ILJ first gained national recognition for policing research in the early 1980s with its Evaluation of the Differential Police Response (DPR) Field Test for the U. S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (NIJ). This study evaluated police alternatives for handling calls for service in four cities and included surveys of 11,000 citizens about their satisfaction with the alternatives.
Since that time, ILJ has continued to place a high priority on research that supports our mission to improve public safety management and operations. Topic areas have included
Police/prosecutor cooperation
Effectiveness of police directed patrol
Drug and gang enforcement
Community policing training
Organizational transformation to community policing
Start-up police agencies
Community policing innovations
Technology support for community policing, including computer assisted dispatch (CAD) and other information management systems (see Technology Research)