Our Projects

CNA conducts a number of projects in the field of criminal justice for local, state, and federal departments and agencies nationwide.

BJA Smart Policing Initiative

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) is a national, evidence‐based law enforcement effort to identify and implement law enforcement tactics and strategies that are effective, efficient, and economical. BJA has identified thirty-two law enforcement agencies and their research partners to participate in the SPI. BJA has selected CNA to provide training and technical assistance to the Smart Policing community. Ms. Iris Gonzalez is the Project Management and Mr. James "Chip" R. Coldren, Jr. is the Project Director. Please visit the initiative’s website at www.smartpolicinginitiative.com or contact us for more information.

COPS Peer Review

This project is a cooperative agreement between CNA and the Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). CNA’s goal on this project is to ensure that the knowledge resource development work funded by the COPS Office is conveyed in an easily understandable and effective manner, and reaches the intended audience with in a clear and useful format. To date CNA has developed Peer Review Guidelines, Peer Review Process and updated the Peer Review Questionnaire. CNA manages 3-5 peer reviews per month; examples of publications reviewed include POP Guides and Issue Briefs.   

2012 Democractic and Republican National Convention Support

The 2012 Republican and Democratic National Conventions will pose unique planning, operations, and coordination challenges to local (host) police departments in Tampa, FL and Charlotte, NC. At the request of BJA, CNA will be documenting local law enforcement planning and implementation of security operations during the 2012 conventions by developing a comprehensive After-Action Report that re-constructs local law enforcement planning, actions taken, and outcomes; as well as by identifying and discussing lessons learned and best practices for other police departments engaged in similar support activities. In addition, upon request, CNA will provide technical assistance to each host site for law enforcement convention support activities.  

BJA Law Enforcement Organization of Planning and Research Directors

The Law Enforcement Organization of Planning & Research Directors (LEOPRD) seeks to provide law enforcement agency leaders, planning and research directors and key stakeholders with venues in which they may share and discuss their unique planning and research issues, methodologies and best practices at the national and international levels. BJA has selected CNA to provide training and technical assistance to improve the capacity for law enforcement agencies to use evidence-based practices to save resources and improve performance.  

COPS Research of Police Ambushes

CNA has been awarded a grant (Cooperative Agreement # 2012-CK-WX-K036) to conduct research on ambushes of police as part of a new initiative by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (“COPS Office”).

In recent years, ambush attacks have been on the rise nationally, yet little is known about the characteristics of such incidents and what police departments can do to protect their officers. In response, the Attorney General’s Office has noted on the COPS Office website the need to “[develop] approaches to counter ambush-style attacks.” CNA’s initiative will fill this void with a two-phase, mixed methods study.

Phase I will be driven by research and analysis of ambush incidents, leveraging past research, the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) data set, and after-action/incident reports from the field. The purpose of Phase I will be to identify trends in these incidents in order to develop and inform policy and training protocols throughout the law enforcement enterprise.

The research team will then collaborate with law enforcement practitioners in Phase II of the project. CNA will conduct a series of focus groups and hold panel discussions to identify policy, training, and operational practices that can protect police officers against ambush attacks. CNA will be partnering with the International Association of Chiefs of Police to engage a broad law enforcement audience.

In the following weeks, the research team will be soliciting after-action/incident reports of ambush attacks of law enforcement across the country. If your agency has incident reports that can be shared with the CNA research team for this important endeavor, please contact principal investigator George Fachner by email (fachnerg@cna.org) or phone (703.998.4893).