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Overview:
The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) is an agency within the Department of Justice, created by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 that responded to a rash of violent crime. COPS promotes a community-based approach to law enforcement that encourages preventing crime rather than responding once crime has been committed. The aim of COPS is to improve public safety by addressing both the roots of crime and the culture of fear created by crime, a culture which perpetuates criminal activity. The concept of acting locally and addressing the roots of crime is carried out by community policing officers, who work within their own communities to develop relationships and build trust with community members. COPS provides funding and training for community policing programs.
 
more
History:
 
COPS is a product of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (VCCLEA) of 1994, the largest crime bill in U.S. history. The bill provided for 100,000 new police officers, as well as $9.7 billion in funding for prisons and $6.1 billion in funding for prevention programs such as COPS. VCCLEA came as a response to an outbreak of high-profile violent crimes, such as the 101 California Street shootings that left eight people dead in a San Francisco office building. Meant to crack down on violent crime, the bill toughened gun laws and instituted new statutes relating to hate crimes, sex crimes, and gang-related crime.
 
Since 1995, COPS has invested $12.4 billion to promote community policing, $11.4 billion of which was grant monies awarded to agencies nationwide. These funds have enabled more than 13,000 state, local, and tribal agencies to hire more than 117,000 police officers. 
 
VCCLEA (fLibrary of Congress)

COPS History/Timeline

more
What it Does:
 
COPS carries out its mission of acting locally to prevent crime by providing funding and training materials to law enforcement agencies interested in a community-based approach to crime. The following are examples of programs that COPS has funded or otherwise participated in:
 
Salt Lake City: Methamphetamine Initiative
The Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) requested and was awarded funding for an initiative to combat the growing occurrence of methamphetamine (meth) labs and increased meth use in Salt Lake City. With the awarded grant monies, SLCPD created an Intelligence Unit under the COPS Meth Initiative, which assigns an intelligence analyst to assist in investigations, and conduct and present research. The analyst is also involved in the drug hotline, taking and responding to calls and leads. This involvement has helped to decrease the hotline response time by 400%. 
 
In addition, funding has helped to increase tracking of crystallized iodine sales, a substance used to make meth. Funding was also used to train the SLCPD Narcotics Unit to become a certified clandestine lab team. Cross-training for law enforcement and other partners allows participants multi-agency, multi-disciplinary perspectives on meth. Money was also spent to increase community awareness of the drug hotline and developing presentations for other forms of community outreach. 
 
School Campus Police Officers
The late 1990s brought a series of violent acts committed on school grounds, on students, by students, such as the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Growing school-based violence has led to a corresponding increase in police presence on school campuses. COPS has helped to pay many of these officers, distributing $763 million between 1998 and 2006 to underwrite the presence of 6,453 officers nationwide. New York State received a hefty portion of this funding, $40.9 million that supported 334 officers. According to various officials within the New York school system, this police presence has been invaluable, not only as a preventative measure and cerebral soother, but also because some of these officers have become trusted chaperones for school trips and counselors to many students. 
Policing the Students Is a Full-Time Job (by Carin Rubenstein, New York Times)
 
Officer-Next-Door
Alexandria, Virginia, is a model for the “officer-next-door program” that moves a step beyond officers patrolling within their own general areas. Officer-next-door programs move police officers into neighborhoods that have a high crime risk, such as public housing communities and federally subsidized Section 8 communities to become officers in residence. Officers within these communities become friends and neighbors to residents. Officers are often relied upon for mediating arguments, counseling community youth, and acting as a liaison between the community and the city. 
Home Is Where the Officer Is (by Elaine Rivera, Washington Post)
 
Armed for Terrorists, in Case Kindness Doesn’t Work
In Northern California, the concept of “killing them with kindness” is a relic from the old days of law enforcement in Berkeley, California. But in 2004, shadowed by the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, Sheriff Charles C. Plummer of Alameda County set a different tone for law enforcement in the San Francisco Bay area. Sheriff Plummer constructed an anti-terrorist unit to protect the Bay area. The new unit was trained to operate two German-made machine guns mounted on the bow and stern of a patrol boat, ready to blow terrorists out of the water, in case killing them with kindness didn’t work. To cover the marine unit’s cost for its first year, Sheriff Plummer utilized a portion of a $500,000 COPS grant awarded to Alameda County for community-oriented policing services. 
Armed for Terrorists, in Case Kindness Doesn't Work (by Dean E. Murphy, New York Times)
 
COPS and FEMA Collaborate to Communicate
COPS was given the responsibility of overseeing the Justice Department’s participation in a large-scale communications grant program, a collaboration between the departments of Justice and Homeland Security. The grant program was funded to distribute $79.6 million to 17 local governments. The money was given to local governments in order to improve communication capabilities among fire, law enforcement and emergency medical service communities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) ran the grant process for Homeland Security. The following communities were awarded grants, with a maximum award of $6 million:
Conway, AR
$2,000,000
Rehoboth Beach, DE
$2,400,000
St. Clair County, IL
$6,000,000
Woodbury County, IA
$5,900,000
Worcester County, MD
$5,600,000
Monroe County, MI
$6,000,000
Ramsey County, MN
$6,000,000
Independence, MO
$5,400,000
Lewis and Clark County, MT
$4,400,000
Grafton County, NH
$2,100,000
Erie County, NY
$6,000,000
Tulsa, OK
$846,000
Westmoreland County, PA
$5,900,000
Narragansett, RI
$3,000,000
Charlottesville/Albermarle County/University of Virginia, VA
$6,000,000
Clallam County, WA
$5,700,000
Harrison County, WV
$5,600,000
 
Homeland Security hands out communications grants (by William Welsh, Washington Technology)
 
In order to create, implement and fund programs and projects such as those listed above, the agency is organized into nine divisions:
  • Grant Administration Division (GAD) - The primary responsibilities of GAD include innovating grant programs, reviewing grant applications, and awarding winning applicants. GAD is also responsible for hiring and redeployment within the agency.
  • Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Division - TTA provides training and technical assistance to participating agencies, officers, and communities. TTA creates and encourages partnerships between law enforcement, educational institutions, business groups, and community groups.
  • Administrative Division - The Administrative Division supports the COPS Office through human resource management, fiscal resource management, facilities management, and information technology resource management.
  • General Counsel - The Legal Division of COPS is headed by the General Council. The Division provides legal advice for the assurance of compliance with legal requirements relevant to all COPS activities. The Division also works with grantees to ensure compliance with COPS grant requirements.
  • External Affairs Division - The External Affairs Division is in charge of informing and communicating with the Congress and the public of COPS programs and activities. It responds to media inquiries and public events. The Division also provides input to program design and policy formulation.
  • Communications Division - The Communications Division provides information about COPS programs to grantees and the public. It’s responsible for the production of COPS publications and other materials.
  • Program/Policy Support and Evaluation Division (PPSE) - The PPSE Division designs programs and provides policy support and assessment.
  • Grant Monitoring Division (GMD) - GMD conducts reviews of grantee’s programs and activities to ensure that they are meeting their commitments and obligations. This division also gathers information on effective community policing programs and strategies, and determines if grantees need any special assistance from COPS.
  • Audit Division - The Audit Division assists grantees in handling audit issues. It also works with the Office of the Comptroller and the Office of the Inspector General to ensure grantee program compliance. 
Expect More - Budget (White House)

Resource Information Center

more
Where Does the Money Go:
 
Communities and society at large are potential beneficiaries of effective law enforcement programs. In addition to decreased crime rates corresponding to heightened quality of life, as well as lives saved from violent crime, a drop in crime rates also has overarching economic and social benefits. In 2008, more than one in 100 adults was in jail or prison, costing state governments almost $50 billion and the federal government an additional $5 billion annually (Washington Post). Effective crime prevention programs can reduce these numbers, saving taxpayers billions every year. 
 
New High in U.S. Prison Numbers (by N.C. Aizenman, Washington Post)
more
Debate:

 

Although there is a general consensus on the benefits of community policing, there is some debate as to whether the COPS Office is the most effective form of encouraging local, community, and preventative approaches to law enforcement. There has been bipartisan criticism of COPS’ effectiveness in reaching its goals, and whether the agency is cost effective. 
 
Pro
Supporters of COPS see the agency and its programs as one of the most successful approaches to crime fighting. They point to decreased crime levels in various regions and the uncontestable fact that COPS has facilitated tens of thousands of new officer hires, although the numbers are inexact. Supporters believe the agency and its programs have been successful in improving relationships between law enforcement and communities, a major goal of the agency. 
 
Con
Detractors point to the difficulty in tracking COPS benchmarks, such as putting 100,000 officers on the streets between 1995 and 2000. Figures such as these are difficult to quantify because it is often impossible to track and attribute to one program the hiring of additional officers. In addition, critics of COPS believe that funding allotted to the COPS Office would be used more effectively if simply distributed through a much smaller-scale grant program, which doesn’t necessitate the level of administration costs that an agency such as COPS does. 
Expect More (fWhite House)
10 years and $10B later, COPS drawing scrutiny (by Peter Eisler and Kevin Johnson, USA Today)

Pro - Congressman Welch

more

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Leave a comment

Founded: 1994
Annual Budget: $489 million
Employees:
Official Website: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
Davis, Ronald
Previous Director

On November 12, 2013, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the appointment of East Palo Alto (California) Police Chief Ronald L. Davis as director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). The office works with police agencies throughout the country to advance community policing, primarily by sharing information and making grants to law-enforcement agencies.

 

Davis, the son of a Philadelphia police officer and a secretary, began his career in law enforcement at the age of 21, when he joined the Oakland (California) Police Department in August 1985 after a hitch in the U.S. Air Force. He remained with the Oakland department for 20 years, serving in such positions as inspector general, criminal investigations commander and director of the police academy. Davis eventually reached the rank of captain in the agency.

 

In May 2005, Davis was named chief of the troubled East Palo Alto Police Department. The city it patrolled was once known as the “murder capital of the United States” and the police department had problems with some officers charged with brutality against suspects. Davis turned the department around, with homicides falling dramatically during his tenure.

 

Davis is known as an expert on racial profiling by police, and has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in 2001 and 2012, on the subject. While in East Palo Alto, he helped implement a parole-reentry program. The program had a significant effect on return-to-custody rates, seeing them fall from 60% to 20%.

 

Before being tapped for the Justice Department post, Davis was a finalist for two big-city police chief jobs, in Seattle and New Orleans. Davis is the co-author of the Harvard University and National Institute of Justice (NIJ) publication, “Exploring the Role of the Police in Prisoner Reentry.” He holds a bachelor of science in Workforce Education and Development from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

-Steve Straehley

 

To Learn More:

Official Biography

Exploring the Role of the Police in Prisoner Reentry (by Jeremy Travis, Ronald Davis and Sarah Lawrence) (pdf)

East Palo Alto Chief Rebuilt City's Trust in Police (by Jim Brunner, Seattle Times)

Competitive Exam Materials for Position of Chief of Police of Seattle (pdf)

The Finalists for New Orleans Police Chief: Ronald Davis, Top Cop in East Palo Alto, Calif (by Gordon Russell, New Orleans Times-Picayune)

more
Melekian, Bernard
Former Director

 

A veteran police chief from California, Bernard K. Melekian has been the director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in the U.S. Department of Justice since October 2009. Founded in 1994, COPS promotes a community-based approach to law enforcement that encourages preventing crime rather than responding once crime has been committed. It provides funding and training for community policing programs.
 
Born June 16, 1949, Melekian served in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1970, leaving with the rank of sergeant. 
 
He joined the Santa Monica Police Department in 1973, rising to the rank of captain by the time he departed 23 years later. Along the way, in 1977, he spent a year as a sheriff’s deputy in Santa Barbara, California.
 
While serving as a law enforcement officer, Melekian continued to go to school. He earned a bachelor’s degree in American history (1980) and a master’s degree in public administration (1994), both from California State University, Northridge. A graduate of the FBI National Academy and the California Command College, Melekian has been a doctoral candidate in public policy at the University of Southern California since the fall of 2004.
 
As a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, he was called to active duty in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm and served in Saudi Arabia. Melekian served a second eight-month tour of active duty in 2003 with the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety and Security Team, in the Pacific area. 
 
In 1996, Melekian became the police chief for Pasadena, California, taking over in the wake of a gang-related triple homicide. During Melekian’s 13-year reign, the number of homicides recorded each year decreased significantly, according to The Los Angeles Times.
 
While running the city’s police force, Melekian also served as the acting fire chief (1998) and interim city manager (2008).
 
From 2000 through 2001, he was president of the Los Angeles County and California Police Chiefs Associations. He served on the national board of directors for the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) from 2002 until 2006.
 
Melekian retired from the Coast Guard Reserves in 2009, after 28 years of service.
 
He is married to Nancy Melekian.
 
 
more
Bookmark and Share
Overview:
The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) is an agency within the Department of Justice, created by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 that responded to a rash of violent crime. COPS promotes a community-based approach to law enforcement that encourages preventing crime rather than responding once crime has been committed. The aim of COPS is to improve public safety by addressing both the roots of crime and the culture of fear created by crime, a culture which perpetuates criminal activity. The concept of acting locally and addressing the roots of crime is carried out by community policing officers, who work within their own communities to develop relationships and build trust with community members. COPS provides funding and training for community policing programs.
 
more
History:
 
COPS is a product of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (VCCLEA) of 1994, the largest crime bill in U.S. history. The bill provided for 100,000 new police officers, as well as $9.7 billion in funding for prisons and $6.1 billion in funding for prevention programs such as COPS. VCCLEA came as a response to an outbreak of high-profile violent crimes, such as the 101 California Street shootings that left eight people dead in a San Francisco office building. Meant to crack down on violent crime, the bill toughened gun laws and instituted new statutes relating to hate crimes, sex crimes, and gang-related crime.
 
Since 1995, COPS has invested $12.4 billion to promote community policing, $11.4 billion of which was grant monies awarded to agencies nationwide. These funds have enabled more than 13,000 state, local, and tribal agencies to hire more than 117,000 police officers. 
 
VCCLEA (fLibrary of Congress)

COPS History/Timeline

more
What it Does:
 
COPS carries out its mission of acting locally to prevent crime by providing funding and training materials to law enforcement agencies interested in a community-based approach to crime. The following are examples of programs that COPS has funded or otherwise participated in:
 
Salt Lake City: Methamphetamine Initiative
The Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) requested and was awarded funding for an initiative to combat the growing occurrence of methamphetamine (meth) labs and increased meth use in Salt Lake City. With the awarded grant monies, SLCPD created an Intelligence Unit under the COPS Meth Initiative, which assigns an intelligence analyst to assist in investigations, and conduct and present research. The analyst is also involved in the drug hotline, taking and responding to calls and leads. This involvement has helped to decrease the hotline response time by 400%. 
 
In addition, funding has helped to increase tracking of crystallized iodine sales, a substance used to make meth. Funding was also used to train the SLCPD Narcotics Unit to become a certified clandestine lab team. Cross-training for law enforcement and other partners allows participants multi-agency, multi-disciplinary perspectives on meth. Money was also spent to increase community awareness of the drug hotline and developing presentations for other forms of community outreach. 
 
School Campus Police Officers
The late 1990s brought a series of violent acts committed on school grounds, on students, by students, such as the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Growing school-based violence has led to a corresponding increase in police presence on school campuses. COPS has helped to pay many of these officers, distributing $763 million between 1998 and 2006 to underwrite the presence of 6,453 officers nationwide. New York State received a hefty portion of this funding, $40.9 million that supported 334 officers. According to various officials within the New York school system, this police presence has been invaluable, not only as a preventative measure and cerebral soother, but also because some of these officers have become trusted chaperones for school trips and counselors to many students. 
Policing the Students Is a Full-Time Job (by Carin Rubenstein, New York Times)
 
Officer-Next-Door
Alexandria, Virginia, is a model for the “officer-next-door program” that moves a step beyond officers patrolling within their own general areas. Officer-next-door programs move police officers into neighborhoods that have a high crime risk, such as public housing communities and federally subsidized Section 8 communities to become officers in residence. Officers within these communities become friends and neighbors to residents. Officers are often relied upon for mediating arguments, counseling community youth, and acting as a liaison between the community and the city. 
Home Is Where the Officer Is (by Elaine Rivera, Washington Post)
 
Armed for Terrorists, in Case Kindness Doesn’t Work
In Northern California, the concept of “killing them with kindness” is a relic from the old days of law enforcement in Berkeley, California. But in 2004, shadowed by the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, Sheriff Charles C. Plummer of Alameda County set a different tone for law enforcement in the San Francisco Bay area. Sheriff Plummer constructed an anti-terrorist unit to protect the Bay area. The new unit was trained to operate two German-made machine guns mounted on the bow and stern of a patrol boat, ready to blow terrorists out of the water, in case killing them with kindness didn’t work. To cover the marine unit’s cost for its first year, Sheriff Plummer utilized a portion of a $500,000 COPS grant awarded to Alameda County for community-oriented policing services. 
Armed for Terrorists, in Case Kindness Doesn't Work (by Dean E. Murphy, New York Times)
 
COPS and FEMA Collaborate to Communicate
COPS was given the responsibility of overseeing the Justice Department’s participation in a large-scale communications grant program, a collaboration between the departments of Justice and Homeland Security. The grant program was funded to distribute $79.6 million to 17 local governments. The money was given to local governments in order to improve communication capabilities among fire, law enforcement and emergency medical service communities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) ran the grant process for Homeland Security. The following communities were awarded grants, with a maximum award of $6 million:
Conway, AR
$2,000,000
Rehoboth Beach, DE
$2,400,000
St. Clair County, IL
$6,000,000
Woodbury County, IA
$5,900,000
Worcester County, MD
$5,600,000
Monroe County, MI
$6,000,000
Ramsey County, MN
$6,000,000
Independence, MO
$5,400,000
Lewis and Clark County, MT
$4,400,000
Grafton County, NH
$2,100,000
Erie County, NY
$6,000,000
Tulsa, OK
$846,000
Westmoreland County, PA
$5,900,000
Narragansett, RI
$3,000,000
Charlottesville/Albermarle County/University of Virginia, VA
$6,000,000
Clallam County, WA
$5,700,000
Harrison County, WV
$5,600,000
 
Homeland Security hands out communications grants (by William Welsh, Washington Technology)
 
In order to create, implement and fund programs and projects such as those listed above, the agency is organized into nine divisions:
  • Grant Administration Division (GAD) - The primary responsibilities of GAD include innovating grant programs, reviewing grant applications, and awarding winning applicants. GAD is also responsible for hiring and redeployment within the agency.
  • Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Division - TTA provides training and technical assistance to participating agencies, officers, and communities. TTA creates and encourages partnerships between law enforcement, educational institutions, business groups, and community groups.
  • Administrative Division - The Administrative Division supports the COPS Office through human resource management, fiscal resource management, facilities management, and information technology resource management.
  • General Counsel - The Legal Division of COPS is headed by the General Council. The Division provides legal advice for the assurance of compliance with legal requirements relevant to all COPS activities. The Division also works with grantees to ensure compliance with COPS grant requirements.
  • External Affairs Division - The External Affairs Division is in charge of informing and communicating with the Congress and the public of COPS programs and activities. It responds to media inquiries and public events. The Division also provides input to program design and policy formulation.
  • Communications Division - The Communications Division provides information about COPS programs to grantees and the public. It’s responsible for the production of COPS publications and other materials.
  • Program/Policy Support and Evaluation Division (PPSE) - The PPSE Division designs programs and provides policy support and assessment.
  • Grant Monitoring Division (GMD) - GMD conducts reviews of grantee’s programs and activities to ensure that they are meeting their commitments and obligations. This division also gathers information on effective community policing programs and strategies, and determines if grantees need any special assistance from COPS.
  • Audit Division - The Audit Division assists grantees in handling audit issues. It also works with the Office of the Comptroller and the Office of the Inspector General to ensure grantee program compliance. 
Expect More - Budget (White House)

Resource Information Center

more
Where Does the Money Go:
 
Communities and society at large are potential beneficiaries of effective law enforcement programs. In addition to decreased crime rates corresponding to heightened quality of life, as well as lives saved from violent crime, a drop in crime rates also has overarching economic and social benefits. In 2008, more than one in 100 adults was in jail or prison, costing state governments almost $50 billion and the federal government an additional $5 billion annually (Washington Post). Effective crime prevention programs can reduce these numbers, saving taxpayers billions every year. 
 
New High in U.S. Prison Numbers (by N.C. Aizenman, Washington Post)
more
Debate:

 

Although there is a general consensus on the benefits of community policing, there is some debate as to whether the COPS Office is the most effective form of encouraging local, community, and preventative approaches to law enforcement. There has been bipartisan criticism of COPS’ effectiveness in reaching its goals, and whether the agency is cost effective. 
 
Pro
Supporters of COPS see the agency and its programs as one of the most successful approaches to crime fighting. They point to decreased crime levels in various regions and the uncontestable fact that COPS has facilitated tens of thousands of new officer hires, although the numbers are inexact. Supporters believe the agency and its programs have been successful in improving relationships between law enforcement and communities, a major goal of the agency. 
 
Con
Detractors point to the difficulty in tracking COPS benchmarks, such as putting 100,000 officers on the streets between 1995 and 2000. Figures such as these are difficult to quantify because it is often impossible to track and attribute to one program the hiring of additional officers. In addition, critics of COPS believe that funding allotted to the COPS Office would be used more effectively if simply distributed through a much smaller-scale grant program, which doesn’t necessitate the level of administration costs that an agency such as COPS does. 
Expect More (fWhite House)
10 years and $10B later, COPS drawing scrutiny (by Peter Eisler and Kevin Johnson, USA Today)

Pro - Congressman Welch

more

Comments

Leave a comment

Founded: 1994
Annual Budget: $489 million
Employees:
Official Website: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
Davis, Ronald
Previous Director

On November 12, 2013, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the appointment of East Palo Alto (California) Police Chief Ronald L. Davis as director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). The office works with police agencies throughout the country to advance community policing, primarily by sharing information and making grants to law-enforcement agencies.

 

Davis, the son of a Philadelphia police officer and a secretary, began his career in law enforcement at the age of 21, when he joined the Oakland (California) Police Department in August 1985 after a hitch in the U.S. Air Force. He remained with the Oakland department for 20 years, serving in such positions as inspector general, criminal investigations commander and director of the police academy. Davis eventually reached the rank of captain in the agency.

 

In May 2005, Davis was named chief of the troubled East Palo Alto Police Department. The city it patrolled was once known as the “murder capital of the United States” and the police department had problems with some officers charged with brutality against suspects. Davis turned the department around, with homicides falling dramatically during his tenure.

 

Davis is known as an expert on racial profiling by police, and has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in 2001 and 2012, on the subject. While in East Palo Alto, he helped implement a parole-reentry program. The program had a significant effect on return-to-custody rates, seeing them fall from 60% to 20%.

 

Before being tapped for the Justice Department post, Davis was a finalist for two big-city police chief jobs, in Seattle and New Orleans. Davis is the co-author of the Harvard University and National Institute of Justice (NIJ) publication, “Exploring the Role of the Police in Prisoner Reentry.” He holds a bachelor of science in Workforce Education and Development from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

-Steve Straehley

 

To Learn More:

Official Biography

Exploring the Role of the Police in Prisoner Reentry (by Jeremy Travis, Ronald Davis and Sarah Lawrence) (pdf)

East Palo Alto Chief Rebuilt City's Trust in Police (by Jim Brunner, Seattle Times)

Competitive Exam Materials for Position of Chief of Police of Seattle (pdf)

The Finalists for New Orleans Police Chief: Ronald Davis, Top Cop in East Palo Alto, Calif (by Gordon Russell, New Orleans Times-Picayune)

more
Melekian, Bernard
Former Director

 

A veteran police chief from California, Bernard K. Melekian has been the director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in the U.S. Department of Justice since October 2009. Founded in 1994, COPS promotes a community-based approach to law enforcement that encourages preventing crime rather than responding once crime has been committed. It provides funding and training for community policing programs.
 
Born June 16, 1949, Melekian served in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1970, leaving with the rank of sergeant. 
 
He joined the Santa Monica Police Department in 1973, rising to the rank of captain by the time he departed 23 years later. Along the way, in 1977, he spent a year as a sheriff’s deputy in Santa Barbara, California.
 
While serving as a law enforcement officer, Melekian continued to go to school. He earned a bachelor’s degree in American history (1980) and a master’s degree in public administration (1994), both from California State University, Northridge. A graduate of the FBI National Academy and the California Command College, Melekian has been a doctoral candidate in public policy at the University of Southern California since the fall of 2004.
 
As a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, he was called to active duty in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm and served in Saudi Arabia. Melekian served a second eight-month tour of active duty in 2003 with the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety and Security Team, in the Pacific area. 
 
In 1996, Melekian became the police chief for Pasadena, California, taking over in the wake of a gang-related triple homicide. During Melekian’s 13-year reign, the number of homicides recorded each year decreased significantly, according to The Los Angeles Times.
 
While running the city’s police force, Melekian also served as the acting fire chief (1998) and interim city manager (2008).
 
From 2000 through 2001, he was president of the Los Angeles County and California Police Chiefs Associations. He served on the national board of directors for the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) from 2002 until 2006.
 
Melekian retired from the Coast Guard Reserves in 2009, after 28 years of service.
 
He is married to Nancy Melekian.
 
 
more