NCJ Number
184351
Date Published
May 1995
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This paper summarizes findings from a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) survey of police chiefs and sheriffs.
Abstract
The survey asked participants about their workload problems and initiatives to solve them as well as about special concerns and needs. Violent crime -- assault, homicide, rape, domestic violence and child abuse -- headed the list of workload problems that confronted police chiefs and sheriffs. Most respondents (95 percent) cited domestic violence as the largest proportion of the violent crime. Ninety-five percent of respondents also reported that drug possession and sales were creating workload problems, and more than 75 percent of police departments had created special community programs and crime units focused exclusively on combating the drug problem. Eighty-three percent of respondents cited crimes committed with firearms as contributing to workload problems. Seventy-three percent of police chiefs in large jurisdictions cited gang-related crimes among their workload problems; 55 percent and 45 percent in medium and small jurisdictions, respectively, said gang crimes were a current problem and an area of growing concern. Eighty-two percent of police chiefs and 65 percent of sheriffs indicated that their departments’ response to these problems was to establish community policing.