Federal Public Safety Initiatives

The Community Safety Institute and the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) partnered with the Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to produce the Safety Training and Resources (STAR) Initiative. This innovative, citizen-led program is designed to assist local law enforcement agencies and emergency responders in collecting and disseminating crucial local safety and resource information for community preparedness.

The goals of the STAR initiative include: implementing peer-based community safety training, identifying community-based resources that can be mobilized during an emergency, utilizing tools to construct a comprehensive database of community resources that can be provided to emergency responders, and distributing the STAR instruments to support and enhance community and volunteer groups’ preparedness and response efforts.

One of the centerpieces of this initiative is the STAR toolkit. This multi-tiered toolkit contains a host of assessment instruments and educational tools to assist communities in preparing for critical incidents such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks. The toolkit is comprised of an interactive CD with user friendly database templates, a pre-constructed website that can be tailored by individual communities and uploaded to the Internet, guides to assist individuals in publishing a resource directory for emergency responders, a facilitator manual for conducting community resource assessment, and a monograph on successful citizen-based activities relating to disaster preparedness, emergency management, and anti-terrorism.

STAR training will be provided by local law enforcers and representatives from various Regional Community Policing Institutes (RCPI).