Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

It is an honor to join you to mark what is quite a milestone — the 30th anniversary of the COPS Office. Today, we celebrate three decades of dedication, innovation, and partnership to promote safer communities across the country.

The last 30 years have seen tremendous changes in policing. The COPS Office has been at the forefront of many of those changes, working alongside its law enforcement and community partners to transform policing in America.

The COPS Office has provided critical resources, training, and support to law enforcement agencies across the country, helping them implement community policing strategies tailored to the unique needs of their communities.

Through grants, technical assistance, and research, the COPS Office has empowered law enforcement agencies to engage with their communities, build trust, and work collaboratively to solve problems. And at all times, the Office has worked to make sure the community is at the table – that community policing isn’t just a slogan, but a practice.

Over these past 30 years, the COPS Office has continued to build on the programs that have been successful, while simultaneously developing new programs that respond to the ever-evolving demands and needs of the field. And in addition to the awards just announced by the Deputy Attorney General, I would like to announce several other awards we are making today:

• We are awarding almost $14 million in microgrants and other Community Policing Development products and services. Those microgrants are a particularly popular program, allowing agencies to try out new and promising programs or projects aimed toward goals like advancing crime fighting, increasing community engagement, or supporting organizational change.
• We are also awarding over $4.2 million for Promoting Access to Crisis Intervention Teams, which provides funding to embed behavioral or mental health professionals within law enforcement agencies.
• We will be awarding $6.6 million for our accreditation program, which supports the efforts of police departments and sheriff’s agencies that want to obtain accreditation by independent credentialing bodies. Independent accreditation can provide a community with reassurance that their law enforcement agency’s policies and practices have met the standards pre-established by an accrediting organization.
• Finally, we are awarding $7.5 million for what has become one of the COPS Office’s signature programs – Collaborative Reform. Collaborative Reform covers a wide range of assistance to law enforcement agencies and communities across the country. It ranges from conducting an in-depth analysis of an agency’s policies and procedures, or providing guidance when there is a critical incident or major need that would benefit from expert engagement, to offering peer support, training, or a wide variety of other resources on a broad range of topics.

One of the hallmarks of the COPS Office has been its ability to adapt and innovate in response to evolving challenges. From addressing the opioid epidemic and promoting officer safety and wellness, to advancing the use of technology in policing, and supporting the implementation of evidence-based practices, the COPS Office has consistently been a leader in driving positive change in law enforcement.

In its earlier years, the COPS Office developed a network of regional community policing institutes, many of which have transformed into centers of training that continue to serve the field. A number of them are also part of the current network of De-escalation Training Centers and Tolerance, Diversity, and Anti-Bias training providers, which offer DOJ-approved training and train-the-trainer programs to agencies throughout the country at no charge. 

And the COPS Office maintains the largest online library devoted to community policing. Once again, available to law enforcement at no charge.

As we celebrate the achievements of the past 30 years, we know that the work of the COPS Office is far from done. The challenges we face today — from continuing to work to reduce violent crime to emphasizing the need for greater police accountability — require us to continue evolving and adapting our approaches.

We must continue to invest in community policing, support innovative solutions, and ensure that our law enforcement officers and agencies have the tools and resources they need to protect and serve all communities with integrity and respect.

Before I close, I would like to again thank Director Clements for his friendship to me and excellent leadership of the COPS team. I want to thank the entire COPS Office staff, both past and present, for your dedication to the advancement of the principles of community policing. I am glad that so many of you are able to join us today.

It is also a pleasure to see so many of our law enforcement stakeholder partners. We know that without you, we wouldn’t have all the wonderful stories to share and successes to point to.

I look forward to a bright future of service, innovation, and partnership.

Thank you all.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department announced today its withdrawal from the 1995 Bank Merger Guidelines and emphasized that the 2023 Merger Guidelines remain its sole and authoritative statement across all industries.

The department today also released commentary explaining the application of the 2023 Merger Guidelines in banking. This commentary identifies competition issues that may commonly occur in bank mergers and outlines which guidelines best inform analysis of those issues. As with the 2023 Merger Guidelines, this commentary offers transparency into the department’s merger review process but does not create rights or obligations of any party under the laws governing mergers of banks and bank holding companies.

The announcement today was the result of a collaborative consultative process with the department’s close partners at the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The announcement was also informed by robust public feedback, department experience and expertise, as well as developments in the market, law and economics.

Neither the 2024 Banking Addendum nor the 2023 Merger Guidelines predetermine enforcement action by the department. Although the 2023 Merger Guidelines identify the factors and frameworks the department considers when investigating mergers, the department’s enforcement decisions will necessarily depend on the facts in any case and will continue to require prosecutorial discretion and judgment.

Throughout any bank merger review, the Justice Department works closely with the relevant bank regulators to ensure the complementary and consistent application of the laws within each agency’s area of expertise. As is always the case, those agencies may at their discretion use their own methods for screening and evaluating bank mergers.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

When signing the Voting Rights Act in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson called on leaders to register voters and to use the courts if necessary to defend the right.

Today, hundreds of organizations and thousands of volunteers will help hundreds of thousands of people register to vote on National Voter Registration Day, Sept. 17.

What is National Voter Registration Day (Sept. 17)?

National Voter Registration Day is a nonpartisan civic holiday dedicated to celebrating our democracy. From fire departments to food pantries, from schools and civic leagues, people around the country help eligible friends, neighbors, seniors, college students, first-time voters and new citizens register to vote. Voters will find many items on the ballot this election season, from the presidency and school board races to city council contests and state legislative elections, to ballot initiatives and more. To have a voice in our American democracy, to exercise the right that our forebears deemed sacred, you must register to vote.

To get started, visit the official site: vote.gov. This federal government site helps you register to vote, check your registration status and learn about elections. Did you know that the federal voter registration form is available in over 20 languages, from Amharic to Yup’ik-Akuzipik and Spanish to Haitian Creole?

Download the form in English, Amharic, Apache, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Navajo, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Yup’ik-Akuzipik.

If I don’t register and vote, will it matter?

Martin Luther King Jr. framed for all of us the critical importance of the right to vote. It is, he said, “the most powerful instrument ever devised by human beings for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison people because they are different from others.” Voting can set the agenda for your neighborhood and the nation. Whether you are concerned about paving a road, getting disaster relief for your state or protecting the civil rights of all Americans, voting is the way to assert your voice and advance your needs.

The Justice Department has a team dedicated to ensuring compliance with federal voting rights laws and protecting your access to the ballot box. We work to make sure polling places are accessible to all eligible voters, regardless of the color of their skin, the language they speak, their military deployment status or the disabilities they have.

The Justice Department regularly deploys poll monitors to seek equal access for all voters, including people with disabilities and/or limited English proficiency and to prevent interference with the right to vote.

If I encounter challenges to voting, can I seek help?

A key mission of the Justice Department is to protect voters from intimidation, harassment or obstruction of their right to vote. If you experience challenges from any source — public officials or private parties — in trying to register to vote or vote, tell us. If your name has been improperly removed from a voter registration list, tell us. If you think there may be efforts to intimidate voters at your voting place, tell us. If you encounter challenges accessing early voting or absentee voting opportunities available in your state, tell us. Complaints about possible violations of federal voting rights laws can be submitted through the Civil Rights Division’s website at civilrights.justice.gov or by telephone at 1-800-253-3931. More information about voting and elections, including resources about your voting rights, is available on the Justice Department’s website at www.justice.gov/voting. If you suspect criminal misconduct, please contact the FBI at 1-800-CALLFBI. If at any time you are in danger, call 911.

• Si cree que sus derechos civiles o los de otra persona han sido vulnerados, envíe un informe mediante nuestro formulario en línea: Español.
• 如果您認為自己或他人的民權受到侵犯，請使用我們的線上表格提交報告: 繁體中文
• 如果您认为您或他人的民事权利受到侵犯，请使用我们的在线表格提交报告: 简体中文 
• Nếu quý vị tin rằng dân quyền của mình hoặc của người khác đã bị vi phạm, hãy gửi báo cáo bằng cách sử dụng mẫu trực tuyến của chúng tôi: Tiếng Việt 
• 귀하 또는 다른 누군가의 민권이 침해되었다고 믿는 경우, 온라인 양식을 이용해 신고서를 제출하십시오: 한국어
• Kung naniniwala ka na ang iyong mga karapatang sibil o ng ibang tao ay nalabag, magsumite ng ulat gamit ang aming online na pormularyo: Tagalog

Let us work together on Sept. 17, National Voter Registration Day, and beyond, to ensure access to the ballot for all eligible American citizens by helping members of our communities register to vote today. Our nation thrives when eligible Americans are able to exercise their voice in our democracy, register to vote and are able to freely cast their ballots.

The path to equal justice runs through the voting booth. The Justice Department will join with you to make sure that every eligible voter can follow that route.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

An important area for school safety planning that is often overlooked is school accessibility for students with disabilities. Accessibility barriers in public schools remain pervasive even decades after passage of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which bars disability discrimination by recipients of federal financial assistance, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Some of these barriers pose significant problems for ensuring school safety for students with disabilities. For example, students who use wheelchairs or mobility scooters must have an effective means of evacuating during a safety threat situation, such as a fire emergency, when elevators may not be used.

A new resource is available that provides valuable information on public school accessibility. We recommend that schools review and consider including information from this resource in their school safety planning. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report 20-448, K-12 Education: Justice Should Provide Information to Help School Districts Improve Access for People with Disabilities, found two-thirds of the nation’s school districts have facilities with physical barriers that may limit access for people with disabilities. In response to this GAO report, the Justice Department, in consultation with the Department of Education, recently developed a virtual training on designing accessible public school buildings. This new resource fills a gap; few resources currently exist focusing specifically on accessibility in the context of public schools. The GAO report noted that public schools lack access to information about accessibility requirements and called on the Justice Department to make additional resources on this topic available.

Presented by an architect for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the training video describes accessibility features schools should consider to ensure they are accessible to students with disabilities as required by the ADA. The training explains key accessibility features needed by students with disabilities to get to school, to participate in classes and get around school buildings and facilities, to use playground equipment and to participate in school activities. The training is user friendly, with diagrams and photographs showing examples of accessibility barriers and required accessibility features.

Providing accessible public schools requires accessible routes and entrances. Schools must reserve accessible parking spaces, make sure curb ramps and walkways are not too steep or uneven, have adequate entrance signage and have accessible doors and security check-ins. Corridors, classrooms and toilet rooms must be easy to navigate and not present obstacles or other protruding objects. And common-use areas such as libraries and media centers, cafeterias, auditoriums, play areas and stadiums and athletic fields much be accessible such that no student is unable to participate in activities occurring in these spaces. For additional information regarding federal accessibility requirements, visit www.ADA.gov. Links to relevant laws, regulations and standards, including the ADA’s accessibility requirements for state and local government entities, are available on this website.

As noted above, school accessibility is critical not just to ensuring equal educational opportunity but also to making sure students with disabilities can remain safe in educational settings. Families and communities entrust public schools to keep their children safe and secure from a variety of emergency events, like accidents, crime and natural disasters. Effective emergency planning is an essential component of school safety, and it includes actions schools should take to prevent these incidents from occurring and to mitigate their impact when they do occur.

To ensure students with disabilities remain safe, schools should take an inclusive and equitable approach to emergency management planning by ensuring that the needs of these students are reflected in such planning. Planners should consider a variety of disabilities and the range of vulnerabilities student may have — including those that are visual, communication, mobility, cognitive, attentional and emotional-related — to adequately protect them during emergency situations. Once these needs have been identified, schools can acquire the appropriate personnel, equipment and supplies to support them.

SchoolSafety.gov suggests strategies and resources for inclusive emergency planning here. Further the Department of Education’s Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center fact sheet describes how schools can integrate K-12 students with disabilities before, during and after an emergency in accordance with these laws. It provides that schools districts should make the same proactive decisions for students with and without disabilities, considering how best to address each student’s needs to keep them safe and secure.

The new Justice Department webinar complements these existing resources by offering a comprehensive overview of specific requirements that are necessary to ensure physical accessibility under the ADA. It provides online training, training materials and links to technical assistance specific to accessibility for public school facilities. It addresses accessibility issues that also impact safety and security in public school facilities and includes information in plain language, such as information about accessibility requirements for classrooms, recreational equipment and school grounds, that should be factored into school safety and security planning. Accessibility is necessary to ensure that students with disabilities are fully included in school safety efforts and that they can be safely evacuated during emergencies. We highly recommend that public schools review this resource and incorporate it into their school safety planning.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Six men were arrested and had their initial court appearances yesterday after being charged in a five-count indictment with violating the Animal Welfare Act in connection with a cockfighting operation. A federal grand jury sitting in Providence, Rhode Island, returned the indictment last week.

The indictment alleges that on March 6, 2022, Miguel Delgado, 73, hosted a series of individual cockfights, known as “derbies,” at his Providence home. Delgado is also charged with sponsoring and exhibiting roosters in an animal fighting venture on multiple dates, buying and transporting sharp instruments or “gaffs” for use in the cockfights and unlawfully possessing roosters for use in an animal fighting venture.

Onill Vasquez Lozada, 39, and Antonio Ledee Rivera, both of Rhode Island, were charged with unlawfully possessing roosters in April 2021 for use in an animal fighting venture and for sponsoring and exhibiting roosters at the March 2022 derby at Delgado’s home. Rivera was additionally charged in connection with an earlier derby at Delgado’s home.

Germidez Kingsley Jamie, 31; Jose Rivera, 67; and Luis Castillo, 35, all residents of Massachusetts, were charged with sponsoring and exhibiting roosters at an animal fighting venture at the March 2022 derby. Jamie and Jose Rivera are also charged with one count of buying and transporting gaffs for use in an animal fighting venture.

Cockfighting is a contest in which a person attaches a knife, gaff or other sharp instrument to the leg of a “gamecock” or rooster and then places the bird a few inches away from a similarly armed rooster. This results in a fight during which the roosters flap their wings and jump while stabbing each other with the weapons that are fastened to their legs. A cockfight ends when one rooster is dead or refuses to continue to fight. Commonly, one or both roosters die after a fight.

If convicted of Animal Welfare Act violations, the defendants each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Cunha for the District of Rhode Island made the announcement.

The Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General (USDA-OIG), Postal Inspection Service, Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigation and Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals investigated the case. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Rhode Island State Police, Massachusetts State Police, Animal Rescue League of Boston’s Law Enforcement Division and Providence, Woonsocket, and Attleboro Police Departments.

To report animal fighting crimes, contact your local law enforcement or the USDA-OIG’s complaint hotline.

Senior Trial Attorneys Gary Donner and Stephen Da Ponte of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. McAdams for the District of Rhode Island are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.