Executive Sessions on Policing

Criminal Justice Research

Following the recommendations of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice in 1967, the policing and justice professions were tasked with engaging in research-supported strategy development to enhance the performance of the criminal justice sectors. As a result, Congress passed the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, which led to the creation of the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (NILECJ), the predecessor of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research and evaluation component of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Notable research projects were conducted through the 1970s and 1980s (e.g., the Kansas City preventive patrol experiment in 1974 and the RAND Study on criminal investigation in 1976), resulting in considerable recommendations to improve police organizational performance. However, even when related policy and procedural revisions were implemented, there was little impact on the rising violent and serious crime rates and the expanding illicit drug trade. Government leaders, police agency administrators, and the public noted the need for further change.

First Executive Session on Policing, 1983–1991

The first Executive Session was convened in 1983 and was jointly coordinated by the National Institute of Justice and the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. This session’s members included the U.S. Attorney General, mayors from large U.S. cities, police chiefs, and criminal justice academics noted for significant police-related research. The predominant goal of these sessions was to develop recommendations to enhance police policy and deployment effectiveness through the start of the new millennium. The critical strategy and policy recommendations that resulted after the first Executive Session was community policing, an initiative designed to incorporate community cooperation and partnership into a prioritized problem-solving approach to reduce crime and improve community confidence in the police.

Furthermore, a number of significant papers were published during and following this first session. These papers—which laid the foundation of community policing and are available from the Kennedy School of Government (see “Further Readings” below) and were viewed as the basis for the revolutionary strategic changes that dramatically affected police deployment practices in the 1980s and 1990s—were compiled into a series called Perspectives on Policing.

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