Institute for Community Policing

In 1999, NSA entered into a federally funded cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) to develop and deliver the tuition-free Rural Law Enforcement Training: "Domestic Violence Intervention and Investigation." This program was designed for law enforcement, prosecutors, criminal justice personnel, and victim advocates of small towns and rural areas. 

As a part of this cooperative agreement, in 2003, NSA, with the National Center for Domestic and Sexual Violence (NCDSV) and the North Carolina Justice Center, began the development of the tuition-free Domestic Violence Training for Communications Professionals (Dispatchers/Call Takers) curriculum to help dispatchers and call takers from small towns and rural areas improve their response to domestic violence calls.

The grant for NSA's rural law enforcement and communication professionals domestic violence programs resulted from the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), part of the Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. VAWA reflects a commitment of the federal government to strengthen the country's response to and to better prevent violence against women, particularly sexual assault and physical abuse. VAWA provides resources to reduce violent crimes against women.

After the close of the grant in 2014, NSA revitalized the two trainings and added them to their offerings of fee-based trainings.  The Law Enforcement Training: Domestic Violence Intervention and Investigation as well as the Domestic Violence Training for Communications Professionals (Dispatcher/Call Takers) were expanded to not only include small towns and rural areas, but jurisdictions of any size.

The primary focuses of these trainings are:

• Officer and victim safety
• Offender accountability
• Increased effectiveness in investigation, intervention, reporting, and prosecution of domestic violence crimes
• Evidence-based prosecution and investigation
• Increased communication and partnership between law enforcement, prosecutors and other criminal justice personnel, advocacy agencies, and community members.

Domestic violence training will increase law enforcement's and call takers' ability to assist victims and their families, to effectively enforce family violence laws, and to prevent further abuse. On-going, mandatory training reinforces good techniques and teaching new techniques is a critical component of ensuring officer safety.

Law enforcement agencies or other organizations interested in hosting a training should contact Hilary Burgess at hburgess@sheriffs.org or 703.838.5320. 

 

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Tourist-Oriented Policing for Community Order, Protection and Safety (TOP-COPS Training)

Tourism is big business for many cities, towns, and counties. Over the past 25 years tourism has been one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the United States. Today, with over 58 million visitors a year and over $100 billion in revenues, tourism is the United States’ second largest service industry. Keeping tourists safe and informed while visiting your communities must be a necessary commitment for law enforcement.

 

Communities that depend on tourism must have law enforcement officers that are specially trained on preventing and fighting crimes in their tourism areas. They must interact with the tourist and provide them with information about safety measures, general information, and offer them assistance during their visit. Any loss in tourism for a community could be disastrous for the law enforcement executive’s budget. On the other hand an increase in tourism could increase resources for the executive.

 

TOP - COPS TRAINING PROGRAMS use traditional theories associated with community-oriented policing, problem-oriented policing, situational policing, and crime prevention through environmental design.

 

Basic areas of instruction common to all courses are critical communication skills, emotional intelligence, de-escalation, conflict resolution, general tourism and basic principles of tourist safety, media relations, immigration law, community history, and breaking down language barriers.

 

For additional information, click here to download our brochure.

 

Contact

John Thompson, Chief of Staff 

703-838-5313