NIJ FY17 Understanding the Impacts of Policing Strategies and Practices (Beyond Crime Reduction) | NIJ 2017 11565

Opportunity Information: Apply for NIJ 2017 11565

The NIJ FY17 Understanding the Impacts of Policing Strategies and Practices (Beyond Crime Reduction) grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number NIJ 2017 11565) is a discretionary research grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, aimed at building a fuller, more realistic understanding of what policing strategies and practices actually do to communities and police agencies. Instead of treating crime reduction as the only meaningful result, this solicitation asks applicants to study a wider range of outcomes, including both positive and negative effects on individuals, neighborhoods, community conditions, and the policing organizations themselves. The central idea is that a policing approach can look successful if you only count crime, but may create serious collateral consequences that also need to be measured, understood, and weighed.

A key feature of the solicitation is its emphasis on research and evaluation projects that examine policing strategies at different levels. NIJ is open to proposals that focus on place-based strategies (targeting specific hot spots or locations where crime occurs) as well as individual-level strategies (targeting people identified as being at risk of offending or victimization). The solicitation even gives an example of the type of individual-level intervention of interest, referencing the Chicago Police Department Strategic Subjects List, which is an approach intended to identify individuals deemed at heightened risk and then apply interventions or enforcement attention accordingly. By allowing both place-based and person-based approaches, the opportunity encourages research that can speak to how different styles of policing affect not only crime patterns but also legitimacy, trust, fairness, and community well-being.

One of the major objectives is the development of more complete and informative measures of policing impacts. NIJ is explicitly looking for stronger outcome measurement, meaning projects should not just ask whether crime went up or down, but should also examine other consequences that matter to the public and to the functioning of justice institutions. Depending on the strategy being studied, relevant outcomes could include community trust and perceived legitimacy, the quality of police-community interactions, procedural justice and perceptions of fairness, fear of crime, community cohesion, willingness to cooperate with law enforcement, reported satisfaction with police services, and broader neighborhood stability. On the organizational side, proposals might consider officer workload, morale, stress and burnout, complaint patterns, use-of-force incidents, arrest and stop patterns, training and supervision demands, and other internal performance or accountability indicators. Importantly, the solicitation signals a strong interest in measuring negative collateral consequences, not as an afterthought but as a central part of judging whether a strategy is truly effective.

NIJ frames the overall policy-relevant question as whether a policing strategy can reduce crime while minimizing negative side effects. That emphasis pushes applicants to think carefully about tradeoffs and unintended impacts, such as over-enforcement in certain communities, disproportionate impacts on specific demographic groups, increases in stops or arrests that do not translate into safety gains, or reductions in community willingness to report crimes or serve as witnesses. In other words, NIJ is encouraging research that can help decision-makers understand not just whether a tactic works, but what it costs socially, organizationally, and in terms of legitimacy and community relationships.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a grant (Funding Instrument Type: Grant) in the law, justice, and legal services area (CFDA 16.560). The opportunity was created January 5, 2017, with an original closing date of March 23, 2017. The award ceiling is listed at $3,000,000, and NIJ anticipated making about 2 awards, indicating a relatively competitive program aimed at funding a small number of substantial, high-impact studies. Eligibility is broad and includes state, county, and local governments; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments; nonprofit organizations (including both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) entities); for-profit organizations (including small businesses and other for-profits); and individuals. This broad eligibility suggests NIJ wanted to attract rigorous proposals from universities, research firms, practitioners, and partnerships between researchers and police agencies.

Overall, the solicitation is best understood as an effort to move policing research beyond a single scorecard of crime counts and toward a multi-dimensional evaluation framework that captures safety, fairness, legitimacy, and organizational health at the same time. The projects NIJ sought under this opportunity were meant to generate evidence that can help agencies and communities choose strategies that not only reduce crime, but do so in ways that preserve public trust and avoid harmful spillover effects.

• The Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIJ FY17 Understanding the Impacts of Policing Strategies and Practices (Beyond Crime Reduction)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.560.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jan 05, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 23, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $3,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Individuals, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

Apply for NIJ 2017 11565

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