Roanoke, Virginia

The goal of the Roanoke SPI is the development and implementation of a regional system of policies and procedures for the use of technology to support a proactive offender-focused approach to addressing violent and gun crime. The criminal justice agencies within the Roanoke SPI will implement an innovative technology solution that streamlines communication, increases transparency, and facilitates both real-time and evaluative accountability both within and across the agencies. The regional partners include the City of Roanoke Police Department, the Town of Vinton Police Department, the Town of Salem Police Department, the Roanoke County Police Department, the Roanoke County Sheriff’s Office, the City of Roanoke Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia Commonwealth Attorney, and the United States Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Virginia. Radford University’s Center for Police Practice, Policy and Research will serve as the research partner.

A web-based agency management software will facilitate inter-agency communication and collaboration where agencies are using real-time communication threads, arrest alerts, a crime pattern bulletin-maker, and accountability statistics in daily operations. The regional effort will take a Stratified Policing approach by addressing violent crime at the immediate, short-term, and long-terms levels and will use the Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment (SARA) problem solving process to identify areas of violent crime and individual violent offenders, conduct in depth analysis of areas and individuals, select appropriate responses based on the analysis, and measure the impact on crime and recidivism. Lastly, an overall process assessment of the efficiency and effectiveness of the technology implementation will be conducted.