Nevada were chosen 

from 23 applicants from throughout the country. 

In FY 2010, the Center for Holistic Defense 

achieved the following:

■ Launched its web site (www.holisticdefense.

org), where visitors will find a detailed 

discussion of the theoretical framework that 

underpins the practice of holistic defense, 

learn of the services offered by the center, and 

register to access a library of original content 

covering a variety of topics related to the 

practice of holistic defense.

Released a Request for Proposals, seeking 

applications from defender offices throughout 

the country that wanted to receive extensive, 

hands-on technical assistance in developing 

specific aspects of holistic defense. 

Helped to create a client needs assessment 

tool for attorneys in Washoe County, 

Nevada to use when first meeting clients, to 

determine what sorts of issues (in addition to 

their criminal cases) clients may be struggling 

with and helped the county to pilot a project 

in the local jail to gauge the types of services 

most needed by their client population.

■

■

■ Helped design and implement a statewide 

immigration services plan in Wisconsin to help 

staff attorneys identify clients with potential 

immigration issues and provide guidance in 

resolving those cases in a way that minimizes, 

as much as possible, any adverse immigration 

consequences. As a result of the center’s 

work in Wisconsin, a coordinated immigration 

project has been implemented in defenders’ 

offices across the state. 

Animal Cruelty

In FY 2009, BJA awarded funds to the 

Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, in 

partnership with the Animal Welfare Institute, 

to implement the National Animal Cruelty 

and Fighting Initiative for the Prevention and 

Reduction of Violent Crime. The goal is to 

provide prosecutors and law enforcement with 

the requisite skills to strengthen links between 

the criminal justice system and the community 

by protecting vulnerable animals and to enhance 

prosecutors’ ability to successfully identify and 

prosecute animal cruelty and animal fighting 

cases. This project is dedicated to disseminating 

information about the most innovative and 

evidence-based initiatives aimed at stopping 

animal cruelty and animal fighting through its 

listserv, publications, web site, and technical 

assistance. Another project objective is to 

increase the knowledge base about animal 

cruelty and animal fighting cases by providing at 

least four trainings (one national conference and 

three trainings administered by distance learning 

mechanisms). Yet another objective includes 

convening an advisory group meeting to develop 

and refine the training curriculum and to identify 

additional ways to strengthen links between 

the community and criminal justice system in 

an effort to prevent precursor crimes such as 

animal cruelty and animal fighting, which often 

lead to or are indicative of more violent crime 

such as child abuse and domestic violence. Last, 

the project is dedicated to conducting training 

activities for law enforcement, prosecutors, and 
48 | Solutions for Safer Communities

allied animal welfare professionals to instruct 

them on how to investigate and identify, build, 

and prosecute cases of animal cruelty. 

In FY 2010, BJA’s national partners:

■ Conducted the first meeting of the Animal 

Cruelty Advisory Committee. 

Published four issues of Lex Canis, the APA’s 

quarterly TTA newsletter. 

Completed a cooperative agreement with 

George Mason University’s Center for 

Evidence-Based Crime Policy for an evaluation 

and review of anti-dogfighting programs 

throughout the United States. The results 

will be disseminated on APA’s web site or 

published as a monograph.

■

■

■ Established and maintained a listserv for 

prosecutors, allied law enforcement, and 

interested nonprofit organizations. 

Provided logistical support for 2009 and 2010 

national conferences.

Developed and maintained a brief bank for 

prosecutors and investigators. 

Completed 51 documented technical 

assistance requests from prosecutors and law 

enforcement relating to animal abuse and 

fighting.

Drafted a monograph for prosecutors on 

the topic of dogfighting, which will include 

information about the End Dogfighting 

Program of the Humane Society of the United 

States. 

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FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 49

C h a p t e r 8

addrEssing crimE and justicE for 

amErican indians and aLaska nativEs

of violent crime are far higher than the national 

averages. Tribal law enforcement and justice 

system resources are typically scarce, and the 

problem is exacerbated by both the vast size 

and geographic isolation of many reservations. 

Complex jurisdictional issues also frequently 

make effective handling of crimes committed on 

tribal land difficult. 

The Tribal Courts Assistance Program (TCAP) is 

designed to assist federally recognized American 

Indian and Alaska Native communities in 

developing and enhancing their tribal justice 

systems. Funding supports the development, 

implementation, and enhancement of both 

western-style courts and traditional indigenous 

justice approaches.

TCAP provides funding and TTA to federally 

recognized tribal governments to help them 

develop, implement, and enhance tribal 

justice systems. In FY 2010, through the CTAS 

solicitation, BJA awarded 48 site-based TCAP 

grants totaling nearly $17 million.

TCAP TTA is provided to both TCAP grantees 

and to American Indian and Alaska Native 

tribes-at-large on request. During FY 2010, 

TCAP TTA providers conducted 21 trainings for 

more than 1,000 participants representing tribes 

from across the United States. These trainings 

were designed to assist tribes in overall justice 

system planning and implementation and also 

BJA works with tribes to provide leadership, 

management, training and technical 

assistance, and quality services in grant 

administration and policy development. The 

tribal programs administered by BJA help 

these communities prevent and control crime, 

violence, and substance abuse and improve the 

functioning of criminal justice systems in their 

communities. In FY 2010, BJA and other OJP 

components, working in collaboration with the 

Office on Violence Against Women and the 

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 

released the Department of Justice Coordinated 

Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) to provide 

tribes easier access to government funding 

by allowing them to submit one application 

for multiple purpose areas. This streamlined 

approach, a direct result of input received from 

tribal leaders at DOJ’s Tribal Nations Listening 

Session in 2009, helped DOJ and tribes address 

public safety in Indian Country in a more 

comprehensive manner. More information on 

these initiatives and success stories can be 

 found in the online annual report, available 

at www.bja.gov/AR. 

Tribal Courts Assistance Program

Crime, violence, and substance abuse are critical 

challenges faced by American Indian and Alaska 

Native communities. In many tribes, the rates 
50 | Solutions for Safer Communities

to improve the skills of specific tribal justice 

professionals such as tribal court judges, clerks, 

and probation officers.

Indian Alcohol and Substance 

Abuse Program

Crime, violence, and substance abuse are critical 

challenges faced by American Indian and Alaska 

Native communities. In many tribes, alcohol and 

substance abuse are factors in the vast majority 

of crimes committed within the reservation 

community. Limited tribal law enforcement 

resources and the vast geographic distances 

present on many reservations make innovative 

approaches to preventing and addressing 

alcohol and substance abuse critical to the 

health and safety of these communities. 

The Indian Alcohol and Substance Abuse 

Program (IASAP) helps federally recognized tribal 

governments to plan, implement, or enhance 

culturally appropriate strategies for addressing 

crime related to alcohol and substance abuse. 

In FY 2010, through the CTAS solicitation, BJA 

awarded 26 IASAP grants totaling nearly $10 

million.

IASAP TTA is provided to both IASAP grantees 

and to American Indian and Alaska Native 

tribes-at-large on request. In FY 2010, IASA 

TTA providers conducted 13 training programs 

for more than 900 individuals. IASAP funding 

also supported 42 TTA visits and provided 166 

scholarships that enabled tribal officials to 

attend national TTA events. Tribes used this 

TTA along with BJA grant funding to develop 

and implement community-based programs to 

address alcohol- and substance abuse-related 

crime.

Correctional Facilities on 

Tribal Lands 

The Correctional Facilities on Tribal Lands (CFTL) 

Discretionary Grant Program provides funding 

for site-based and TTA projects. In FY 2010, 

through the CTAS solicitation, BJA awarded 25 

site-based grants for a total of $8.8 million for 

the planning, renovation, and construction of 

correctional and correctional-alternative facilities 

to assist tribes with adult and juvenile detention 

and rehabilitative efforts. 

Additionally, BJA conducted three regional 

workshops designed to provide TTA to grant 

recipients who received American Recovery 

and Reinvestment Act and/or Violent Crime 

and Law Enforcement Act funding under the 

CFTL Program. BJA also partnered with the 

Justice Solutions Group to continue providing 

onsite and offsite technical assistance to grant 

recipients that received CFTL funds in FYs 2007, 

2008, and 2009. 

Expanding Anti-Gang Training 

Into Indian Country

In response to a long-perceived need to address 

law enforcement challenges in Indian Country, 

and with support from the Administration and 

enactment of the Tribal Law and Order Act of 

2010, a new comprehensive training program 

for tribal police, prosecutors, and corrections 

personnel titled “Gangs in Indian Country” was 

implemented, and on October 25–28, 2010 in 

Gallup, New Mexico, BJA and representatives 

of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys and 

the National Gang Center conducted the first 

pilot training, hosted by the U.S. Attorneys’ 

Offices of New Mexico and Arizona. The course 

included an overview of gangs active in the 

region, instruction on the intelligence process 

and the role of gang investigators in the process, 

strategies and tactics effective in suppressing 

gang activity, and advice on the use of gangspecific legislation in the investigation and 

prosecution of gang crime. BJA and partners are 

considering more sites for FY 2011.
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 51

C h a p t e r 9 

PrEvEnting crimE and 

EmPowEring communitiEs

volunteer programs and efforts. The program’s 

web site, www.policevolunteers.org, which 

has received more than 50 million hits since its 

inception, serves as the gateway to multiple 

resources for law enforcement. These include:

■ A searchable directory that allows agencies 

to network or contact programs with similar 

volunteer programs. 

A library of sample documents and forms. 

A resource guide for agencies interested in 

starting a volunteer program. 

An introductory e-learning course and other 

educational programs for law enforcement 

executives. 

Technical support.

A moderated online discussion group. 

A monthly newsletter.

■

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In FY 2010, the VIPS Program surpassed a major 

milestone, registering its 2,000th program. 

The VIPS Program itself held 4 workshops and 

conducted 11 site visits. VIPS also developed a 

new publication, Missing Persons: Volunteers 

Supporting Law Enforcement, and transformed 

its popular Building Blocks of a Law Enforcement 

Volunteer Program curriculum into a 2-hour 

e-learning course. 

BJA’s crime prevention programs address 

two types of crime risks: factors in a given 

environment that are known to facilitate 

situations in which unlawful behavior is more 

likely to occur, and factors that are known to 

aggravate unlawful behavior by an individual 

or increase the vulnerability of an individual 

to criminal victimization. BJA addresses these 

risks by encouraging communities to partner 

with law enforcement and other criminal justice 

agencies in mitigating crime, raising awareness 

and education of crime prevention techniques, 

and building the capacity of organizations with 

a crime prevention focus. More information on 

these initiatives and success stories can be found 

in the online annual report, available at www.

bja.gov/AR. 

Volunteers in Police Service 

The Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) Program 

is one of five Citizen Corps partner programs 

that build on the successful efforts in place 

in many communities around the country to 

prevent crime and respond to emergencies. VIPS 

is managed by the International Association of 

Chiefs of Police on behalf of BJA. The program’s 

ultimate goal is to enhance the capacity of local 

and state law enforcement agencies to make 

better use of volunteers. The VIPS Program also 

serves as a resource for all law enforcement 
52 | Solutions for Safer Communities

Neighborhood Watch

Communities working with law enforcement 

have always been an effective aid to preventing 

crime and maintaining safe neighborhoods. An 

increase in crime during the 1960s heightened 

the need for a crime prevention initiative that 

would focus on residential areas and involve 

local citizens. The National Sheriffs’ Association 

(NSA) responded to this need by creating the 

National Neighborhood Watch Program in 1972. 

In 2002, NSA, in partnership with BJA, launched 

USAonWatch (www.USAonwatch.org) to 

expand the role of watch programs to include 

disaster preparedness, emergency response, 

and terrorism awareness. As local governments 

face budget constraints, there is a growing need 

to use residents and neighborhoods as “force 

multipliers” who add to the “eyes and ears” of 

law enforcement.

In FY 2010, NSA:

■ Provided training to 600 officers from more 

than 200 law enforcement agencies.

Registered approximately 2,000 additional 

Neighborhood Watch groups, bringing the 

total to more than 23,000 registered watches.

Doubled the distribution of its newsletter, 

Neighborhood Watch News, to more than 

4,000 subscribers. 

■

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Internet Crime Complaint Center 

Internet crime is an ever-changing, ever-growing 

landscape with high-tech criminals becoming 

increasingly savvy about ways to exploit the 

Internet. This growth has been fueled by a 

younger generation raised in the computer age, 

unlike many of the criminals of just a decade 

ago. It is imperative for law enforcement to have 

the tools to battle modern-day cyber criminals 

and for victims to have access to a mechanism 

for reporting their complaints.

To address these concerns, BJA, the FBI, and the 

National White Collar Crime Center partnered to 

create and operate the Internet Crime Complaint 

Center (IC3). This partnership not only provides 

a place for victims to report Internet-based 

crimes, but also arms law enforcement with 

the latest technological tools needed to bring 

the perpetrators to justice. In addition, the 

expert analysis IC3 provides to law enforcement 

fosters greater collaboration. Through this 

partnership, IC3 has evolved to keep pace with 

emerging trends and technology, becoming an 

indispensible asset to law enforcement and the 

victims of online crime.

During FY 2010, the activities of this partnership 

resulted in the following:

■ More than 300,000 complaints registered 

from citizens who had a problem or were a 

victim of a crime over the Internet.

An annual report that identifies some of the 

most common Internet scams and crimes 

committed, which is available at www.ic3.gov/

media/annualreport/2010_IC3Report.pdf. 

An online complaint form for victims to use to 

report online crimes and scams, available at 

www.ic3.gov/contact.

■

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National Crime Prevention 

Council Initiatives

BJA and the National Crime Prevention Council 

(NCPC) partner on several nationwide crime 

prevention initiatives.

Circle of Respect

The Circle of Respect is NCPC’s latest and most 

comprehensive campaign to protect youth 

from bullying and cyberbullying. The campaign 

seeks to change the commonly held belief that 

bullying is a rite of passage, and teaches instead 

that such behavior is unacceptable through a 

positive, pro-social message that encourages 

respect and consideration for others. To promote 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 53

its mission, the Circle of Respect features 

an education campaign, outreach materials 

(including publications and public service 

advertising), and partnership efforts to reach 

a national audience. The Circle of Respect’s 

web site (www.circleofrespect.org) serves as 

the primary face of the initiative and includes 

resources for teens, young adults, and educators 

on relational crimes such as bullying, dating 

violence, and gangs.

In FY 2010, funding from BJA enabled NCPC to: 

■ Conduct a series of focus groups among 

children and teens from ages 8 to 17 years 

to facilitate discussions about respect and 

friendship and to obtain youth input into 

program messages and awareness of key 

issues. NCPC held a groundbreaking event at 

the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., 

which highlighted new research on youth’s 

views on respect and the roles adults play 

in modeling respectful behavior. The event 

also engaged well-known researchers and 

authors in discussion about respect for others, 

bullying, and cyberbullying. 

■ Partner with YouTube and Saatchi & Saatchi 

to develop a new Internet resource titled 

“OceanKing97.” This viral campaign 

showcases a powerful video demonstration of 

how quickly words can affect someone and 

how painful cyberbullying can be for young 

people.

■ Release the new bullying prevention video 

Samantha’s Choice. This 5-minute animated 

film follows the story of a young girl who is 

afraid to go to ballet class for fear of being 

bullied. “Stop, Talk, & Walk” is the essential 

advice that McGruff® the Crime Dog shares 

with the young girl in the story.

National Children and 

Youth Safety Campaign

Every day, children and youth across the 

country are being victimized at alarming rates, 

committing crimes, or engaging in dangerous 

behaviors. The National Children and Youth 

Safety Campaign is designed to educate children 

and youth about personal safety and to engage 

them in service projects that facilitate their 

connection to the community and foster a sense 

of civic responsibility. This program provides 

tools and resources for parents, teachers, and 

school counselors to teach children and youth 

about safety skills and educate them about 

the consequences of cyberbullying from the 

perspectives of both victims and perpetrators. 

The program also works to enhance the capacity 

of law enforcement and crime prevention 

practitioners to engage parents in local crime 

prevention efforts.

In FY 2010, funding from BJA enabled NCPC to:

■ Develop two new McGruff® Readers and 

accompanying activity books for children in 

grades 3 and 4. The readers address issues 

such as online and neighborhood safety, while 

the activity books reinforce these messages. 

Develop six online educational games to teach 

children about bullying, Internet safety, drugs, 

and other dangers. The games were posted 

on NCPC’s children’s web site, www.mcgruff.

org. 

Conduct an online advanced strategy lab 

that collected feedback from McGruff®

House coordinators to identify successful 

strategies for engaging community members 

in McGruff® House volunteer activities and 

related community initiatives. 

■

■

Celebrate Safe Communities

Given the recent tightening of state and local 

budgets, local law enforcement agencies need 

additional resources to mobilize communities 

and increase their capacities to prevent crime, 

maintain safe communities, and prepare for 

emergencies. The Celebrate Safe Communities 

(CSC) program, a partnership of NCPC and NSA, 

promotes local crime prevention and safety 
54 | Solutions for Safer Communities

events by providing local law enforcement 

agencies and community groups with webbased training, technical assistance, crime 

prevention and safety information, and 

promotional materials for localized events. 

The CSC program gives law enforcement 

and community groups information and 

advice on all aspects of initiating, organizing, 

partnering, marketing, and conducting crime 

prevention events. Free promotional materials 

that can be localized are available on the web 

site, along with crime prevention and public 

safety materials. Communities, residents, 

law enforcement and public safety agencies, 

businesses, and school campuses all derive 

benefits from the CSC program.

In FY 2010, CSC participation significantly 

increased, with 251 sites in 146 cities from 

39 states participating. The CSC web site 

(www.celebratesafecommunities.org) received 

45,200 hits.

Campus Safety

Campus safety services vary greatly on the 

nation’s college and university campuses. 

Campus law enforcement agencies include 

full-service police departments (both armed 

and unarmed), private security operations, 

contractual services, and more. Campus police 

departments also vary greatly in how they 

relate to and share information with local 

and state public safety agencies. Working 

with organizations in the field such as the 

International Association of College Law 

Enforcement Administrators as well as with our 

federal partners such as the COPS Office and the 

FBI, BJA identifies gaps in training and resources 

and then addresses those needs.

Three campus safety-related projects funded by 

BJA in 2007 completed their work in FY 2010 

and produced valuable resources for the field: 

■ The Major Cities Chiefs Association developed 

Campus Security Guidelines, which contains 

operational policies developed by local 

and campus law enforcement that can be 

replicated and implemented by campuses 

across the nation. 

■ IACP developed several campus resources, 

including a video titled Community 

Involvement in Campus Safety and a 

supplemental chapter for the VIPS’s Volunteer 

Programs: Enhancing Public Safety by 

Leveraging Resources guide, titled “VIPS 

in a College or University Setting.” These 

publications provide case studies, best 

practices, and resources for starting or 

enhancing campus safety programs at the 

nation’s colleges and universities. In addition, 

IACP developed the VIPS E-Learning module, 

which can be used to train citizen volunteers 

in local and campus law enforcement 

agencies. 

■ NSA developed the Schools and Universities 

Safety Resource Center, an online resource 

center (www.communitysafetyinstitute.org/

SUSRC) that provides tools to help educators, 

law enforcement personnel, and community 

members make schools and college campuses 

safer for students. 

Gang Resistance Education 

And Training Program 

BJA’s Gang Resistance Education And Training 

(G.R.E.A.T.) Program is a school-based classroom 

curriculum taught by law enforcement officers. 

It is intended to immunize youth against the 

lures of delinquency, youth violence, and gang 

membership. Currently, 490 law enforcement 

agencies around the country teach the 

G.R.E.A.T. Program. 

The G.R.E.A.T. Program (www.great-online.org) 

consists of four components: a 13-week middle 

school curriculum, a 6-week elementary school 

curriculum, a summer program, and a 6-session 

training curriculum for families. G.R.E.A.T. differs 

from most efforts to reduce gang problems. 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 55

While many programs are directed at active 

gang members and target high-risk youth, 

the G.R.E.A.T. Program is presented to various 

school-age populations to prevent students 

from engaging in some of the risk factors that 

lead to gang involvement. Uniformed officers 

teach students to set positive goals, resist 

negative pressures, resolve conflicts peacefully, 

and understand how gangs affect the quality of 

their lives. 

In FY 2010, the G.R.E.A.T. Program enabled BJA 

to train 452 law enforcement professionals to 

teach the curriculum in elementary and middle 

schools. In addition, 131 law enforcement 

professionals were trained to facilitate the 

G.R.E.A.T. Families component. In FY 2010, 

a total of 233,726 students in 3,656 middle 

schools and 135,040 students in 2,056 

elementary schools completed the G.R.E.A.T. 

Program. Since the program’s inception in 1991, 

more than 10,000 law enforcement officers 

and law enforcement professionals have been 

certified as G.R.E.A.T. instructors, and more 

than 5 million students have graduated from 

the G.R.E.A.T. Program. 

Preventing Crime in the 

Black Community

For many urban African-American communities, 

crime rates and victimization rates remain 

higher than the national average. Changing this 

pattern will require collaboration among law 

enforcement and other government agencies, 

community and faith-based organizations, 

businesses, schools, researchers, and AfricanAmerican leaders.

The 25th Annual National Conference on 

Preventing Crime in the Black Community, 

held May 26–29, 2010 in Orlando, Florida, 

was designed to foster collaboration, 

communication, and action among practitioners 

by sharing innovative ideas and research on the 

criminal justice system and the causative factors 

and prevention strategies unique to the AfricanAmerican community.

BJA provided stipends for law enforcement 

managers from urban communities with 

high crime rates to attend the conference. 

In addition, BJA provided funding for a preconference “Summit on Crime Prevention in 

Black Communities” and assembled a panel of 

criminal justice experts and community leaders 

from the national and state level to identify 

the top crime prevention issues facing black 

communities. 

The conference attracted 1,350 participants, 

and BJA stipends supported travel expenses for 

150 law enforcement managers who would not 

otherwise have been able to attend. 

FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 57

C h a p t e r 1 0 

ProtEcting and suPPorting 

victims of crimE

closely with local and state law enforcement 

agencies to organize anti-human trafficking 

task forces with a multidisciplinary, victimcentered approach that takes into account 

both the humanitarian principle behind the 

identification and rescue of victims and the role 

that trafficking victims play in the investigation 

and prosecution of traffickers. Currently, 41 task 

forces are in operation.

In FY 2010, OVC and BJA developed the 

Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Strategy 

and Operations e-Guide (www.ovcttac.gov/

TaskForceGuide/EGuide), an e-learning tool 

targeted to both established and new task 

forces. The guide provides direction on forming 

new anti-human trafficking task forces; ideas 

for strengthening existing task forces; creative 

strategies, examples, and lessons learned from 

existing task forces; and links to valuable tools, 

trainings, and resources. 

Also in FY 2010, BJA provided funding to 

two grantees for developing and piloting the 

Advanced Human Trafficking Investigator 

curriculum, a 3-day training program whose 

goal is to increase the capacity of human 

trafficking investigators. A total of 89 people 

were introduced to the training at the national 

conference and 2 pilot training events in 2010.

Although the Office for Victims of Crime 

(OVC) is the component of OJP that 

specializes in resources and support for 

victims, BJA takes the lead on victim-centered 

programs that also must leverage support from 

established BJA partners at the state, local, and 

tribal levels. In this capacity, BJA developed the 

Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Initiative, 

which operates in close collaboration with 

OVC, and the Statewide Automated Victim 

Information and Notification (SAVIN) Program, 

which provides funding for states to develop 

and implement information systems that notify 

victims of events affecting their offenders and 

their offenders’ cases, about which the victim 

has a right to be informed under the 2004 

Justice for All Act. More information on these 

initiatives and success stories can be found in 

the online annual report, available at www.bja.

gov/AR.

Anti-Human Trafficking 

Task Force Initiative

Combating human trafficking requires a 

comprehensive response from government and 

nongovernment entities in myriad areas from 

human rights, to employment issues, to law 

enforcement. Under the Anti-Human Trafficking 

Task Force Initiative, BJA and its partners work 
58 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

On behalf of BJA, the upper Midwest 

Community Policing Institute convened two 

focus groups, made up of subject matter 

experts from the field, representatives of current 

task forces, victims’ services representatives, 

concerned stakeholders, and federal partners to: 

■ Evaluate the current task force model used 

to identify, rescue, and restore victims of 

human trafficking; conduct human trafficking 

investigations; and prosecute those who traffic 

in persons.

Determine the most effective way to meet the 

goals of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act 

and its reauthorizations.

Make specific recommendations for future 

strategies, practices, and sustainment support 

to address the crime of human trafficking.

■

■

Statewide Automated Victim 

Information and Notification 

Program 

Victims of crime have a great need for 

information relating to their offender’s case. 

Knowledge of court schedules, release and 

parole dates, and other information can reduce 

the risk of repeat incidents and help prevent 

further victimization. With limited resources, 

law enforcement and court officials face 

considerable obstacles to maintaining efficiency 

and reliability in victim notification. BJA’s SAVIN 

Program was created to assist states in building, 

implementing, and improving their victim 

notification capacity. 

The goal of the SAVIN Program is to increase 

public safety and deliver basic victim notification 

rights. Effective SAVIN programs require broad 

multiagency support for increasing victim safety, 

meeting legislative requirements, and minimizing 

the costs associated with keeping victims 

notified of important dates and developments 

relating to the status of their offender.

During FY 2010, BJA worked collaboratively with 

our national partners to provide the following 

resources and services to the field:

■ BJA and our training and technical assistance 

partners—the National Criminal Justice 

Association, Justice Solutions, and the IJIS 

Institute—have built a SAVIN web site (www.

savinonline.org) that serves as a portal for 

providing information and technical assistance 

to SAVIN programs. Its features include 

a peer-to-peer forum that allows SAVIN 

administrators to communicate and exchange 

ideas and solutions with each other. 

■ The project team has made presentations 

at national conferences, including the 

conferences of the National Organization for 

Victim Assistance, the National Association 

of Victim Service Professionals in Corrections, 

the National Criminal Justice Association, 

and the American Probation and Parole 

Association, as well as at a victim services 

committee meeting for the International 

Association of Chiefs of Police, to raise 

awareness about the importance of SAVIN 

programs. In collaboration with OVC’s Web 

Forum series, project staff guest hosted a 

session on how SAVIN programs can be a 

valuable resource for stalking victims. The 

project team continues to develop resources 

that SAVIN administrators can use to promote 

their programs. 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 59

C h a p t e r 1 1

buiLding caPacity

criminal justice practitioners, elected officials, 

and citizen advocates with training, information 

dissemination, technical assistance, and 

conference facilitation.

In FY 2010, BJA’s NTTAC achieved the following: 

■ Received 315 inquiries and was able to make 

26 referrals to existing programs and fund 88 

separate technical assistance projects. 

Launched a monthly webinar series, which 

highlights BJA’s activities, programs, and TTA 

providers. The webinars are recorded and 

maintained on the NTTAC web site for future 

viewing. 

■

■ Expanded and updated the NTTAC web site 

(www.bjatraining.org), making TTA services 

more readily available, easier to access, and 

more efficiently managed. 

■ Developed a monthly e-newsletter in 

conjunction with BJA staff, which provides 

information to the field on critical issues, 

success stories, and resources. More than 

3,000 individuals have signed up to receive 

the e-newsletter. 

Promoted and encouraged collaboration and 

communication among BJA’s TTA providers 

by encouraging joint work and activities on 

projects, highlighting the work of other TTA 

providers on its web site, and creating a 

■

I

n FY 2010, BJA continued to expand upon its 

training and technical assistance for the field, 

provide meaningful data on the performance 

of BJA programs, enhance knowledge 

management, and support and facilitate 

policymaker collaboration. More information on 

these initiatives and success stories can be found 

in the online annual report, available at www.

bja.gov/AR. 

Training and Technical 

Assistance Coordination

BJA’s mission is to provide policy leadership and 

assistance that supports local criminal justice 

strategies to achieve safe communities. One of 

BJA’s most important functions is to support 

the work of practitioners in state, local, and 

tribal justice systems through TTA programs. 

BJA-sponsored TTA provides direct assistance in 

developing and implementing comprehensive, 

systemwide strategies for public safety that also 

improve criminal justice systems.

In FY 2010, BJA provided more than $1.5 

million to Fox Valley Technical College for 

implementation of the National Training and 

Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC) to provide 

direct technical assistance to “fill the gaps” 

in situations for which BJA does not have an 

existing program. To do this, NTTAC supports 
60 | Solutions for Safer Communities

consultant development course which BJA’s 

TTA providers will use to promote consistency, 

excellence, and increased credibility among 

consultants working in the field. 

Performance Measurement

BJA uses performance measurement as an 

accountability tool to assess progress toward its 

programs’ goals and objectives. Performance 

measures are indicators, statistics, or metrics 

used to gauge program performance that will 

benefit BJA and its grantees.

In FY 2010, BJA:

■ Began tracking the performance for three new 

programs in its Performance Measurement 

Tool: the Prescription Drug Monitoring 

Program, Second Chance Act Demonstration 

Program, and Second Chance Act Mentoring 

Program. 

Participated in the OJP-wide Performance 

Measures Advisory Group to support 

the strategic approach to performance 

measurement agencywide. 

Participated in the OJP Evidence Integration 

Initiative, which is an effort to harness, 

synthesize, and make available more evidence 

both to BJA for program decisions and 

externally for grantees to use for program 

design decisions. 

■

■

Training and Technical 

Assistance Reporting System

In FY 2010, BJA enhanced the system that 

is used to gather quantitative program 

performance data from grantees that provide 

TTA. The Training and Technical Assistance 

Reporting System (TTARS) collects numerical 

totals of events and the products of grantee 

activities and captures this information on a 

calendar to publicize it to the criminal justice 

community. The system now incorporates several 

new reporting features as well as provides 

improved data validation checks to ensure that 

high-quality data is obtained. 

In FY 2010, BJA asked 124 grantee 

organizations to use the TTARS system to 

report on 410 grant awards. Of those that 

were required to report, more than 380 (or 93 

percent) successfully completed their reporting 

in TTARS. 

A total of 5,476 events and activities were 

reported in FY 2010; of these, 1,296 were 

training events at which a total of 77,202 

participants received training. These participants 

were asked to complete pre- and post-testing, 

and the results showed that more than 99 

percent of participants who completed the 

evaluation reported an improvement. Of those 

who completed the evaluation, the vast majority 

(95 percent) rated the training as satisfactory or 

better in terms of its content, appropriateness, 

and delivery. Enhancements made to the system 

and the user interface in January 2010 resulted 

in a 61 percent increase in the completion rate 

of a followup questionnaire for participants in 

distance learning webinar trainings.

In FY 2010, 139 conferences were reported in 

the system, with a total of 67,993 attendees. 

Of the 5,963 attendees (9 percent) who 

completed an evaluation at the conclusion of 

the conference, more than 99 percent rated the 

conference as satisfactory or better. A total of 

224 peer-to-peer hosted technical assistance 

site visits were reported in the TTARS system in 

2010, and 71 followup visits were conducted 6 

months later. 

Knowledge Management

The mission of BJA’s knowledge management 

program is to analyze and collect research and 

evaluation information, identify BJA program 

success, provide evidence to inform BJA 
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 61

programs and policies, and prepare information 

and findings to share within BJA and OJP and 

the criminal justice field at large.

BJA’s knowledge management program focuses 

on utilizing subject matter experts to highlight 

disciplines, techniques, and best practices of 

program review, assessment, and evaluation; 

evidence translation and integration; and 

demonstration field experiments. Targeted to 

practitioners, policymakers, and researchers in 

the field as well as staff from BJA, OJP, and DOJ, 

the program oversees long-range planning and 

analysis of new substantive agency programs for 

which precedents are scarce or nonexistent. In 

addition, the knowledge management program 

develops policies and processes for the efficient 

capture of relevant information, knowledge, 

evidence, and research content across the entire 

spectrum of criminal justice issues. 

In FY 2010, BJA:

■ Coordinated with the National Institute of 

Justice to assess the evaluability of FY 2009 

Second Chance demonstration sites.

■ Worked with the Vera Institute of Justice to 

establish a Cost-Benefit Knowledge Bank 

(http://cbkb.org) for the criminal justice field, 

which was launched in FY 2011.

■ Worked with George Mason University to 

develop a risk-needs-responsivity simulation 

tool for practitioners and policymakers in 

criminal justice (discussed in more detail in 

chapter 5).

■ Continued to work with the Justice Research 

and Statistics Association to provide program 

evaluation and performance measurement 

information through BJA’s online Center 

for Program Evaluation and Performance 

Measurement. 

Policymaker Collaboration

Public safety is a priority concern of state and 

local policymakers, and they are challenged 

today to meet their communities’ needs 

and provide services amid difficult budget 

conditions. BJA’s policymaker collaboration 

efforts provide states and localities with a 

timely opportunity to gain knowledge and 

tools that can help them reshape their criminal

justice approaches and reallocate resources 

for sustainable benefits. The program is 

geared toward benefiting practitioners and 

policymakers in the field.

BJA funded two projects that focus on 

strategies to reach state and local officials who 

shape criminal justice policy: 

■ In partnership with the National Conference 

for State Legislators, BJA provides information 

to state legislators and legislative staff 

that contributes to better informed 

decisionmaking on priority criminal justice 

issues. 

■ BJA launched a new project with the National 

Criminal Justice Association (NCJA) to assist 

State Administering Agencies in strategically 

investing their Justice Assistance Grant 

Program funding through comprehensive 

planning that will assess community needs 

through better use of data and evidence. 

NCJA collected data from almost all 56 states 

and territories on their plans for spending their 

JAG funding. Information was collected across 

the 7 purpose areas and 43 project types. 

NCJA also analyzed the data and developed 

graphics showing how JAG funds are spent 

in each state and nationally in each purpose 

area encompassing all aspects of the criminal 

justice system. This was the first time this data 

had been captured for the JAG Program in 

such a comprehensive way, thereby providing 

a snapshot of JAG in the field and highlighting 

the JAG Program’s successful practices and 

innovative projects, giving a broad picture of the 

uses and effectiveness of this grant program.

FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 63

CenTF Center for Task Force Training

CEPP Center for Effective Public Policy

C.F.R. Code of Federal Regulations

CFTL Correctional Facilities on Tribal Lands

CICC Criminal Intelligence Coordinating 

Council

COPS Community Oriented Policing 

Services

CSAT Center for Substance Abuse and 

Treatment

CSC Celebrate Safe Communities

CTAS Coordinated Tribal Assistance 

Solicitation

CTFLI Center for Task Force Leadership 

and Integrity

DEC drug endangered children

DHS U.S. Department of Homeland 

Security

DMI Drug Market Intervention

DOJ U.S. Department of Justice

EMS emergency medical service

FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation

GAC Global Advisory Committee

ADCDGP Adult Drug Court Discretionary 

Grant Program

APA Association of Prosecuting Attorneys

APAI Association of Paroling Authorities 

International 

APCO Association of Public-Safety 

Communications Officials

APPA American Probation and Parole 

Association

ASCA Association of State Correctional 

ATF Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, 

Firearms and Explosives

AU American University

BCOT Building Communities of Trust

BJA Bureau of Justice Assistance

BJS Bureau of Justice Statistics

BVP Bulletproof Vest Partnership 

CAD computer-aided dispatch

CAT Communities Against Terrorism

CBOB Congressional Badge of Bravery

CCLI Capital Case Litigation Initiative

CCTAP Criminal Courts Technical 

Assistance Project
64 | Solutions for Saf er Communities

GISWG Global Infrastructure/Standards 

Working Group

GIWG Global Intelligence Working Group

Global Global Justice Information Sharing 

Initiative

GMU George Mason University

GPIQWG Global Privacy and Information 

Quality Working Group

GRA Global Reference Architecture 

(formerly Justice Reference 

Architecture)

G.R.E.A.T. Gang Resistance Education 

And Training

GSWG Global Security Working Group

HHS U.S. Department of Health and 

Human Services

HRPDMP Harold Rogers Prescription Drug 

Monitoring Program

HSIN Homeland Security Information 

Network

IACP International Association of

Chiefs of Police

IASAP Indian Alcohol and Substance 

Abuse Program

IC3 Internet Crime Complaint Center

IIR Institute for Intergovernmental 

Research

IJIS Integrated Justice Information 

Systems

IP Intellectual Property

ISE Information Sharing Environment

JAG Edward Byrne Memorial Justice 

Assistance Grant

JIEM Justice Information Exchange Model

JMHCP Justice and Mental Health 

Collaboration Program

JRA Justice Reference Architecture

JRI Justice Reinvestment Initiative

LEO Law Enforcement Online

LEXS Logical Entity Exchange Specification

MOV Medal of Valor

MSU Michigan State University

NAAG National Association of Attorneys 

General

NACDL National Association of Criminal 

Defense Lawyers

NBPI Northern Border Prosecution 

Initiative

NCCD National Council on Crime and 

Delinquency

NCIRC National Criminal Intelligence 

Resource Center

NCJA National Criminal Justice Association

NCPC National Crime Prevention Council

NDAA National District Attorneys 

Association

NDCI National Drug Court Institute

NDRI National Development and 

Research Institute 

NFA National Forensic Academy

NFSTC National Forensic Science 

Technology Center

NGA National Governors Association

NGC National Gang Center

NIC National Institute of Corrections

NIEM National Information Exchange 

Model

NIJ National Institute of Justice

NMVTIS National Motor Vehicle Title 

Information System
FY 2010 Annual Report to Congress | 65

NPD National Preparedness Directorate

NPRC National Parole Resource Center 

NPREC National Prison Rape Elimination 

Commission 

NRRC National Reentry Resource Center

NSA National Sheriffs’ Association

NSI Nationwide Suspicious Activity 

Reporting (SAR) Initiative

NTTAC National Training and Technical 

Assistance Center

NW National Neighborhood Watch

NW3C National White Collar Crime Center

ODNI Office of the Director of National 

Intelligence

OJJDP Office of Juvenile Justice and 

Delinquency Prevention

OJP Office of Justice Programs

OVC Office for Victims of Crime

PDMP prescription drug monitoring 

program

PERF Police Executive Research Forum

PM–ISE Program Manager for the 

Information Sharing Environment

PMO Program Management Office

PMT Performance Measurement Tool

PREA Prison Rape Elimination Act

PSDI Public Safety Data Interoperability

PSN Project Safe Neighborhoods

PSOB Public Safety Officers’ Benefits

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder

RCPI Regional Community Policing 

Initiative

RISS Regional Information Sharing 

Systems

RNR risk-needs-responsivity

RSAT Residential Substance Abuse 

Treatment for State Prisoners

SAMHSA Substance Abuse and Mental Health 

Services Administration

SAR Suspicious Activity Reporting

SAVIN Statewide Automated Victim 

Information and Notification

SBU secure but unclassified

SCAAP State Criminal Alien Assistance 

Program

SLATT® State and Local Anti-Terrorism 

Training

SEARCH National Consortium for Justice 

Information and Statistics

SPI Smart Policing Initiative

SWBPI Southwest Border Prosecution 

Initiative

TA technical assistance

TCAP Tribal Courts Assistance Program

TTA training and technical assistance

TTARS Training and Technical Assistance 

Reporting System 

UML University of Massachusetts–Lowell

U.S.C. United States Code

VA U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 

VIPS Volunteers in Police Service

XML eXtensible Markup Language

Bureau of Justice As sis tance Information

BJA’s mission is to provide leadership and services in grant administration and criminal justice policy to 

support local, state, and tribal justice strategies to achieve safer communities. For more information about 

 BJA and its programs, contact:

Bureau of Justice Assistance

810 Seventh Street NW. 

Washington, DC 20531 

Phone: 202–616–6500 

Toll free: 1–866–859–2687 

Fax: 202–305–1367 

E-mail: AskBJA@usdoj.gov 

Web site: www.bja.gov

The BJA Clearinghouse, a component of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, shares BJA 

program information with local, state, tribal, and federal agencies and community groups across the country. 

Information specialists provide reference and referral services, publication distribution, participation and 

support for conferences, and other networking and outreach activities. The clearinghouse can be contacted at:

Bureau of Justice Assistance Clearinghouse

P.O. Box 6000 

Rockville, MD 20849–6000 

Toll free: 1–800–851–3420 

Fax: 301–519–5212 

Questions/comments: www.ncjrs.gov/App/ContactUs.aspx

Web site: www.ncjrs.gov

Clearinghouse staff are available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. eastern time. Ask to be placed on 

the BJA mailing list.
U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Bureau of Justice Assistance

Washington, DC 20531

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