Research coming

During the past two weeks, we have been notified about two Department of Justice grant projects that we will be part of in the coming year.  The first is a grant to support the Lincoln Sexual Assault Response Team, a consortium of agencies working to improve Lincoln’s response to the investigation of rape.  The funds will allow us to start implementing a series of recommendations from a year long audit of sexual assault investigations that was undertaken over the past two years.

The second grant goes to the University of Nebraska, but we are a partner in the research.  This grant will allow us to pursue a unique technology initiative that is intended to provide police officers with information in the field in a new and innovative interface.  It’s an idea that jumped into my head last November, and a group of UNL researchers turned it into a National Institute of Justice proposal to bring this concept to reality and to study its impact. 

I am excited about both of these projects.  The first is going to help us do a better job on one of our most serious violent crime.  The second has the potential to make a groundbreaking contribution to the field of policing.