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Law Enforcement Officials

Resources

Model Policies and Protocols

California Campus Blueprint to Address Sexual Assault
Provides recommendations regarding prevention activities on campuses; Clery Act policies and compliance; faculty and staff training; and campus law enforcement, security, and judicial protocols, policies, and training. Although specific to California, the document can be used as a checklist for other states.

Communicating with People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: ADA Guide for Law Enforcement Officers
Includes information on the requirements for effective communication, communications aids, and situations that require interpreters.

Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program Procedures
Outlines U.S. Department of Defense policy regarding sexual assault.

Guidelines for Sexual Assault Investigation
Provides information on general sexual assault investigative procedures, initial receipt and evaluation of information, preliminary investigative procedures, followup investigations, interview and interrogation techniques, and witness interviews.

Model Policy on Investigating Sexual Assaults
Includes guidelines for responding to sexual assault. An accompanying document on investigating sexual assaults also is available.

Recommended Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexual Assault Response and Prevention on Campus
Provides college and university campuses with an outline of recommendations and strategies for developing a multidisciplinary sexual assault response policy and protocol.

Sample MOU Between Military Installations, Law Enforcement Offices, and Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies (Word)
Serves as a sample memorandum of understanding between a county prosecutor's office, county SANE program, county rape care program, and military installation.

San Diego SART: Standards of Practice
Outlines specific law enforcement roles and responsibilities.

Successfully Investigating Acquaintance Sexual Assault: A National Training Manual for Law Enforcement
Addresses false accusations and unfounded cases of sexual assault.

Texas Evidence Collection Protocol
Provides information on crisis intervention, victims' rights, emergency medical services, primary responsibilities of responding officers, forensic interviewing and prosecution procedures, consent, responding to victims with disabilities, DNA examination of sexual assault evidence, toxicology screening, law enforcement investigative interviews, and miscellaneous forms and diagrams.

Texas Model Protocol for Responding to Sexual Assault
Presents basic guidelines for providing multidisciplinary victim-centered responses among SART agencies.

West Virginia Protocol for Responding to Victims of Sexual Assault
Provides information on the response by advocates, law enforcement, hospitals, medical personnel, and prosecutors.

Organizations

California Coalition Against Sexual Assault
Provides training and technical assistance to grantees of the Grants to Reduce Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking on Campus Program, which is funded through the Office on Violence Against Women.

National Center for Rural Law Enforcement
Offers sexual assault investigation and management training for rural law enforcement.

National Sheriffs' Association
Works to raise the level of professionalism among sheriffs, their deputies, and others in the field of criminal justice and public safety so that they may perform their jobs in the best possible manner.

National Tribal Judicial Center
Address the specific needs of Native American and Alaska Native tribal law judiciaries.

Praxis International
Works to end violence against women. Serves rural grantees under the Rural Domestic Violence and Child Victimization Enforcement Grant Program.

Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Office
Serves as the U.S. Department of Defense's single point of accountability on sexual assault policy. Its Web site provides information for victims of sexual assault, unit commanders, first responders, and those who want to prevent or respond to this crime.

Sexual Assault Training and Investigations
Trains criminal justice professionals and provides consulting services to them that are geared toward improving community responses to sexual assault. Its Web site links to publications, training materials, sexual assault organizations by state, and other resources.

Publications and Tools

Advocates and Law Enforcement: Oil and Water?
Describes the role of advocates in the criminal justice system and explains the similarities and differences between community- and systems-based advocacy. It also discusses advocates roles and primary responsibilities during conflict and interagency strategies to work through conflict.

Condom Trace Evidence: A New Factor in Sexual Assault Investigations
Reviews types of condom evidence, the value of condom trace evidence, guidelines for evidence collection, and legal considerations.

The Crime of Human Trafficking: A Law Enforcement Guide to Identification and Investigation
Provides information on the dynamics of human trafficking and its effects on victims, strategies for victim identification and assistance, investigative methods, avenues for legal assistance, and visa provisions under federal law. Includes links to training videos and a survey.

DOD Dictionary of Military Terms
Links to military definitions and acronyms.

First Response to Victims of Crime
Describes how to respond to victims; includes a section on sexual violence.

Form for Evaluating the Police Response to Rape
Helps evaluate police response to individual cases of sexual assault.

A Guide to Domestic Violence: Risk Assessment, Risk Reduction, and Safety Plan
Focuses on intimate partner violence, including intervention, risk assessment, safety planning, and crisis response.

Incomplete, Inconsistent, and Untrue Statements Made by Victims: Understanding the Causes and Overcoming the Challenges
Addresses why victims may make incomplete, inconsistent, or untrue statements to law enforcement and discusses how law enforcement can overcome the challenges such statements pose to an investigation.

Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA): Events
The Events section of the BJA site provides information about conferences and trainings for law enforcement and other justice professionals.

National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Information
Provides general information, statutes, regulations, and resources on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

National Summit on Campus Public Safety
Documents recommendations from a National Summit on Campus Public Safety, including priority concerns, issues, and needs that challenge safety and security on college and university campuses. It also identifies notable successes in campus safety and security and how they may be replicated.

The Official Directory of State Patrol & State Police
Includes links for state trooper associations, Homeland Security offices, sex offender registries, and other law enforcement-related resources.

Overcoming Language Barriers: Solutions for Law Enforcement
Provides strategies for developing language access plans for populations that have limited English language skills and describes how to address language barriers when encountered.

Police Response to Crimes of Sexual Assault: A Training Curriculum, Second Edition
Reviews sexual assault, penal codes and definitions, investigations, report writing, victim interviews, suspect interrogations, evidence gathering, and tailoring the response to sexual violence. Although created for Connecticut law enforcement, the manual can serve as a guide for other states.

The Preliminary Sexual Assault Investigation (Word)
Covers collaboration, use of search warrants, types of evidence, victim interview questions, victims who do not report immediately, and delaying suspect arrests.

Protecting Victims of Domestic Violence: A Law Enforcement Officer's Guide to Enforcing Orders of Protection Nationwide
Includes information on protection orders, full faith and credit, liability, and intervention strategies.

Reporting Sexual Assault to the Police in Hawaii
Discusses research findings on immediate and delayed treatment seekers.

Researching a Problem
Assists law enforcement in researching issues and evaluating information.

Rural Crime and Rural Policing
Reviews research literature and analyzes rural crime and rural policing issues and how the distinctive elements of the rural environment affect them.

SEARCH: National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics
Provides information on interagency information sharing, criminal record privacy, sex offender registries, technology guides, and issue briefs.

Successfully Investigating and Prosecuting Sexual Assault
Allows interested professionals to expand their knowledge of cutting-edge developments in the criminal justice and community response to sexual assault.

Tribal Resources, Tribal Law Journal
Provides tribal government information and links to other indigenous resources.

What Every Law Enforcement Officer Should Know About DNA Evidence
Briefly reviews DNA typing, evidence collection, evidence preservation, evidence transportation, and CODIS.