Justice Department Announces an Organizational Assessment of the Charlottesville, Virginia, Police Department under the COPS Office’s Collaborative Reform Initiative

The Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) today announced that it will conduct an organizational assessment of the Charlottesville, Virginia, Police Department through its Collaborative Reform Initiative. Over the next year, the Charlottesville Police Department will work with the COPS Office Collaborative Reform Initiative team to focus on:

• Community Policing/Problem Solving;
• Crime Analysis/Crime Prevention;
• Employee Wellness, Training, Development and Retention;
• Resource Analysis/Strategic Planning; and
• Accountability, Oversight and Evaluation.

"The overall goals of the Organizational Assessment program include building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, enhancing officer safety and wellness and improving fairness and effectiveness in an agency's operations," said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. "Any department that actively commits to pursuing those goals is taking a step in the right direction."

"This is a comprehensive assessment that includes data and document review, direct observations of the agency's activities and practices, interviews, focus groups and more," said COPS Office Director Hugh T. Clements, Jr. "At the same time the work is taking place, the public will receive regular updates, as transparency is a critical part of this process."

Regular updates on the team's work with the Charlottesville Police Department will be provided at cops.usdoj.gov/active-oa-site-charlottesville-va-police-department as part of the transparency and public accountability of this new Organizational Assessment effort.

The Collaborative Reform Initiative encompasses three programs offering expert services to state, local, territorial and Tribal law enforcement agencies: the Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center, Critical Response and Organizational Assessment programs (complete details of these programs can be found at cops.usdoj.gov/collaborativereform). Managed out of the COPS Office, this continuum of services is designed to build trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve; improve operational efficiencies and effectiveness; enhance officer safety and wellness; build agencies' capacity for organizational learning and self-improvement; and promote community policing practices nationwide.

The Organizational Assessment program provides the most intensive form of technical assistance on the continuum, involving in-depth assessments and long-term assistance on systemic issues that can challenge community trust and confidence. A continual assessment and implementation process ensures that time and resources are used to focus on identifying areas for improvement, reinforcing agency strengths and assisting with the implementation of improvements expeditiously. At the same time, the process provides transparency and accountability with routine public reporting. Each engagement will be supported by a multidisciplinary assessment team composed of subject matter experts with diverse experience and perspectives, including in law enforcement, community engagement, research and evaluation, program management and organizational reform.

The COPS Office is the federal component of the Justice Department responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Justice Department agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation's crime fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served. The COPS Office has been appropriated more than $20 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local, territorial and Tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of approximately 138,000 officers.