Get Started: Info For Police
We are a not-for-profit, university-based research consortium. We pay for all of our research and research-related expenses with grants from private and federal donors. That means that you pay nothing for basic research or information about that research. Additionally, we never go into police departments unless we are invited by police executives from that department.
To give you a more specific idea of how a collaboration with the CPLE might look, below is an outline of the general steps that are often involved in working with the CPLE:
STEP 1 Give us a call. We’ll provide a more in-depth introduction to what services we can provide, and answer any questions you may have. To schedule a phone call, please contact Assistant Director Meredith Gamson Smiedt via email at mgsmiedt@psych.ucla.edu or by phone at 310-206-3467.
STEP 2 Letter of Intent. After you have spoken with us and we’ve answered any questions you may have, the next step is to sign a letter of intent. This letter is not a legally binding document, and is intended as a way to justify our expenditures for a potential site visit. In some cases, a letter of intent can be waived.
To view a sample letter of intent, click here.
STEP 3 Site visit. Site visits usually last one to three days and are a chance for CPLE staff and/or researchers to get to know your department and the community you serve. CPLE staff coordinates with you to set up meetings with individuals from each of these groups, tailored to your department’s goals. Departments provide us with a liaison who coordinates the visit. This liaison should be someone who understands your department and community, is committed to the possible research collaboration, and has access to Chief’s schedule. At the end of the visit, an outgoing meeting provides the opportunity to brief the chief on what we have learned and the kind of research project we think would work for your department.
Again, all CPLE-related costs for the site visit will be free of cost for interested departments, 100% of costs come out of our own grants.
In very rare cases, the site visit can be waived.
STEP 4 Researcher Matching. Before the CPLE can begin work on a specific plan of action, a research team must be identified. Based on the goals of the department, location, and researcher interests and availability, CPLE seeks to assemble a team of qualified exerts that will be responsive to your department’s needs.
STEP 5 Memo of Understanding (MOU).If you and your department decide that you would like to move forward with our proposed research project, the next step is the MoU. We will send you a draft version and, together, our legal teams work together to finalize an MoU tailored to your department’s goals.
It is important to note that at no point in time are we interested in singling out individual officers in our research. Instead, we are interested in aggregate data—that is, the general trends in the department. The identities or responses of individual officers will never be revealed in the data or elsewhere. It is also customary to have an embargo period for any research reports so that a department has the opportunity to review our findings before they are submitted for publication in scholarly journals. Press and other confidentialities are also regularly included. To view a sample MoU, click here.
STEP 6 Research Project Commences.
STEP 7 Progress Reports. Approximately once a year, we check in with an update as to the progress of our research. On rare occasions, more frequent updates can be arranged, but usually at the department’s expense.
To get started or with any questions, please contact Assistant Director Meredith Gamson Smiedt via email at mgsmiedt@psych.ucla.edu or by phone at 310-206-3467.