Feb 2025
Video: Reducing Violence and Improving Policing
This video offers a glimpse into the Policing Leadership Academy, a violence reduction initiative designed to prevent violent crime, support officers, and improve fairness and effectiveness in policing throughout some of the country’s most violent neighborhoods.
This video features academy alumni Major Jason Bennett, District Commander of the Baltimore Police Department’s Southern District, from Baltimore, Maryland.
Policing Leadership Academy (PLA) Overview
Read an overview of the Policing Leadership Academy (PLA), a first of-its-kind program launched in May 2023 to train America’s policing leaders working in some of our most violent neighborhoods.
Policing Leadership Academy Advisory and Research Committees
View the members of the PLA’s advisory and research committees.
Video: Creating Safer Communities by Improving Policing
Griffin Catalyst highlights the Policing Leadership Academy, a new national leadership program that brings together rising police leaders from around the country for five months of advanced, intensive training in management best practices, leveraging data and technology and building community trust—all with the ultimate goal of creating safer, more vibrant communities.
NBER Working Paper: Predicting Police Misconduct
This paper outlines the results of research on over a decade of Chicago Police Department data that shows it is possible to predict risk of on-duty and off-duty misconduct, allowing police departments to prioritize training and supportive resources.
Latest Updates
Police are turning to improv to improve leadership skills
Tyler Dean Kempf, creative director of Second City Works, highlights a partnership between the Crime Lab’s Policing Leadership Academy and The Second City that uses improv to help law enforcement build trust, improve communication, and strengthen relationships.
Violent crime is falling in Chicago. But will it last?
Greg Hinz for Crain’s Chicago Business provides commentary on the city of Chicago’s declining violent crime rates and highlights Crime Lab analysis of homicide data for New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago from 1890-present.
Opinion: The good news about murder
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, E.J. Dionne Jr. highlights recent declines in homicides and shootings in the U.S. and discusses this return to pre-pandemic crime levels with Crime Lab leaders Roseanna Ander, Jens Ludwig, CVI Leadership Academy Executive Director Chico Tillmon, and former Los Angeles police chief and advisor to the Policing Leadership Academy Charlie Beck.
