The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), a component of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), launched the Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) in FY 2009 to support law enforcement agencies and researchers in testing evidence-based, data-driven strategies that enhance policing effectiveness and efficiency. Since its inception, BJA has funded 93 SPI projects across 73 agencies and research partners.
In addition to some historical information and resources generated from past SPI sites, information about the currently active SPI Sites is hosted on the National Law Enforcement Knowledge Lab website. The Lab oversees the active SPI sites and provides ongoing support and coordination.
Alton, Illinois
| Agency | Alton Police Department |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Dennis Mares and Emily Blackburn (Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville) |
| Site Strategy | Technological Implementation, Crime Data Analysis |
The Alton Police Department (APD) seeks to address rising vehicle thefts and violent crime by adding LPRs, mobile surveillance trailers, and cameras, which will integrate with the APD's real-time crime center (RTCC). This integrated technology hub will also include BWC, GPS on patrol cars, and CAD/RMS data to provide real-time updates to LEOs. APD will track how these investments have benefited investigations and tailor patrol activities based on outcomes and trends. The agency will simultaneously increase data transparency and community trust through a public-facing portal.
Alton, Illinois
Boulder, Colorado
| Agency | Boulder Police Department |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Natalie Hipple and Julie Wartell (Indiana University) |
| Site Strategy | Coordinated response, information sharing |
The Boulder Police Department (BPD) seeks to address the rising number of Persons Experiencing Homelessness (PEH) in the city and the associated issues presented by encampments. Currently, fragmented data sources and a lack of interagency coordination prevent the problem from being effectively addressed. BPD intends to assess current encampments and create a matrix to identify priority treatment sites based on various criteria (such as, encampment crime, flood risk, proximity to schools/playgrounds/private residences, firepits, drug use, biohazard waste, built structures, accessibility). The team will conduct interventions at the top 5 priority sites and analyze outcomes. The team hopes to adjust approaches as necessary to continue providing intervention services to the other encampments in the city.
Boulder, Colorado
Charleston, South Carolina
| Agency | Charleston Police Department |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Cory Haberman (University of Cincinnati) |
| Site Strategy | Community Problem-Oriented Policing strategy implementation, Data analysis |
The Charleston Police Department (CPD) seeks to implement a Community Problem-Oriented Policing Initiative (CPOPI) to address rises in violent crime and traffic collision hotspots in Charleston. CPD will use place-based and problem-oriented policing strategies to generate police presence until the SARA model can be fully implemented, along with community problem-oriented policing. CPD's aim is to address these issues without relying on extensive enforcement.
Charleston, South Carolina
Denver, Colorado
| Agency | Denver Police Department |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Tamera Herold (Ohio State University) and Dr. Nicholas Carsaro (University of Cincinnati) |
| Site Strategy | Place Network Investigation (PNI), Risk Terrain Modeling (RTC) |
The Denver Police Department (DPD) seeks to implement a Place Investigations of Violent Offender Territories (PIVOT) strategy to combat violent crime in targeted areas throughout the community. After assessing high-risk networks (geographic hotspots and social networks), DPD will dismantle crime place networks and reduce criminal opportunities through focused deterrence. DPD will partner with the community to understand the root causes of violence in specific neighborhoods and form a sense of holistic governance.
Denver, Colorado
Indianapolis, Indiana
| Agency | Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Colby Dolly and Dr. Ryan Fisher (National Policing Institute) |
| Site Strategy | Gunshot Detection Technology |
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) seeks to enhance its recently established real-time crime center (RTCC) to combat a recent rise in gun crime, homicides, and aggravated assaults. The department will leverage BLTN software to send information to officers and investigators in a manner similar to social media. The IMPD's goal is to raise officer situational awareness, increase the availability of real-time actionable information, and capitalize on the use of analysts' time.
Indianapolis, Indiana
Las Vegas, Nevada
| Agency | Las Vegas Department of Public Safety |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. William Sousa (University of Nevada - Las Vegas), Freya Rigterink and Josh Statland (New York University), and Dr. Aili Malm (California State University Long Beach) |
| Site Strategy | Problem-Oriented Policing |
The Las Vegas Department of Public Safety (LVDPS) seeks to address violent crime and disorder in the city through improved organizational efficacy and increased community engagement. In collaboration with the Policing Project at the NYU School of Law, the LVDPS will conduct a self-assessment to explore how well the agency meets evidence-informed standards for transparency, community trust, problem-oriented policing, organizational efficacy, and crime prevention. Using the results of the initial SAJE (Sound, Accountable, Just, and Effective) Policing Assessment, NYU will provide TTA to LVDPS on areas of improvement and agency and community priorities. UNLV will conduct the impact and outcome evaluation once changes have been implemented.
Las Vegas, Nevada
Manchester, New Hampshire
| Agency | Manchester Police Department |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Cory Haberman (University of Cincinnati) |
| Site Strategy | Community Violence Intervention and Prevention |
The Manchester Police Department (MPD) seeks to address a rise in violent crime and property crime specifically by striving for an increase in gun crime clearances, both by volume and speed. The MPD will implement investigative checklists for its officers to enhance decision-making and reduce simple errors. The checklists will be used in investigating four target crime types: non-domestic violence aggravated assaults, robberies, burglaries, and domestic violence calls. These checklists will be deployed on department-issued cell phones through a custom app that will interface with MPD's RMS to avoid duplicative data entry efforts.
Manchester, New Hampshire
Phoenix, Arizona
| Agency | Phoenix Police Department |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Charles Katz (Arizona State University) |
| Site Strategy | Early intervention systems |
The Phoenix Police Department (PPD) seeks to utilize and enhance its Early Intervention System (EIS) to identify and address officer conduct before it manifests into adverse events, and provide interventions through non-punitive programming. PPD's goal is to address a rise in officer-involved shootings, protests, and negative community sentiment, and a recent DOJ pattern of practice investigation focused on use of force, retaliation against protestors, discrimination, illegal searches and seizures against persons experiencing homelessness, and responses to disabled persons. In doing so, PPD also hopes to improve community relations, as well as organizational culture and mental health and wellness among PPD officers.
Phoenix, Arizona
Portland, Oregon
| Agency | Portland Police Bureau |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Jeffrey Tyner, Dr. Jessica Minnier, and Dr. Kevin Watanabe-Smith (Oregon Health and Science University) |
| Site Strategy | Data Analysis |
The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) seeks to address a rise in motor vehicle thefts with data-driven methods to increase transparency and accountability, decrease negative outcomes and over policing, and enhance public trust. Following a directive from the Mayor and the Chief of Police, the agency looks to maximize staffing levels to focus on motor vehicle thefts through the use of enrichment factors, or characteristics that determine the probability that a vehicle in question has been stolen or not. The program has seen enormous success and accuracy, with a decrease in stops, an increase in stolen vehicles and firearms recovered, and an increase in arrests made.
Portland, Oregon
Chula Vista, California
| Agency | Chula Vista Police Department |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Victor Mora and Sandy Keaton (San Diego Association of Governments) |
| Site Strategy | SARA Model, targeted interventions, information sharing |
The Chula Vista Police Department (CVPD), in collaboration with its research partner, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), seeks to increase transparency through traffic stop data collection and analysis to assess and identify potential racial disparities. The CVPD currently collects pertinent data for this assessment under the Racial and Identity Profiling (RIPA) Act and will use the SARA model. The assessment will have a control group and a treatment group of CVPD officers and will incorporate qualitative survey data from officers and the community to measure impact and changes.
Chula Vista, California
Tacoma, Washington
| Agency | Tacoma Police Department |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Jessica Huff (University of Cincinnati) |
| Site Strategy | Problem-Oriented Policing strategy implementation, Data analysis |
The Tacoma Police Department (TPD) seeks to address vehicle thefts by deploying stationary license plate readers (LPRs) in an effort to quickly identify vehicles associated with criminal events. This project seeks to examine how the LPRs are implemented using a process evaluation and whether this technology improves clearance rates through an impact evaluation. Specifically, TPD seeks to increase its ability to rapidly develop investigative leads to help address high crime rates and to improve case clearances.
Tacoma, Washington
Tampa, Florida
| Agency | Tampa Police Department |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Tamera Herold (Ohio State University) and Dr. Nicholas Carsaro (University of Cincinnati) |
| Site Strategy | Dr. Bryanna Fox (University of South Florida) |
The Tampa Police Department (TPD) seeks to more effectively synthesize and assess available data on gun crimes and distribute actionable information to its officers. The TPD will install software which uses AI to better catalog, search, and summarize crime data for officers and investigators. The TPD currently leverages its CGIC and CompSTAT groups and collaborates with its Street Anti-Crime (SAC) Squads and other local and federal partners to address gun crimes. Using this multiagency framework, TPD's goal is to use technology, intelligence, and analysis to produce accurate and timely data. With a streamlined data structure, the software will provide analytical products to investigators in an actionable manner.
Tampa, Florida
Tucson, Arizona
| Agency | Tucson Police Department |
|---|---|
| Site Researcher | Dr. Seung Ho-An and Dr. Suyeon Jo (University of Arizona) |
| Site Strategy | Technological Implementation, Data Analysis |
The Tucson Police Department (TPD) seeks to address gun-related crime (GRC) in the community by using social network analysis (SNA) and large language models (LLM) to address two areas identified for improvement. These areas are: 1) enhancing support for patrol investigations, and 2) improving access to investigative materials. Both technologies will use criminal justice data from the department’s RMS to connect latent criminal patterns, increase intelligence, and facilitate network disruption.
Tucson, Arizona
Additional Resources
The information provided within these modules has been gathered from various sources, including legal reviews, research, and practitioner and department-developed resources. These webpage modules are intended to be a guide for departments to use to improve their policing practices. Additional information and resources may be needed to implement the recommendations successfully. This resource is intended to be dynamic, and the Knowledge Lab will continue to update and add to these modules to provide additional and current guidance for departments.