Funding Agency: Department of Justice

Principal Investigator: Todd Clear

Co-Principal Investigator: Michael Ostermann

Abstract: This is a proposal for a two-year police organizational change project designed to assist 15 urban New Jersey police departments and 5 national departments in implementing new methods to enhance agency excellence and maximize services to the community through improved systems of accountability. We propose to capitalize on a working partnership that now exists between the New Jersey State Police (NJSP) and Rutgers University’s Police Institute (of the School of Criminal Justice). Working together, we will design the organizational change curriculum, bring the 20 target agencies together for a 3-day workshop, and follow this with a 9-month implementation period supported by technical assistance. At the end of the year, we will reconvene the group to assess progress. The project will result in a series of organizational change projects resulting in improved approaches to organizational excellence and stronger police leadership. There will also be a written product that is an implementation manual for the approach, as well as a web-based information support system for the work.