McGruff Corner

McGruff recently had a great time when he participated in some pre-season Green Bay Packer events in Wisconsin!

Announcing the 2007 National Victim Assistance Academy

The National Victim Assistance Academy (NVAA) is one of the most important training events available to victim service providers. If you work in justice–based programs, community/nonprofit/faith-based programs, substance abuse programs, elder abuse programs, or hospitals and medical organizations, come to the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute in the Baltimore, MD, metropolitan area. NVAA integrates the latest advances in skills, knowledge, and theory to offer an unparalleled educational experience.  Training topics include history of the victim services field, collaboration for rights and services, cultural and spiritual competence, ethics in victim services, developing resiliency, and more. This intensive training is designed for persons with less than three years experience. The NVAA application can be downloaded or completed online at www.ovttac.org/NVAA2007. Academy fess are $100 per day of training and include classroom materials, certificate of completion, and all meals. 

New From the COPS Office
 

Mapping for Community-Based Prisoner Reentry Efforts: A Guidebook for Law Enforcement Agencies and Their Partners
In the United States today, more than 650,000 prisoners are released annually from federal and state prisons and two-thirds will be rearrested for a new crime within three years of being released. To address the growing and complex problems associated with prisoner reentry, law enforcement agencies are exploring partnerships with corrections agencies and a variety of community stakeholders in an effort to reduce public safety threats as well as meet the service needs of returning prisoners.  The Police Foundation, in collaboration with COPS, has published a report entitled Mapping for Community-Based Prisoner Reentry Efforts: A Guidebook for Law Enforcement Agencies and Their Partners, which draws from the contributions of a select group of law enforcement and criminal justice experts who participated in a two-day forum on mapping prisoner reentry. The purpose of this guidebook is to explore ways in which mapping can aid police responses to prisoner reentry. This guidebook raises and answers a series of questions designed to walk the reader through the logic of why and how police can take an active role in prisoner reentry efforts and how mapping can aid in those efforts. For more information call 800-421-6770 or visit http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/ric/ResourceMain.aspx?RID=429.

 
Crime Prevention Research Reviews No. 1: Disrupting Street-Level Drug Markets
This report summarizes the findings of rigorous academic studies evaluating a range of street-level drug law enforcement interventions.  It finds that strategic crime-control partnerships with a range of third parties are more effective at disrupting drug problems than law enforcement-only approaches.  This publication was completed in partnership with the Campbell Collaboration, an international network of researchers that prepares, updates, and rapidly disseminates systematic reviews of high-quality research conducted worldwide on effective methods to reduce crime and delinquency and improve the quality of justice.  In the future, the COPS Office will be publishing reviews in the areas of Hot Spots and Neighborhood Watch.  For more information call 800-421-6770 or visit http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/ric/ResourceMain.aspx?RID=428 for more information.

 
From the National League of Cities
Vital Partners: Mayors and Police Chiefs Working Together for America's Children and Youth highlights effective mayor-law enforcement partnerships in cities throughout the country that keep young people safe. 

 
The report was the product of an intensive research and outreach effort supported by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services in partnership with the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The report contains in-depth descriptions of promising approaches to prevent youth violence, bullying, delinquency, and substance abuse; develop safe recreational spaces for youth; and create effective neighborhood policing programs. For more information call 202-626-3000 or visit http://www.nlc.org/IYEF/yefpublications.aspx.