Friday, March 29, 2024

Weekly Update & Analysis

The Brooks Bawden Moore Weekly Update and Analysis highlights recent and planned congressional activities including hearings, floor action, and new bill introductions that relate to public safety, justice, and homeland security matters. Please let us know if you would like to know more about any of the items described in the update. Additionally, please feel free to distribute this product as you see fit.

Week in Recap

This week, both chambers of Congress were out on recess. They are also scheduled to be out next week. The Senate will return on Monday, April 8th and the House will return on Tuesday, April 9th.

The Justice Department launched the National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center (the Center) which will provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations, and behavioral health professionals responsible for implementing ERPO laws.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency proposed its first incident reporting rules, requiring hacked critical infrastructure operators to send the federal government detailed reports within a short time frame. The proposal responds to a mandate in the 2022 Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act to implement new security-sharing requirements. 

We have also been closely tracking new Federal funding opportunities for state and local law enforcement. You can see a detailed list of new OJP funding opportunities at our blog here and new COPS funding opportunities at our blog here.  We also included a list in our newsletter below.

BBM Blog

BBM posts timely and regularly on topics of interest to the public safety community. Email a member of the BBM team today to get new content delivered directly to your inbox. 

Blog Posts of the Week

• Roll Call:  “Mayorkas impeachment headed to Senate for April 11 trial”
• COPS Funding Opportunities
• New OJP Funding Opportunities
• CBS News:  “Nearly 108,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2022, breaking record, CDC says”
• Biden to Make Agencies Designate AI Chiefs, Test Tools For Bias
• GOP Senators Write DEA on Marijuana Rescheduling
• Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Proposes First Incident-Reporting Rules
• NIJ:  Countering the Emerging Drone Threat to Correctional Security
• COPS Office Grant Announcement:  Collaborative Reform Initiative
• FBI:  “NICS enhanced background checks for under-21 gun buyers showing results”
• House Appropriations Chair Granger Seeks New Panel Leader; Predicts Fiscal 2025 Spending Package Will Come Together “well into the next fiscal year”
• Slim Republican House Majority Shrinks Further
• DOJ Launches the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center
• Senate Passes $1.2 Trillion Government Funding Package

 Funding Opportunities

COPS Funding Opportunities

2024 Open Solicitations

• Collaborative Reform Initiative (CRI) Program
• Community Policing Development (CPD)
  • Accreditation
  • De-Escalation Training Act 
  • Community Policing Development (CPD) Microgrants
  • Promoting Access to Crisis Teams (formerly CIT)
• Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS)
• Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMHWA) Program
• Tribal Resources Grant Program – Technical Assistance (TRGP-TA)

Congressional Calendar

Congressional Hearings

Hearings This Week

• Both chambers were not in session.

Hearings Next Week

• Both chambers are scheduled to be out on recess.

Legislation on the Floor

Senate

• Senate was not in session.

House

• House was not in session.

New Bill Introductions

• H.R. 7827
  • Sponsor: Schweikert, David [Rep.-R-AZ-1] 
  • Summary: This bill would encourage the development of vaccines to prevent, treat, or mitigate opioid, cocaine, methamphetamine, or alcohol use disorder and would establish an x-prize for the development of such a vaccine.
• H.R. 7826
  • Sponsor: Schiff, Adam B. [Rep.-D-CA-30]
  • Summary: This bill, the Tribal Community 
     Protection Act of 2024, would require written notification to Indian tribes, for any restraining order or temporary restraining order, enforced on tribal lands.
• H.R. 7824
  • Sponsor:  Owens, Burgess [Rep.-R-UT-4]
  • Summary: This bill would direct the Office for Victims of Crime of the Department of Justice to implement anti-trafficking recommendations of the Government Accountability Office.
• H.R. 7821
  • Sponsor: Gallego, Ruben [Rep.-D-AZ-3]
  • Summary: This bill would provide for a tax credit with respect to fighting retail crime.

Community and Client News

Justice Department Launches the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center

The Justice Department launched the National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center (the Center) which will provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations, and behavioral health professionals responsible for implementing laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.

ERPO laws, which are modeled off domestic violence protection orders, create a civil process allowing law enforcement, family members (in most states), and medical professionals or other groups (in some states) to petition a court to temporarily prohibit someone at risk of harming themselves or others from purchasing and possessing firearms for the duration of the order.

In 2023, the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) awarded $238 million to states, territories, and the District of Columbia under the Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP), which was created by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and is designed to help jurisdictions implement crisis intervention strategies, including ERPO programs. In addition, OJP awarded $4 million to support training and technical assistance under Byrne SCIP, including $2 million that was awarded to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions to establish the ERPO Resource Center. In collaboration with OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Center will support states, local governments, law enforcement, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service providers, and behavioral health and other social service providers in their efforts to implement ERPO programs to fit local needs, share resources and promising practices with the field, and help ensure that funding received through Byrne SCIP is effectively utilized.

Through the Center and its newly launched website, states, local governments, law enforcement, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service providers, and behavioral health and other social service providers will have direct access to critical information that will enhance their ability to reduce firearm homicides and suicides. The website will be maintained and updated to include newly developed resources for the field created through the Center, in partnership with BJA. The website also provides a platform for the Center to highlight emerging and promising practices in successful ERPO implementation and connect states and localities to innovative strategies to reduce gun violence and save lives.

As of this month, 21 states and the District of Columbia have enacted ERPO laws. Successful and effective ERPO implementation requires a comprehensive and holistic approach that incorporates a wide range of stakeholders. The Center is designed to provide resources consistent with that need.

Justice Department Announces Opening of Nominations for the Seventh Annual Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland today announced the Justice Department is now accepting nominations for the Seventh Annual Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing. These awards represent part of the Justice Department’s ongoing commitment to support the nation’s law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line every day to keep our communities safe.

The Attorney General’s Award recognizes individual state, local, and Tribal sworn, rank- and-file police officers and deputies for exceptional efforts in community policing. The awarded officers, deputies, and troopers will have demonstrated active engagement with the community in one of three areas: criminal investigations, field operations, or innovations in policing. Within each category, an award will be given to law enforcement agencies serving small, medium, and large jurisdictions. Those agency sizes are defined as:

Small: agencies serving populations of fewer than 50,000;
Medium: agencies serving populations of 50,000 to 250,000; and
Large: agencies serving populations of more than 250,000.
 

By acknowledging and rewarding these efforts, the Department strives to promote and sustain its national commitment to community policing and to advance proactive policing practices that are fair and effective. With the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing, the Office of the Attorney General recognizes that the nation’s law enforcement agencies, officers, deputies, and troopers continue to work tirelessly to keep our communities safe places to live and work.

The deadline for nominations is May 6 at 8 p.m. ET. 

A Closer Look: NICS enhanced background checks for under-21 gun buyers showing results

A 2022 law called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) now requires NICS to go beyond the routine for under-21 gun buyers. In addition to running names through NICS databases, a select group of examiners is now reaching out to state juvenile justice, mental health, and local law enforcement agencies to see if their backgrounds contain potentially disqualifying information that isn't in the databases automatically queried by NICS. Another provision in the new law extends, where cause to do so is established, the time examiners have to investigate under-21 cases from 3 to 10 business days.

Since implementing enhanced background checks for under-21 gun buyers in October 2022, the NICS Section of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division in Clarksburg, West Virginia, has conducted enhanced background checks on more than 200,000 under-21 transactions. Of those, it has denied more than 600 transactions based solely on "prohibitive" information provided during the enhanced background checks.

CDC Releases Report on Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 2002–2022

Drug overdoses are one of the leading causes of injury death in adults and have risen over the past several decades in the United States. Overdoses involving synthetic opioids (fentanyl, for example) and stimulants (cocaine and methamphetamine, for example) have also risen in the past few years. This report presents rates of drug overdose deaths from the National Vital Statistics System over a 20-year period by demographic group and by the type of drugs involved (specifically, opioids and stimulants), with a focus on changes from 2021 to 2022.

RAND Corporation Releases Report on Countering the Emerging Drone Threat to Correctional Security

Drones represent a serious emerging threat to the safety and security of correctional institutions across the United States. Conspirators are using drones to introduce various contraband, such as drugs and cell phones, into correctional institutions. In some cases, drones have been used to deliver weapons and tools to facilitate escape.

Contraband trafficking in correctional institutions is highly lucrative, and drones can be an effective and relatively low-risk method of introducing large quantities in a single flight. For example, it can be challenging for a correctional institution to detect a drone entering its airspace. If a drone is detected, it can be difficult for the institution to respond quickly enough that any contraband dropped is intercepted before it reaches the incarcerated population. Furthermore, while there are examples of successful prosecutions, it is often challenging to hold conspirators accountable. Practical and legal restrictions prohibit neutralizing or actively defeating drones; therefore, a multilayered approach combining drone detection technologies, core correctional practices, forensics and other investigative techniques, and partnerships with law enforcement at the state and federal levels is currently the most effective way to address this threat.

This report presents findings and recommendations from a workshop held to explore key needs that must be met to better address the drone threat. The findings are pertinent to a wide audience, including justice-system stakeholders, correctional practitioners, technology developers, and researchers.

Comparing Violent Extremism and Terrorism to Other Forms of Targeted Violence

NIJ-supported research indicates that although there is no single, clear-cut overlap between individuals who engage in these types of violence, there are important and sometimes unexpected similarities.

CJIS Security Policy Modernization Podcast #6 – Systems and Information Integrity Part 2

The FBI CJIS Policy is changing to meet modern challenges impacting public safety entities. Aided by the Advisory Policy Board (APB), which is comprised of public safety executives from across the United States, the CJIS Division of the FBI has worked to improve CJIS policy intended to help protect all criminal justice data. This podcast aims to provide the information needed for implementing the new policies.

This podcast episode is the sixth of seven “Ask the Expert” episodes that will cover one of five CJIS policy primary “security control groups” and their key sub-topics from the first two series of revisions. This episode discusses system monitoring, software firmware and information integrity, and information management and retention.

Upcoming Webinar: A National Snapshot of Publicly Funded Crime Laboratory Operations

Tuesday, April 2, 2024 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Eastern
Duration: 1 hour

Crime labs perform a variety of forensic analyses for federal, state, and local criminal justice agencies, examining and reporting on physical evidence collected during criminal investigations. To increase knowledge of crime lab operations and how they change over time, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has periodically conducted the Census of Publicly Funded Forensic Crime Laboratories (CPFFCL). The 2020 CPFFCL is the fifth collection in the series, following administrations in 2002, 2005, 2009, and 2014. The CPFFCL collects information on the workload, staffing, resources, policies, and procedures of federal, state, county, and municipal forensic crime labs that are solely funded by the government or are overseen by a government agency. 

This webinar will discuss the data collection procedures and findings from the 2020 CPFFCL. National-level statistics on the number and type of requests for services, backlog, outsourcing, staffing and vacancies, budgets, laboratory information systems (LIMS), accreditation, and quality assurance measures will be highlighted. Differences by lab type and changes since previous CPFFCL administrations will be examined. Information on how to access CPFFCL reports and data sets will be provided. Finally, an update on the next administration of the CPFFCL will be presented, which is scheduled for 2025 to capture information on the calendar year 2024.

Georgia Department of Corrections and Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Gang Task Force Investigation Exposes Multi-State Criminal Enterprise Using Drones to Facilitate Contraband Introduction into Correctional Facilities

 Governor Brian P. Kemp announced that, in a continuing investigative effort between the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Gang Task Force, search and arrest warrants were served today at two locations in the Metro Atlanta area, effectively shutting down a sophisticated, multi-state criminal enterprise that included civilians, inmates, and staff involved in contraband introduction into GDC facilities.

Dubbed “Operation Skyhawk,” the months-long investigation into contraband at GDC facilities revealed the use of drones to facilitate the introduction of contraband. That discovery led to the arrest of 150 suspects, including eight GDC employees who were immediately terminated. With a combined total of over 1,000 criminal charges stemming from contraband introduction, drug trafficking, and felons in possession of firearms, many of the individuals arrested will also be facing Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges and Participation in Criminal Gang Activity in multiple venues across the state, resulting in what will possibly be the largest Gang RICO in the state’s history.

Articles of Interest

Upcoming Events

International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE)

Orlando, FL — Mar 25.- Mar. 28 ,2024

National Fusion Center Association Annual Training Event

Washington, D.C. — Mar 26.- Mar. 28 ,2024

2024 IJIS Community Forum

Nashville, TN — Apr. 2.- Apr. 4 ,2024

National Police Week

Washington, DC — May 11.- Mar. 16 ,2024

National Association of Police
Organizations TOP COPS Award Dinner/Legislative Update

Washington, DC — May 12.- Mar. 14 ,2024

2024 IACP Technology Conference

Charlotte, NC — May 21.- May 23 ,2024

Small & Rural Law Enforcement Executives’ Association

Annual Conference

Petersburg, VA — July 29.- July 31 ,2024

American Correctional Association's 154th Congress of Correction

Nashville, TN — Aug 15.- Aug 18 ,2024

About BBM

Brooks Bawden Moore, LLC is a team of experienced professionals who serve as trusted advisors to law enforcement, homeland security, and intelligence practitioners and solution providers.  

Our government relations practice helps clients advance critical policy priorities with Congress, federal agencies, and state legislatures.    Our business strategy consulting practice enables companies to connect innovative products and services with market needs.  
 

Our Team

Ron Brooks

Partner

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Ben Bawden 

Partner

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Chris Moore

Partner Emeritus

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Josh Ledden

Vice President of Research and Operations

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Dean Kueter

Vice President of Government Relations

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Melissa Nee

Vice President of Government Relations

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Jake Schiff

Director of Government Relations

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Rob Wright

Consulting Specialist         
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