Solving Crime Problems: Training & Technical Assistance

Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Training Database
The BJA Law Enforcement Training Database is a catalog of all federally funded and supported training available to state and local law enforcement officials. Each database listing includes the training provider, a course description, eligibility criteria, and contact information.

Center for Problem-Oriented Policing
The Center for Problem-Oriented Policing is a nonprofit organization funded by the COPS Office to advance problem-oriented policing. It does this by offering information about how police can more effectively address specific crime and disorder problems. The Center's website features web-enhanced versions of all currently available COPS POP Guides, interactive training exercises, and online access to research and police practices. The Center is comprised of affiliated police practitioners, researchers, and universities dedicated to the advancement of problem-oriented policing.

Model POP Curriculum
Problem-oriented policing and situational crime prevention have become essential for modern policing. As increasing numbers of police practitioners and crime analysts are obtaining undergraduate and graduate degrees, many colleges, universities, and police training institutions are using the Problem Oriented Guides for Police, the interactive learning module, and other features of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing (POP Center) web site as teaching tools. To meet this growing demand for knowledge, the POP Center, with funding from the COPS Office, developed a model academic curriculum on problem-oriented policing and situational crime prevention. Designed primarily for the undergraduate level, it can be modified for graduate-level education, pre-service and in-service police training and community-based training.

Regional Community Policing Institutes 
COPS funded the creation of the only national training network of Regional Community Policing Institutes (RCPIs) to provide comprehensive and innovative community policing education, training and technical assistance to COPS grantees throughout the nation. Training is delivered using adult-learning principles via interactive classroom instruction, CD-ROMS, community forums, teleconferences and the Internet and strives to provide a forum in which law enforcement and community members can discuss sensitive issues.

Police Training Officer (PTO) Program 
The COPS Office funded the Reno (Nevada) Police Department and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to develop an alternative national model for field training that would incorporate community policing and problem solving principles. The result of their collaboration is a new training program called the Police Training Officer (PTO) Program. It incorporates contemporary methods of adult education and a version of the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) method of teaching adapted for police. Most importantly, it serves to ensure that academy graduates' first experience as law enforcement officers is one that reflects policing in the 21st century.