National Survey on Officer Safety Training: Findings and Implications

• NCJ Number: 255109
• Author(s): Jeff Rojek; Julie Grieco; Brett Meade; Daniielle Parsons
• Date Published: August 2020
• Length: 58 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2016-VI-BX-K001
• Agencies: BJA-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Survey; Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description

Annotation

This report presents the findings and discusses the implications of a national survey of law enforcement agencies to determine their needs in providing the training and resources needed to increase officer safety, health, and resilience.

Abstract

The survey was conducted as part of the Bureau of Justice Assistance's (BJA's) Preventing Violence Against Law Enforcement and Ensuring Officer Resilience and Survivability (VALOR Initiative), whose goal is to increase officer safety and related training resources. The survey sought information from law enforcement agencies on 1) the relative impacts of various safety threats facing officers; 2) the types of officer safety and related training that agencies are providing their officers; 3) the types of officer safety and related training that agencies view as a critical need in the near future; and 4) agencies' views of constraints in providing safety and related training for their officers. The survey was administered in late 2017 to a stratified random sample of 1,514 state and local law enforcement agencies, representing approximately 10 percent of the law enforcement agencies in the United States. A total of 652 agencies (43-percent response rate) responded to the survey. The current report presents and discusses what it considers key findings from the survey. The report notes that many of the training areas identified by respondents as having the highest need are already incorporated in the VALOR Initiative, with more training and technical assistance programs being developed. The report advises that communication between the research community and practitioners is the key to VALOR's effectiveness. 9 figures, 7 tables, and appended survey methodology, the survey questionnaire, and survey results by agency characteristics