NCJ Number
244815
Date Published
March 1995
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This brief paper reviews what the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, determined to be the "best practices" of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) between 1968 and 1982.
Abstract
The purpose of this paper was to provide a summary of the "best practices" of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA). The issues presented in this document are based upon the recollections of 11 former LEAA employees who also worked in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. The information provided was not based on formal research and is not considered exhaustive of LEAA's accomplishments. LEAA was created in 1968 under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act and was replaced by the Office of Justice Assistance, Research, and Statistics in 1982. LEAA's main purpose was to award and administer grants to reduce crime and improve the Criminal Justice System. This was the first attempt at dealing with criminal justice as a "system," which includes multiple components, as well as, various levels of government. As such, LEAA encountered difficulties due to the different perspectives and agendas of its diverse participants. When this paper was written, circa 1995, the U.S. Department of Justice was facing a similar crime reduction mandate with the implementation of a new omnibus crime bill. Although LEAA, as a whole, was often viewed as unsuccessful, this was not true of all LEAA's programs. Several of the programs which were developed under LEAA succeeded and still existed in 1995. In formulating this paper, many LEAA programs were discussed, and those which passed the test of time were considered successful.