Establishing a National Criminal Justice Technology Research, Test and Evaluation Center

This supplements an award competitively made to an application submitted by The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) under the Fiscal Year 2013 National Institute of Justice (NIJ) solicitation: Establishing a National Criminal Justice Technology Research, Test, and Evaluation Center. The goal of that solicitation was to establish a National Criminal Justice Technology Research, Test, and Evaluation (RT&E) Center within the NIJ-funded National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) System. The purpose of this center is to conduct focused RT&E activities to inform NIJ's non-forensic technology research and development (R&D) efforts. It also conducts RT&E activities to support NIJ's efforts to inform practitioners, policymakers, and researchers regarding technologies or technology-related issues for purposes of improving criminal justice policy and practice. The activities of this center vary from year to year depending on the needs of NIJ's non-forensic technology R&D efforts. Among the projects funded with this supplement is a comprehensive assessment of how technology is currently used in the United States and other countries to prevent and respond to criminal acts of violence in K-12 schools, both public and private in support of the congressionally directed Comprehensive School Safety Initiative funded in the Department of Justice Appropriations, Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76). nca/ncf

The initial award was competitively made in response to a proposal submitted by Johns Hopkins University to a National Institute of Justice FY 2013 solicitation: "Establishing a National Institute of Justice Research, Test, and Evaluation Center." The goal of that solicitation was to establish a National Criminal Justice Technology Research, Test, and Evaluation (RT&E) Center within the NIJ-funded National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) System. The purpose of this center is to conduct focused RT&E activities to inform NIJ's non-forensic technology research and development (R&D) efforts. It also conducts RT&E activities to support NIJ's efforts to inform practitioners, policymakers, and researchers regarding technologies or technology-related issues for purposes of improving criminal justice policy and practice. The activities of this center vary from year to year depending on the needs of NIJ's non-forensic technology R&D efforts. Among the projects funded with this supplement is a comprehensive assessment of how technology is currently used in the United States and other countries to prevent and respond to criminal acts of violence in K-12 schools, both public and private in support of the congressionally directed Comprehensive School Safety Initiative funded in the Department of Justice Appropriations, Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76). This project is being funded incrementally, with the effort funded in FY15 representing the third supplement.

This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law.

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The goal of this project is to establish a National Criminal Justice Technology Research, Test and Evaluation (RT&E) Center within the NIJ-funded National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) System. The purpose of this center is to conduct focused RT&E activities to inform NIJ’s non—forensic technology research and Development efforts. It also conducts RT&E activities to support NIJ’s efforts to inform practitioners, policy-makers, and researchers regarding technologies or technology-related issues for purposes of improving criminal justice policy and practice. The activities of this center vary from year-to-year depending on the needs of NJ’s non-forensic technology R&D efforts. These activities are developed collaboratively between NIJ and the award recipient.

Criminal Justice Field
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) is a University Affiliated Research Center that serves as a trusted agent to government for research, development, testing and evaluation under rigorous non-conflict of interest and non-compete constraints. JHU/APL can be an “honest broker” for agencies in assessing the applicability, effectiveness and affordability of technology for specific mission objectives.

JHU/APL has extensive RT&E experience and capabilities specific to the nine tasks NIJ anticipates assigning to the RT&E Center and for subsequent tasks over the five year RT&E program. Competencies relevant to the identified tasks include data/image/video analytics, video quality and transport; camera systems and data storage technologies; human factors; health monitoring, telematics and telemetry, electrical power systems engineering, social media analytics, machine learning and machine perception, advanced materials for body armors and tags, bioinformatics, and biometrics. Across the range of tasks JHU/APL will apply expertise in statistics and the design of experiments. JHU/APL competencies have been demonstrated through collaborative operational evaluations and gap analyses with state and local law enforcement agencies.

JHU/APL will propose a collaborative leadership structure for the RT&E Center, assigning three senior staff with experience in law enforcement and corrections, test and evaluation and program management. Executive decision authority will be with the program manager, who has fiduciary responsibility. An Advisory panel will be made up of a cross-section of operational expertise and technical expertise focused on test and evaluation. In the formative stages, the Advisory Panel will help establish performance metrics and processes for continuous monitoring and periodic review of RT&E Center operations and outcomes. For larger tasks, a project manager will be assigned to form teams with specific operational and technical expertise from JHU/APL, the JHU Division of Public Safety Leadership and others as necessary.

The RT&E Center will deliver significant, quantifiable benefits to criminal justice agencies and personnel through reliable information and consistency in approaches to technical assessments and operational evaluations. Understandable guides will promote the deployment of evidence-based recommendations and the adoption of evidence-based methods. ca/ncf