DRU Library Menu

This report aims to describe what police chiefs and other experts are currently identifying as best approaches to addressing cybercrime. On September 10, 2013, PERF held an executive-level Summit for law enforcement practitioners on the local police response to cybercrime. Participants in the PERF Summit described the evolving nature of the cybercrime threat, including how nearly every type of… (read more)

"There have been many active shooter incidents in the United States since Columbine, and police agencies continue to modify their policies and training to reflect the lessons that are learned from each new tragedy. This report summarizes the state of the field as of 2014. The Police Executive Research Forum conducted research on these issues and held a one-day Summit in Washington, D.C., in which… (read more)

In recent years, immigration enforcement has become a sensitive political issue at the local, state, and federal levels. State legislation supporting stricter immigration enforcement and highly publicized news stories of deportations, travel bans, and family separations have caused many immigrants to live in fear and to view law enforcement agencies at all levels warily. This political… (read more)

"ICAT: Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics is PERF's new report in the Critical Issues in Policing Series. This report builds on PERF's work over the last two years on re-engineering policies and training on use of force. ICAT represents a new way of thinking about how police officers can be taught to effectively and safely defuse critical incidents by bringing together… (read more)

Most sexual assaults never even come to the attention of police. As recently as 2014, the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics found that only one-third of rapes and sexual assaults were being reported to police. Media reports, congressional hearings, research, the change in the FBI definition of rape, rape kit backlogs, high-profile cases of sexual assault on college campuses, and Justice… (read more)

PERF police chiefs and their community representatives came together for a national discussion on the challenges of police-community trust. The community leaders and police chiefs provided constructive ideas about improving police-community relationships. Police agencies across the nation can use this report to guide their efforts in building trust with their communities.

This report, the 30th in PERF's Critical Issues in Policing series, represents the culmination of 18 months of research, fieldwork, and national discussions on police use of force, especially in situations involving persons with mental illness and cases where subjects do not have firearms. The report presents guiding principles that are designed to provide officers with guidance and options, and… (read more)

This report, the 17th in the Critical Issues in Policing series, addresses the issue of policing major events, both planned and unplanned, such as political demonstrations, natural disasters, and acts of terrorism. The report aims to explore some of the key issues that have proved important or difficult in the real world of policing. PERF's approach to this project was to bring police… (read more)

This is the 28th report in PERF's Critical Issues in Policing series. PERF recently conducted three national conferences to discuss the use of force in American policing. The first conference, Defining Moments," addressed the key issues that came out of the protests and rioting in Ferguson and a report on that meeting was released in February 2015. This report summarizes PERF's second post-… (read more)

This publication is designed to provide practical advice on many aspects of the Early Intervention System (EIS), including defining the role of the first-line supervisor, structuring the intervention process for officers who have reached (or are about to reach) a threshold within the system, identifying ways to provide the various programs and services that supplement and reinforce EIS, and… (read more)

Even as police departments are increasingly adopting body-worn cameras, many questions about this technology have yet to be answered. In an effort to address these questions and produce policy guidance to law enforcement agencies, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), with support from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), conducted… (read more)

In August 2015, law enforcement executives and officers, crime victim advocates, academics, and other subject matter experts convened to discuss a draft of the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Identifying and Preventing Gender Bias in Law Enforcement Response to Sexual Assault… (read more)