Police Integrity in a Changing Environment

The COPS Office recently held a working session entitled "Police Integrity in a Changing Environment" to provide training assistance to COPS' grantees from around the country. They came to Washington, D.C. on December 10-11, 2002 to explore the many ways that ethics and integrity influence law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve.

The conference was designed around five key areas that impact the culture of integrity within the law enforcement community. Those areas were accountability and supervision, recruitment and hiring, education and training, early intervention systems, and data collection and analysis. Sessions were designed to enhance peer-to-peer exchange and were facilitated by subject matter experts. Attendees learned from each other by sharing their programmatic progress, innovative approaches, lessons learned, and obstacles overcome that were specific to each session's topic.

The COPS Office invited previously funded grantees to share their experiences and best practices as well as provide technical assistance to other agencies interested in replicating their programs or implementing similar initiatives. The COPS Office also shared its many resources and publications to aid participants in the development and implementation of integrity-related projects.

Creating a culture of integrity is an integral part of fostering an environment conducive to problem-solving and community engagement, two of the core components of community policing. The COPS Office is pleased to support these efforts to keep America safe through community policing.