Weekly Snapshot: March 4, 2015

The Weekly Snapshot

Your source for the latest tips, information, and current campus safety resources from the National Center.

Free Distance Learning Courses for Underage Drinking Enforcement and Prevention

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center (UDETC) currently offers six distance-learning courses that are available to participants at no cost. Each course is between 2-6 hours in length and provides methods and strategies for enforcing underage drinking laws and reducing underage drinking. The information is relevant for law enforcement and public safety officials, and the communities they serve.

The six courses offered are:

Conducting Compliance Check Operations - this course provides information on reducing the sale of alcohol to minors through compliance investigations of alcohol retailers.
Environmental Strategies - this course provides prevention strategies for states, territories and communities to address alcohol and other drug issues from an environmental perspective.
Party Prevention and Controlled Party Dispersal - this course discusses the role of enforcement and the community in preventing and safely dispersing underage drinking parties.
Techniques for Managing Special Events - this course identifies the complexity of planning a special event and provides information on effective planning, proper management, policy application, and enforcement at an event.
Source Investigations - this course discusses underage drinking issues, the value of conducting source investigations following underage drinking incidents, and the benefits of effective enforcement and environmental strategies.
Using Community Volunteers to Support Prevention and Enforcement of Underage Drinking - this course explores the value and effective means of using community volunteers to support the prevention and enforcement of underage drinking.

The UDETC provides a certificate of completion for each course taken. A seventh course, "Developing Data-Driven Strategies to Reduce Underage Drinking" will be offered in the coming months.

Download the brief (PDF) by clicking above

Adolescent Development and Policing

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) recently released a new resource for law enforcement that focuses on adolescents, ages 15-19, and interactions with law enforcement. The brief, developed with support from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice, addresses key differences between the development of the adolescent and adult brain and how this presents key challenges for law enforcement.

The brief includes information on:

Characteristics of youth thinking and behavior
How to foster positive youth development and reduce the negative effects of risk factors
Ten strategies to improve law enforcement interactions with youth
Legal considerations when interviewing and interrogating juveniles
Law enforcement agencies with successful youth programs that address problem behavior early on
Youth focused resources for law enforcement

Download the brief or contact IACP for more information.

SAMHSA Suicide Safe App

Now available for download, Suicide Safe is a free resource provided by

the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that is based on the nationally recognized Suicide Assessment Five-Step Evaluation and Triage (SAFE-T) pocket card . This suicide prevention learning tool for mobile devices and tablets equips providers with education and support resources to assess patients' risk of suicide, communicate effectively with patients and their families, determine appropriate next steps, and make referrals to treatment and community resources. Sign up for SAMHSA e-mail updates to receive details for the upcoming March 11^th webinar featuring a live demonstration of Suicide Safe.

Professional Development Opportunities

Title: Traumas of Law Enforcement Training

Host: Concerns of Police Survivors

Dates: March 30 - April 1, 2015 (Registration Deadline March 6)

Location: Long Beach, CA

Fee: Free

Information and Trainings

Title: 10th Annual Conference on Crimes Against Women

Host: Genesis Women's Shelter & Support and the Dallas Police Department

Dates: March 16-18, 2015

Location: Dallas, TX

Fee: Registration Fee
Information and Registration

Title: National Conference on Health and Domestic Violence

Host: Futures Without Violence and US Department of Health and Human Services

Dates: March 20-21, 2015

Location: Washington, DC

Fee: Registration Fee
Information and Registration

This project was supported by Grant No. 2013-MU-BX-K011 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the US Department of Justice.