Grant Details

The Smart Policing Initiative (SPI), formerly Strategies for Policing Innovation, provides funding to enable police agencies to effectively use evidence-based practices, more effective information sharing, and multiagency collaboration under the Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) Program. This program furthers the Department's mission by assisting state, local, and tribal jurisdictions in reducing crime and improving the functioning of the criminal justice system. 

The goal of the FY2023 program is to advance the state of policing practice, accountability, and science and to help foster effective and consistent collaborations to increase public safety. Funding may also be used to enable the policing field to use technology, intelligence, and data in innovative ways to:

• Test, establish, and/or expand specific and innovative new ideas, technology, and/or evidence-based programming in each SPI-funded police agency.
• Foster effective and consistent collaborations to increase public safety. 
• Enable the policing field to use technology, intelligence, and data in innovative ways. 
• Establish sustainable practitioner-researcher partnerships between the SPI-funded agencies and criminal justice program evaluation experts to increase the agencies' data analysis capacity. 

Applications will be accepted under three category areas:

• Smart Policing Innovation - The purpose of this category is to support the development and testing of new approaches to common law enforcement crime-reduction challenges. Proposed projects should incorporate a proactive, problem-solving approach to leveraging resources and decreasing impediments that currently hinder an agency's success in addressing a precipitous increase in specific types of crime. Applicants will: 
  • Describe the innovative, data-driven approach to be implemented to address a precipitous increase in crime as outlined in this solicitation. 
  • Enlist a qualified research partner to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. 
  • Identify a specific policing issue to address. 
  • Develop a prevention/mitigation/response strategy to address the problem. 
  • Evaluate the initiative. 
  • Assess and report the results to BJA, who will make the results publicly available.
• Smart Policing Approaches to Community Violence Intervention and Prevention - Community violence intervention (CVI) is an approach that uses evidence-informed strategies to reduce violence through tailored community centered initiatives. These multidisciplinary strategies engage individuals and groups to prevent and disrupt cycles of violence and retaliation and establish relationships between individuals and community assets to deliver services that save lives, address trauma, provide opportunity, and improve the physical, social, and economic conditions that drive violence. Applicants will: 
  • Describe the CVI initiative planned for or currently underway in their community that addresses a precipitous increase in crime as outlined in this solicitation, as well as the need for law enforcement's support or participation in the CVI initiative. 
  • Enlist a qualified research partner to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. 
  • Identify a specific role in the intervention for law enforcement, as well as information-sharing strategies and collaborative activities that maintain the need for safety for all partners and law enforcement sensitive information security. 
  • Develop a collaborative plan to support the intervention that is developed in partnership with the CVI initiative's leadership. 
  • Evaluate the process elements and outcomes associated with law enforcement's contribution to the CVI initiative, including the identification of promising practices and lessons learned. 
  • Assess and report the results to BJA, who will make the results publicly available. 
• Smart Policing Technology Development and Implementation - Applications are solicited from eligible entities that are experiencing precipitous increases in crime or in a type or types of crime within their jurisdictions and propose to implement and test applied justice information-sharing technology designed to respond to these crime increases and improve criminal justice data exchange. Applicants are asked to define their unique challenges and the associated impact on local communities, and to provide a comprehensive plan for using applied justice information-sharing technology to reduce or mitigate the crime problem(s). To be considered for an award, applicants must clearly identify how the funding will directly address a precipitous or extraordinary increase in crime(s) or a type or types of crime in the jurisdiction. Specifically, applicants must: 
  • Describe the technology to be adopted to address a precipitous increase in crime as outlined in this solicitation. Application of AI-based technology to improve understanding of drivers of crime and locations of criminal activity, as well as to assist in solving cases, is encouraged.
  • Enlist a qualified research partner to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. 
  • Identify a specific technology solution to implement and test. Develop a digital trust plan and community engagement plan prior to technology acquisition and implementation. 
  • Develop a crime-reduction response strategy that relies on the selected technology. 
  • Evaluate the initiative. 
  • Assess and report the results to BJA, who will make the results publicly available.