Florida Law Enforcement Research Coalition -- Final Report

• NCJ Number: 182366
• Date Published: March 2000
• Length: 9 pages
• Grant Number(s): 95-IJ-CX-0085
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description

Annotation

The Florida Law Enforcement Research Coalition (FLERC) was established to link law enforcement departments and researchers in the State of Florida for the purposes of conducting collaborative policy-relevant research; this report summarizes how FLERC accomplished its original objectives and expanded its work to address other needs of law enforcement agencies in Florida.

Abstract

To develop collaborative research projects that involved law enforcement agencies and researchers, FLERC identified the research needs of law enforcement agencies and then responded to those needs by either linking agencies and researchers to develop collaborative projects or developing FLERC-sponsored collaborative projects. This report describes how FLERC identified the research needs of Florida law enforcement, identified law enforcement researchers around the State, and facilitated collaborations between researchers and agencies. In addition to facilitating collaborations between researchers and agencies, FLERC conducted research in response to identified needs. Topics researched included the police use of force and cargo security. Several FLERC projects were not geared toward addressing research needs, but instead served to address the policy, training, and general information needs of Florida law enforcement. These projects addressed domestic and sexual violence and an information clearinghouse. Several challenges were associated with the development FLERC. The most basic was that of establishing and maintaining good working relationships between the law enforcement agencies and researchers. The report concludes that the viability of this model for other States is reflected by the enthusiastic reception of FLERC by both law enforcement and researchers and FLERC's success in developing those collaborations.