Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Grant for California Law Enforcement NIBRS Transition

To advance Executive Order 13929 Safe Policing for Safe Communities, the Attorney General determined that all state, local, and university or college law enforcement agencies must be certified by an approved independent credentialing body or have started the certification process to be eligible for FY 2022 DOJ discretionary grant funding. To become certified, the law enforcement agency must meet two mandatory conditions: (1) the agency’s use-of-force policies adhere to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and (2) the agency’s use-of-force policies prohibit chokeholds except in situations where use of deadly force is allowed by law. The certification requirement also applies to law enforcement agencies receiving DOJ discretionary grant funding through a subaward. For detailed information on this certification requirement, please visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/SafePolicingEO to access the Standards for Certification on Safe Policing for Safe Communities, the Implementation Fact Sheet, and the List of Designated Independent Credentialing Bodies.

The purpose of the project funded through this solicitation is to use the Rapid Deployment Model (RDM) strategy to help three of the largest agencies in the state of California—the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office (LASO)—transition to reporting crime data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). This project will support the California Department of Justice (CA DOJ) to work with SFPD, LAPD, and LASO to make them compliant with the crime data reporting requirements in the state.

Statutory Authority: Under section 302 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, BJS is authorized to “make grants to, or enter into cooperative agreements or contracts with public agencies, institutions of higher education, private organizations, or private individuals” for purposes of collecting and analyzing criminal justice statistics. (34 U.S.C. § 10132(c)(1)).