/news-archive/tag/jim-golden/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Thu, 19 Dec 2019 10:26:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /news-archive/2019/12/19/research-efforts-with-lrpd/ Thu, 19 Dec 2019 10:26:52 +0000 /news/?p=75730 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock to research effectiveness of violent crime prevention efforts with LRPD]]> A University of Arkansas at Little Rock criminal justice professor has partnered with the Little Rock Police Department (LRPD) to investigate the effectiveness of the department鈥檚 increased efforts to combat the rise of violent crime in the city.听 Dr. Trisha Rhodes, assistant professor of criminal justice, will receive $30,000 from a $750,000 grant LRPD recently received from U.S. Department of Justice. The Local Law Enforcement Crime Gun Intelligence Center Integration Initiative Grant will allow the LRPD Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit to establish its own in-house ballistics testing unit.听 鈥淣IBIN, the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, is a national database that police officers use,鈥� Rhodes said. 鈥淧olice officers collect shell casings, and occasionally guns, as evidence. Once they enter all the information in NIBIN, it goes into a national database, which can lead to matches to previous crimes and produce leads and suspects.鈥�听 The specialized computer system is connected to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives database that police use to connect bullets gathered from crime scenes to firearms. The main issue with NIBIN is time. When crime labs get backlogged, it takes time for evidence to be entered and processed through NIBIN. With its own system, LRPD will be able to analyze evidence much faster. Rhodes noted that being able to connect crimes through NIBIN will be especially useful in long-term efforts to reduce violent crime, since a large number of these crimes are often perpetrated by repeat offenders.听 鈥淲ith these types of violent crimes, it鈥檚 often not that many people who are responsible,鈥� Rhodes said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 often the same people committing similar crimes. It鈥檚 often a small subset that is accounting for a majority of the violent crimes. Once you identify those people and get them off the street, it will likely have a huge impact on reducing crime.鈥�听 Rhodes is already familiar with the Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit. For the past two years, Rhodes, along with Criminal Justice Department Chair Mary Parker and criminal justice professor Jim Golden, have studied LRPD鈥檚 efforts to prevent violent crime in Little Rock, ever since the Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit was created in early 2018.听 LRPD received a nearly $500,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice鈥檚 Technology Innovation for Public Safety program. The criminal justice professors received $62,800 from the grant to analyze the effectiveness of the Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit and to study whether Little Rock鈥檚 previous increase in violent crime was an anomaly or a pattern of increased crime across the city.听 Little Rock had 44 homicides in 2014 followed by 31 in 2015, a 35-year low in overall crime, including violent crime. This was followed by two years of increasing crime rates with 42 homicides in 2016 and 54 in 2017. Last year showed a decrease to 40 homicides, a 13.19 percent decrease from 2017. The professors will release the results of their current research in 2020. Meanwhile, the new three-year research project will end in October 2022. Rhodes will continue to evaluate the Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit to determine if the unit鈥檚 actions are leading to reduced violent crime in the city and to determine the effects of the in-house NIBIN system.听 鈥淲e will be looking at changes in violent crimes in Little Rock that involve a gun, such as homicides, shootings, robberies, and terroristic acts like drive-by shootings,鈥� Rhodes said. 鈥淲e are also looking at clearance rates and the number of cases that are prosecuted and yield convictions in this area.鈥�听 Rhodes looks forward to discovering what changes the continued efforts of the Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit, along with their new equipment, will bring.听 鈥淭he Criminal Justice Department is excited about continuing our partnership with the City of Little Rock and the Little Rock Police Department,鈥� Rhodes said. 鈥淟RPD has made a great effort with this unit to fight gun violence in the city. They have seen a reduction in violent crime in the past year.听 The combination of the new equipment and old-fashioned detective work is what will really help address violent crime issues in the city.鈥� The funds will pay for Madison Doyle, a master鈥檚 student in the criminal justice program, to serve as Rhodes鈥� research assistant.听]]> /news-archive/2018/02/28/doctoral-student-assist-researching-crime-little-rock/ Wed, 28 Feb 2018 17:00:20 +0000 /news/?p=69508 ... Doctoral student to assist in researching crime in Little Rock]]> Brooke Cooley, a second year doctoral student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, jumped at the opportunity to conduct real-world research in conjunction with the Little Rock Police Department. The LRPD recently received nearly $500,000 from a federal grant that will assist in its ability to have crime scene evidence analyzed in-house, and improve the investigations of gun-related crimes in Little Rock through a Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit. 鈥淟ittle Rock has seen an increase in gun violence, and at this point, people want to know is this a trend we need to be worried about or is it just a little blimp,鈥� Cooley said. 鈥淔or academics and criminologists, it鈥檚 really hard to tell.鈥� After receiving the grant, the LRPD joined forces with the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Criminal Justice Department, and awarded $62,800 in funding to help analyze the effectiveness of the new intelligence unit and evaluate areas for improvement. 鈥淭he police department did a great job of getting this grant, and when they applied for it, they asked us to come on to do the research because [they] really needed that third party help,鈥� Cooley recalled. Cooley recently transferred to 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock from the University of Nebraska Omaha, to work exclusively on this project. While attending a research conference last year, she was introduced to Dr. Tusty ten Bensel, graduate coordinator in the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Department of Criminal Justice, who informed her about the unique experience provided by the grant. Cooley鈥檚 advisor, Dr. Lisa Sample, seconded ten Bensel鈥檚 proposal, and Cooley, in turn, hit the ground running. 鈥溙切腣log传媒 Little Rock had better research opportunities for me, which is the goal for Ph.D. students; to be well rounded in everything that they do,鈥� she said. During this two-year project, Cooley will work alongside Criminal Justice Department Chair Mary Parker, faculty members Trisha Rhodes and Jim Golden, and fellow peer, Steven McCain, who is also a doctoral student. Her responsibility will be to work with the intelligence unit, conducting interviews and noting their processes, as well as working closely with crime analysts. 鈥淭his is a major project,鈥� Cooley said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 one thing reading books and doing papers, but actually working with agencies and their employees is two different things.鈥� While at the University of Nebraska Omaha, Cooley was able to conduct research at the Douglas County Jail, but she has never worked on an assignment of this magnitude. 鈥淚鈥檝e had some experiences working with agencies with Dr. Sample, but never, honestly, at a grant this large,鈥� she explained, 鈥渂ut, I have full confidence because I鈥檓 also working with Dr. Rhodes and Dr. Golden, who do have the experience working on these types of grants. I鈥檓 really excited to learn from them.鈥� As a student with a passion for research and discovery, Cooley understands the importance of working on a project of such grave importance. 鈥淚 think right now we don鈥檛 do the best as a field incorporating research and the applied part together,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a gap there. Sometimes we research things, and us as academics, we don鈥檛 put that information out there for practitioners to know what works and what doesn鈥檛.鈥� Cooley believes that maybe she was destined to be in the field of criminal justice. Her dad is now a retired police officer. Even as a child, she always felt connected to this line of work. 鈥淲hen I was an undergraduate, I decided between pursuing criminal justice or sports management and therapy,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檇 played soccer and enjoyed sports and athletics, but criminal justice just seemed to keep my interest a little more.鈥� As a result, Cooley is happy about her future and the future of this project. After obtaining her doctorate, she plans to remain in the world of academia, conducting research for a university or government agency. ]]> /news-archive/2018/01/24/ua-little-rock-partners-lrpd-investigate-violent-crime/ Wed, 24 Jan 2018 22:31:46 +0000 /news/?p=69101 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock partners with LRPD to investigate violent crime]]> The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is helping take a bite out of crime by partnering with the to combat the rise of violent crime in the city over the past two years.听 LRPD recently received a nearly $500,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice鈥檚 Technology Innovation for Public Safety program. The grant will allow the police department to purchase a ballistics identification system, which will allow crime scene evidence to be analyzed more quickly than sending evidence to the state crime lab, and create a Gun Crimes Intelligence Unit to better investigate gun-related crimes in the Little Rock area. 鈥淭he Little Rock Police Department is excited to have the opportunity to work with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Criminal Justice Department in a collaborative effort to investigate and reduce gun-related crimes in the city, through resources provided in the U.S. Department of Justice Technology Innovation for Public Safety grant,鈥� said Capt. Ken Temple, commander of the LRPD Special Investigations Division. Faculty members of the Criminal Justice department 鈥� Chair Mary Parker, Trisha Rhodes, and Jim Golden 鈥� along with graduate students Brooke Cooley and Steven McCain 鈥� will receive $62,800 from the grant over the next two years to analyze the effectiveness of this new unit and evaluate areas for improvement. Findings from the study may also show whether Little Rock鈥檚 increase in violent crime over the past two years is a short-term anomaly or a rising pattern of increased crime. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had a wonderful relationship with LRPD over the years, and this is a tremendous opportunity for their department and ours to have a positive impact on gun violence in the City of Little Rock,鈥� Department Chair Mary Parker said. 鈥淲e are happy to be part of this endeavor with the Little Rock Police Department.鈥� Little Rock had 44 homicides in 2014 followed by 31 in 2015, a 35-year low in overall crime, including violent crime. This was followed by two years of increasing crime rates with 42 homicides in 2016 and 54 in 2017. 鈥淎s a researcher, my personal opinion is that it鈥檚 hard to tell if this is a true uptick in crime,鈥� Rhodes said. 鈥淚t takes several years to see if there is a true pattern of increasing or decreasing crime. For the most part, crime is still at its lowest across the country since the 1960s. In Little Rock, the slight uptick is alarming, and LRPD is working hard to collect scientific data and focus their efforts on finding the people who are most likely to be the victim of a crime or the perpetrator of a violent crime.鈥� Members of the Criminal Justice department look forward to assisting the Little Rock Police Department. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very important to form these collaborative partnerships, and it makes my work more meaningful when I do research out in the field that has an impact on day-to-day life,鈥� Rhodes said. 鈥淚 want my work to be useful and meaningful in the real world.鈥�]]>