A U.S. Department of Justice office responsible for community policing will conduct an audit of the human resources department at the request of the Boston Police Department.
“We welcome the Boston Police Department’s request for this review,” said Deputy Attorney General Benjamin Mizer, whose jurisdiction at the Justice Department includes the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), which will conduct the review.
“We know that agencies that are transparent about their work and how they do it are better able to earn public trust and promote public safety,” he added.
The goal of the review by the COPS Office, which is supported by the nonprofit National Policing Institute, is to “determine whether processes and structures in this area can be adjusted to increase operational efficiency and effectiveness,” according to the DOJ.
The review is being conducted as part of the COPS Collaborative Reform Initiative, which the agency says aims to “assist law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve to identify and implement organizational improvements and reforms through training, consulting, peer-based learning, analysis, and in-depth assessments.” The assistance is being provided “on a strictly voluntary basis.”
The continuum of technical assistance services provided by the initiative includes five objectives: first, to “build trust between police and the communities they serve”; second, to “improve fairness, effectiveness, and efficiency in agency operations”; third, to “improve officer safety and well-being”; fourth, to “build agencies’ capacities for organizational learning and self-improvement”; and fifth, to “promote community policing practices nationwide.”
A request for additional information to the BPD’s communications chief was not immediately returned Friday. The Justice Department’s statement did not provide specific information about the review, such as when or why it was requested or when it will begin.
The COPS Office describes itself as “the component of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for promoting community policing by the nation’s state, local, territorial, and tribal police agencies through the provision of information and grants.”
The National Policing Institute, formerly the National Police Foundation, is a nonprofit organization that says it provides research and evaluation services, training and technical assistance, and organizational assessments and debriefings to police departments across the country.
This is an evolving story.
