The Department conducted an extensive investigation into the shooting of Michael Brown. Federal authorities reviewed physical, ballistic, forensic, and crime scene evidence; medical reports and autopsy reports, including an independent autopsy performed by the United States Department of Defense Armed Forces Medical Examiner Service ("AFMES"); Wilson's personnel records; audio and video recordings; and internet postings. FBI agents, St. Louis County Police Department ("SLCPD") detectives, and federal prosecutors and prosecutors from the St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office ("county...

In this 1994 report it discusses the role of police psychologists in preventing and identifying individual police officers at risk for use of excessive, nonlethal force and the factors that contribute to police use of excessive force in performing their duties. A sample of 65 police psychologists were asked what types of professional services they provided to police departments and how these services were used to control the use of force. They were also asked to characterize officers who abuse force and to suggest intervention strategies based on police psychology that could help police...

Despite the best efforts of political and community leaders to foster tolerance and understanding, deep-seated racial tensions continue to plague the Nation. News stories of bias-motivated incidents fill the national pages of major U.S. newspapers. A rash of arsons at African-American churches in the South, for example, has spurred the Federal Government to launch a major investigation that, so far, has led to the arrest of 120 suspects. Of the 298 Federal arson investigations carried out between January 1995 and November 1996, approximately 43 percent involved fires at black churches,...

In this 1992 project it reanalyzed the data collected by Pate and Fridell ( 1993) on citizen complaints against police use of excessive force. The current report includes two empirical studies on the citizen complaints about police brutality in two mutually excluding areas: the police use of excessive physical force and the police use of all other non-physical forces, such as abuse of authority and verbal abuse. It attempts to establish the baseline correlation of citizen complaint rates with various police organizational factors, and to identify the causal effect of police brutality. Using...

Our audit found that, with a few exceptions, DEA procedures generally were appropriate for handling seized and collected drugs, although the implementation of some procedures was not consistent across the offices we analyzed. For example, we found that drug exhibits were not always recorded properly in the Temporary Drug Ledger, which is a formal record of drug exhibits temporarily stored in the DEA field division office. When exhibits are not entered into the ledger properly, or are not entered at all, the risk that drug evidence will be lost increases. This is because the only other records...

In fiscal year 2008 the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) expended nearly $8.6 million to purchase an ATR 42-500 aircraft (ATR 500) to support its counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan. The Department of Defense (DOD) agreed to modify the DEA's ATR 500 with surveillance equipment and other capabilities to conduct such operations in the combat environment of Afghanistan in what became known as the Global Discovery program. In addition, through five Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with the DOD, between fiscal years 2012 and 2015, the DEA received $29,080,137 from the DOD to support both...

In FY 2014, this report's compilers conducted a systemic literature review to find appropriate process evaluations. The FY 2016 version builds upon the earlier version. Program evaluation is a systematic, objective process for determining the success of a policy or program. Evaluations assess whether and to what extent the program is achieving its goals and objectives. Strong data collection practices are critical for understanding the scope and nature of an issue. Consequently, where appropriate, the report compilers identified certain descriptive reports that are not evaluative in nature...

Today, we announce the outcome of the Department of Justice's investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD). After engaging in a thorough investigation, initiated at the request of the City of Baltimore and BPD, the Department of Justice concludes that there is reasonable cause to believe that BPD engages in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the Constitution or federal law. BPD engages in a pattern or practice of: (1) making unconstitutional stops, searches, and arrests; (2) using enforcement strategies that produce severe and unjustified disparities in the rates of...

This report highlights findings from existing research on police use of force. It describes how the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Institute of Justice will collect data on police contacts with members of the public that result in the use of force by law enforcement officers. The report responds to Section 210402 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which requires the Attorney General to "acquire data about the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers" and to "publish an annual summary of the data acquired. . . ."

The Special Agent Selection System (SASS) is a mentally and physically challenging process designed to find only the most capable applicants. However, those who make it through the process become part of an elite team that keeps our country safe. The SASS typically takes 1 year to complete, and often longer. An explanation of the steps in the process to becoming a Special Agent can be found on the next page.