Breaking Down Barriers: An Issues Brief from the National COPS Evaluation

The information presented in this report is largely drawn from case studies written about 30 law enforcement agencies visited as part of the National Evaluation of the COPS Program. Here, common organizational structures for implementing community policing among the COPS grantees are described followed by a discussion of major barriers to community policing. The experiences of several COPS-funded departments are used to illustrate how some departments have avoided or surmounted such barriers.