Law Enforcement's Role in Offender Reentry
Each year in the United States more than 600,000 inmates are released from prison and return home to their own neighborhoods. This large population of returning offenders requires police departments to take steps to reduce the risk presented by their return and to stop victimization in the communities. There are effective intervention methodologies for reducing crime by this population.

The IACP, in partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, has produced a new DVD, "Offender Reentry: A Police Perspective." This video features a police department that developed, implemented, and manages a reentry program. The video illustrates potentially transferable strategies and practices that law enforcement executives can use in implementing or expanding an offender reentry program in their jurisdiction. A downloadable or streaming version of the video is currently available on the IACP Web site at (www.theiacp.org).

To obtain a free copy of the DVD or for more information on offender reentry products and services, please send an e-mail message to Stevyn Fogg at (fogg@theiacp.org), or call her at 800-THE-IACP, extension 842.

Computer-Aided Dispatch and Records Management Systems Standards
With support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, and the National Institute of Justice, the Law Enforcement Information Technology Standards Council (LEITSC) has released two publications developed to assist justice-related agencies:

• Standard Functional Specifications for Law Enforcement Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD)Systems


• Standard Functional Specifications for Law Enforcement Records Management Systems (RMS

The goal of LEITSC is to foster the growth of strategic planning and implementation of integrated justice systems through the development and implementation of information technology standards.

LEITSC was created in 2002 with funding from BJA and brings together a consortium of law enforcement organizations including the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA), the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), to address law enforcement information technology standards issues. These organizations have formed a partnership to develop standards for improving the application of information technology for law enforcement operations. Through these organizations, the U.S. law enforcement community is represented on IT standards issues. The results of this initiative will ultimately shape the integration of justice IT solutions meeting a wide range of needs affecting public safety professionals and the citizens they serve.

Standard Functional Specifications for Law Enforcement CAD and RMS will provide significant guidance to agencies developing a request for proposal (RFP) for purchasing or upgrading CAD systems or RMS. Based on agency needs, these standard functional specifications can be used as a starting point to build a fully operative CAD system or RMS based on open standards to interface and share information with other systems internally and externally. These specifications depict the minimal amount of functionality a new law enforcement CAD system or RMS should contain and are not intended as a substitute for an RFP.

These publications were prepared by the IJIS Institute under the direction of LEITSC and its Functional Standards Committee. Each of the LEITSC participating associations vetted the documents to ensure a common agreement on the standard functional specifications for CAD systems and RMS.

Standard Functional Specifications for Law Enforcement CAD and RMS is available at http://it.ojp.gov and (www.leitsc.org).

For more information, call Heather Ruzbasan, LEITSC project manager, at 800-THE-IACP, extension 275, or send an e-mail message to her at (ruzbasan@theiacp.org).

Toronto Police Service Professional Standards International Conference
The Toronto Police Service is holding the Sixth Annual Toronto Police Service Professional Standards International Conference, November 7-9, 2006, at the Toronto Marriott Eaton Centre. The conference location is adjacent to the Eaton Centre in the heart of downtown Toronto, Canada.

Among the presenters at this conference is Superintendent Warren Riley of the New Orleans Police Department. He will discuss reviving a department after a catastrophe. Among the other scheduled presentations:

• Ethically Speaking: It's a New Generation


• Getting the Right People: New Approaches to Employment and Recruit Screening


• International Leadership Efforts in Policing and Professionalism


• Misconduct and Proactive Approaches to Identifying and Controlling It

To obtain more information or register for the conference, send a message to the Toronto Police Service by e-mail at (internalaffairs@torontopolice.on.ca), or call Detective Dave Turnbull at 416808-2816 or Detective Sergeant Rob Johnson at 416-808-2810.

Campaign against Illegal Guns
On the 25th anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan and the shooting of presidential press secretary Jim Brady, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is announcing a multiyear campaign to stop the trafficking of guns to the illegal market.

Working closely with their law enforcement allies, such as the IACP and state-based groups, the organization is assembling a nationwide coalition of law enforcement professionals and elected officials to fight illegal guns, engage in sustained public education and media outreach efforts, and ensure that the issue of illegal guns becomes a key issue at the local, state, and federal levels.

"Twenty-five years after a deeply disturbed individual came within an inch of killing the leader of the free world, it is still far too easy for criminals to buy all the guns they want," said Jim Brady. "The success of the Brady Bill has shown us the way to make it hard for criminals to get guns. We now need to complete the job."

The organization will work for three key reforms at the state and federal levels that are designed to shut down sources of illegal guns without interfering with legal gun ownership:

• Strengthen law enforcement tools to crackdown on corrupt gun dealers. Start by repealing irrational legal constraints that have reduced ATF's effectiveness in enforcing the law against dealers who feed the illegal market. Provide state and local law enforcement new tools to combat gun trafficking.


• Extend Brady background checks to all gun sales. Since the enactment of the Brady Bill more than10 years ago, more than 1.3million felons and other prohibited purchasers have been blocked from buying guns from licensed gun dealers. Brady background checks should now be extended to all gun sales, wherever they occur.


• Stop large volume gun sales that supply traffickers. It is possible in most states for so-called straw purchasers and traffickers to buy unlimited numbers of guns to sell to the illegal market.


• For more information, write to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Law Enforcement Relations, Suite 1100, 1225 Eye Street, NW, Washington, D.C., or call the campaign at 202-289-7319.

Crime Analysis Unit Starter Kit Available Free to Law Enforcement
The Crime Mapping and Analysis Program (CMAP), located at the University of Denver, and the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center-Rocky Mountain announce the release of the Crime Analysis Unit (CAU) Developer's Kit. The kit is a collection of documents, tools, and examples to assist in the design, creation, implementation, and expansion of any crime analysis unit. This assembly of information, examples, and software utilities is made available as a free public service by CMAP, a program of the National Institute of Justice in the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs.

The kit includes articles and publications on analytical processes, procedures, and methods from acknowledged experts in the field. It also includes numerous examples of crime bulletins, routine products, work analysis, flowcharts, time-lines, job descriptions, mission statements, internship announcements, statistics, and other materials that can be used as templates or starting points.

The CAU Developer's Kit contains several free software applications, including geographic information system (GIS) programs, geographic profiling utilities, tactical crime analysis tools, link-charting programs, statistics programs, and Open Office. All software is provided free of charge by CMAP and the developers for use by the U.S. law enforcement community.

Visit (www.crimeanalysts.net), and click CAU Developer Kit under the Resources tab to download and install the developer's kit.

NIJ Journal Is Online
When a Zylon-based body armor that had passed NIJ standards failed to fully protect an officer in 2003, NIJ began investigating why. The newest online NIJ Journal features an article about the findings of the investigation as well as interim changes to the standards and testing program. To date more than 3,000 police officer lives have been saved by the use of body armor.

Another article considers suicide terrorism. An NIJ-sponsored conference brought together experts in the field to discuss findings and share views on what compels individuals to join terrorist organizations and the utility of a central database of research on the topic.

The NIJ Journal is available online at the NIJ Web site at (www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/journals/welcom.html). For more information on NIJ, please visit (www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij). ■

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