PERF Overview

Founded in 1976 as a nonprofit organization, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) is a police research organization and a provider of management services, technical assistance, and executive-level education to support law enforcement agencies.  PERF helps to improve the delivery of police services through the exercise of strong national leadership; public debate of police and criminal justice issues; and research and policy development.

For example, PERF recently has undertaken projects on the following issues:

        ·   Improving the police response to sexual assault crimes, and expanding the definition of forcible rape used in the FBI’s UCR system in order to obtain a more accurate count of those offenses.

        ·   Reducing police use of force in their encounters with persons with mental illness or developmental disabilities, persons under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, and persons with post-traumatic stress disorder.

        ·   Ensuring that the role of local police in immigration enforcement does not conflict with police priorities or damage police relationships with their communities.

Membership

PERF members include chief executives of large and smaller police agencies in the United States and around the world; executives below the rank of chief; researchers and scholars; and others interested and involved in the criminal justice field.  All members must be committed to PERF’s founding principles and must possess a four-year college degree.

Governance

PERF is governed by a member-elected President and Board of Directors and a Board-appointed Executive Director.  A staff of approximately 30 full-time professionals is based in Washington, D.C.

PERF Projects

PERF has an extensive history of measuring all aspects of police agency performance, striving to find the best policing practices, and disseminating that knowledge to police agencies.  PERF’s groundbreaking projects on community and problem-oriented policing, racial profiling, use-of-force issues, and crime reduction strategies have earned it a prominent position in the police community. 

PERF sponsors and conducts the Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP), which provides comprehensive professional management and executive development education to police chiefs and other law enforcement executives.  Convened annually in Boston, SMIP offers instruction by professors from leading universities, including many from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, as well as by leading police practitioners. 

PERF’s Management Services Division has contracted with more than 100 law enforcement agencies or government authorities to perform expert reviews of their policies, systems, and operations.  PERF’s full range of management services includes comprehensive management surveys, performance audits, and organizational studies; resource allocation studies; productivity analyses; on-site assistance in implementing recommendations; and other services.

PERF has also developed and published some of the leading literature in the law enforcement field, including the following:

 

·         Improving the Police Response to Sexual Assault (2012)

·         How Are Innovations in Technology Transforming Policing? (2012)

·         Voices from Across the Country: Local Law Enforcement Officials Discuss the Challenges of Immigration Enforcement (2012)

·         Labor-Management Relations in Policing: Looking to the Future and Finding Common Ground (2011)

·         2011Electronic Control Weapon Guidelines (with the COPS Office) (2011)

·         Managing Major Events: Best Practices from the Field (2011)

·         It’s More Complex than You Think: A Chief’s Guide to DNA (with the COPS Office) (2010)

·         Police and Immigration: How Chiefs are Leading their Communities through the Challenges (2010)

·         Is the Economic Downturn Fundamentally Changing How We Police? (2010)

·         Guns and Crime:  Breaking New Ground By Focusing on the Local Impact (2010)

·         Gang Violence: The Police Role in Developing Community-Wide Solutions (2010)

·         Leadership Matters: Police Chiefs Talk About Their Careers (2009)

·         Violent Crime and the Economic Crisis: Police Chiefs Face a New Challenge, Parts I & II (2009)

·         The Stop Snitching Phenomenon:  Breaking the Code of Silence (2009)

·         Violent Crime in America: What We Know About Hot Spots Enforcement (2008)

·         Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Speak Out On Local Immigration Enforcement (2008)

·         Promoting Effective Homicide Investigations (with the COPS Office) (2007)

·         “Good to Great” Policing: Application of Business Management Principles in the Public Sector (2007)

·         Violent Crime in America: “A Tale of Two Cities” (2007)

·         Police Planning for an Influenza Pandemic: Case Studies and Recommendations from the Field (2007)

·         Patrol-Level Response to a Suicide Bomb Threat: Guidelines for Consideration (2007)

·         Strategies for Resolving Conflict and Minimizing Use of Force (2007)

·         Police Management of Mass Demonstrations: Identifying Issues and Successful Approaches (2006)

·         Strategies for Intervening with Officers through Early Intervention Systems: A Guide for Front-Line Supervisors (2006)

·         Conducted Energy Devices: Development of Standards for Consistency and Guidance (2006)

·         Issues in IT: A Reader for the Busy Police Chief Executive (2005)

·         Supervision and Intervention within Early Intervention Systems: A Guide for Law Enforcement Chief Executives (2005)

·         Managing a Multi-Jurisdiction Case: Identifying Lessons Learned from the Sniper Investigation (2004)

·         Patrol Training Officer (PTO) Program (2004)

·         Community Policing: The Past, Present and Future (2004)

·         Recognizing Value in Policing: The Challenge of Measuring Police Performance (2002)

·         Racially Biased Policing: A Principled Response (2001)

·         Citizen Involvement: How Community Factors Affect Progressive Policing (2000)

·         Command Performance: Career Guide for Police Executives

·         Problem-Oriented Policing: Crime-Specific Problems, Critical Issues and Making POP Work (3 volumes, 1998-2000)