Justice Department Releases Report Based on Critical Response Review of Columbus, Ohio, Division of Police

The Justice Department today announced the release of a new report, an independent review of the use of force policies, procedures, and protocols of the Columbus, Ohio, Division of Police (CDP), as well as the training associated with these policies and operations. The review came at the request of the CDP and was conducted by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) and Jensen Hughe, a critical response provider, following the February 2023 release of the COPS Office Columbus (Ohio) Division of Police: Roadmap to Implementation report. This is part of ongoing technical assistance to CDP.

The goal of the report is to highlight areas in need of improvement through a series of findings and recommendations developed for the purpose of overall improvement of organizational efficiency, effectiveness, and performance. The report states that “[t]he overarching theme associated with almost all the recommendations is the need for enhanced technological capabilities. By upgrading technological capabilities, the CDP will be well-situated to optimize its performance and ensure accountability at a much higher level than it is currently able to achieve.” It goes on to say that “[i]ncreased data collection, analysis, and reporting is of the utmost importance at this time for the CDP to become the transparent, community-oriented policing agency the people of Columbus want and deserve.”

“Whenever we support best practices in policing, it benefits both the department and the community it serves,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “Ultimately, the goal of these types of reviews is twofold: to improve the delivery of policing services to the community, and, by doing so, to increase public trust and enhance community-police relationships.”

“Investing in technology that facilitates data collection, analysis, and reporting, and evaluating its effectiveness underscores an agency’s commitment to the public,” said COPS Office Director Hugh T. Clements Jr. “When an agency voluntary asks for this kind of assessment and is interested in making improvements, everyone benefits.”

The report is available at here.

The Critical Response program is designed to provide targeted technical assistance (TA) to state, local, territorial, and Tribal law enforcement agencies experiencing high-profile events, major incidents, or sensitive issues of varying need. Critical Response is highly customizable by providing flexible assistance to law enforcement agencies that have recently experienced a critical incident or identified an issue of significant community concern in their department’s operations. The TA generally falls into three categories: (1) immediate delivery of TA to address a pressing and acute need, (2) data analysis, and (3) after-action reviews to understand and learn from law enforcement and public safety responses to critical incidents or issues.

The COPS Office is the federal component of the Justice Department responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Justice Department agency with policing in its name, The COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served. The COPS Office has been appropriated more than $20 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local, territorial, and Tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of approximately 138,000 officers.