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As more activities of daily life move online, criminals and criminal activity have followed. With the advent of the dark web, criminals can conduct their activities in ways that are difficult for law enforcement to discover, monitor, and investigate. The dark web provides anonymity and encryption, which significantly complicates the process of identifying suspects and collecting evidence. To better understand these challenges, the RAND Corporation and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), on behalf of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), convened a workshop to bring together a diverse group of practitioners and researchers to identify the highest-priority problems and potential solutions related to evidence on the dark web. The focus was on developing an actionable research and development agenda that will enhance law enforcement's ability to understand and investigate illicit activity on the dark web. Workshop participants identified 46 potential solutions, or needs, which include improving training for law enforcement officers, sharing information across jurisdictions, and investigating the gaps and shortcomings in current laws related to searching packages.

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The United States is grappling with an opioid crisis that continues to cause devastation from addiction and massive numbers of deaths from overdose. Law enforcement has a unique role in addressing this crisis because it is directly tasked with interacting with those affected by the crisis on a day-to-day basis. On September 25 and 26, 2018, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), supported by the RAND Corporation in partnership with the Police Executive Research Forum, hosted an event that brought together subject-matter experts to identify and prioritize promising approaches for responding to the opioid crisis. After a series of panels and discussions, participants produced 13 high-priority needs, including strategies that were perceived to be ready for immediate implementation and those with remaining challenges that should inform the research agenda. The high-priority needs reflect an assessment by the group that one primary solution to the opioid crisis will be a focus on connecting individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) to the medications that can treat them. It will be important to pursue solutions that reduce barriers to the use of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and expand access and funding for it. Connecting individuals with OUD to treatment will require effective collaborations among law enforcement officers, social workers, and other stakeholders. Finally, in addition to removing legal barriers, community and other stakeholder concerns will need to be addressed before high-priority harm-reduction approaches, such as safe injection sites or syringe exchanges, can be implemented.

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Autonomous vehicles (AVs) promise many benefits, but questions remain about how law enforcement (LE) officers will interact with them. Officers likely will encounter new challenges related to technology, procedures, and constitutional authorities. To better understand the potential challenges of LE interaction with AVs, the RAND Corporation and the Police Executive Research Forum, on behalf of the National Institute of Justice, convened a workshop of practitioners and researchers to identify the highest-priority problems and associated needs related to AVs within the next five years. The purpose of the workshop was to explore specific scenarios involving AVs that have occurred or will occur and generate needs and potential technical options for addressing such situations. Workshop participants identified 33 needs that revolved around three broad themes: (1) designing a means of communicating with AVs that also maintains cybersecurity; (2) improving stakeholder communication and collaboration; and (3) developing standard procedures, guidelines, and training needs for LE interacting with AVs. The consensus was that many of the short-term needs identified in this report require a response and that LE should begin proactive preparations to address longer-term challenges before being forced into reactive changes.

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The three central sections of the criminal justice system—law enforcement, the courts, and corrections agencies—work together toward the common goal of addressing the challenge of criminal behavior. Because of the wide variety of issues and incidents to which the criminal justice system responds, the system faces many challenges. Such challenges include new types of technological crime facing the police; new demands complicating court operations; and, in the corrections context, such practical challenges as managing aging offender populations and dealing with drones used to smuggle contraband over prison walls. Moreover, as society changes, the challenges facing the criminal justice system can be expected to continue to shift. In this report, the authors focus on common needs that apply to all three sections of the justice system. Starting with the deep pool of feedback and input collected from the practitioner community across the five-year Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative project, the authors abstracted insights about innovation needs for the justice system as a whole.

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Beginning in spring 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) swept through the United States, infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands of Americans. In some areas, incarcerated populations were hit hard by the disease. Significant numbers of justice system practitioners, including law enforcement officers, court staff and leaders, corrections staff, and service providers were infected, and deaths from COVID-19 became a primary cause of lives lost in the line of duty. At the same time, national protests in response to the killing of George Floyd and other Black Americans focused attention on equity and fairness in the justice system, resulting in significant pressure for reform. The conditions faced by organizations across the justice system differed widely, and responses to address the risk of infection varied from place to place. Many of the responses to the pandemic focused on increases in physical distancing and the use of virtual technologies to continue the operations of the justice system while minimizing infection risk. In an effort to gather lessons learned from the responses of different justice agencies to the pandemic, the Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative convened a set of workshops at the end of September 2020 with justice agency representatives and others to take stock of what had been done and look toward the future. A variety of common challenges and innovations were identified in the workshops that assisted in continuing the operation of the system through the pandemic and also might support broader reforms and justice system innovation going forward.

Criminal justice, Administration of --- COVID-19 (Disease) --- COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020 --- -Health aspects --- History --- Social aspects --- Technological innovations --- Government policy