Anthony Vidale Arizona Criminal Justice Commission

Reductions to Task Force funding necessitate the need to get more by using more through data-driven decision-making and utilizing community partners. 2

Funding Community Partners Use of Data 3

 Agency Budget Reductions  Improving economy but funding increases lag recovery  Special revenue funds may not recover to pre-recession levels  Direction of federal grant funds  Federal spending is a continued concern  Impact of Byrne JAG formula on allocation to state  Pressure to fund evidence-based projects  Use of Forfeiture proceeds  Penalties  Becoming a popular method of forcing compliance  Cost increases  Establishing a “new” funding level norm 4

 Diversion of Personnel/Resources to other law enforcement functions  Moving task force officers from specialty units to traditional street enforcement  Doing less with less  More with less requires productivity gains and at some point those options run out  Fracturing of task forces  Economies of scale reductions  Especially impactful in rural areas or small jurisdictions  Make use of non-monetary resources to effect the drug crime problem  Data-driven decision-making  Multi-disciplined approach to drug crime 5

 Use of data to drive decision-making  Build data capacity  Become data/research consumers  Arizona Criminal Justice Commission’s Community Data Project 6

Arizona Criminal Justice Commission Community Data Project Criminal Justice Data Project Activity Data Finance DataCommunity Data Community Data Project Database 7

Community level data that shows trends of drug use As a stand-alone, one variable may not tell the story A combination of data can paint a picture of the environment Task Forces are operating in Can answer questions like: How bad is the problem? Where should the focus be? How effective are we being? 8

 Inventory what data are available  Identify what data are meaningful  What information is useful to grantors in decision-making that Task Forces can use to measure effectiveness?  Establish a collection system for that data  Educate Task Forces and other stakeholders how to use data collection system  Use data to articulate drug problem in grant applications  Use data to measure effectiveness in responses/solutions to drug problem  Use data to justify funding  Data are shared by all stakeholders involved in addressing a problem and leads to a shared understanding and shared solution 9

 Primary mission of drug task forces is to enforce drug laws  To effectively impact the drug problem in a community, task forces need to be involved in supply reduction and demand reduction efforts  Funding pressure may limit ability of task forces to conduct activities outside of core apprehension operations  Partnering with community coalitions and other groups to extend the influence and perspective of law enforcement  Work towards multi-faceted, multi-disciplined approach to drug problem  Expand task force reach on drug problem through community partnerships 10

 Criminal Justice Commission established a partnership with the Department of Health Services to provide SAMHSA funding to criminal justice agencies  Created grant program to prevent/reduce substance abuse by building collaborative relationships between public health, community, and criminal justice organizations  Examples of some collaborative projects:  Purchase incinerator and conduct prescription drug take-back events  Drug prevention training for probation officers  Training for DOC substance abuse counseling staff to improve quality of treatment services and outcomes  Substance abuse prevention and education training for school resource officers, field officers, school faculty and staff  Substance abuse prevention training for youth in Teen Court program  Toolkit development, training presentations, and curriculum development for youth anti- marijuana campaign