COVID-19 has accelerated a variety of global trends. Some of these are perhaps ultimately good, for example moves towards more investment in AI and automation, or a growing focus on taking this opportunity to making lasting changes to benefit the environment. Many others are, however, quite concerning. Continued threats to the global order, the likelihood of states testing the resolve of the new U.S. administration, and increasingly polarized populations are all factors that will dominate 2021.

The FBI released Hate Crime Statistics, 2019, the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s latest compilation about bias-motivated incidents throughout the nation. The 2019 data, submitted by 15,588 law enforcement agencies, provide information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) announced that it has awarded more than $458 million in grant funding to support state, local, and tribal law enforcement efforts to fight and prevent violent crime in jurisdictions across the United States.

For the third consecutive year, the estimated number of violent crimes in the nation decreased when compared with the previous year’s statistics, according to FBI figures released today. In 2019, violent crime was down 0.5% from the 2018 number. Property crimes also dropped 4.1%, marking the 17th consecutive year the collective estimates for these offenses declined.

Now more than ever, government policy makers need to focus resources; allowing law enforcement to focus on the core duties and responsibilities of law enforcement officers. And industries like ours, need to be creative in developing solutions to support them in this effort. The physical security industry supports law enforcement and when private security works in partnership with law enforcement, police officers have more time to focus on preventing and solving crimes.

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded $10 million to 29 select projects to support the development of a nationwide Terrorism and Targeted Violence Prevention (TVTP) Framework. These awards were made through a competitive process under the Fiscal Year 2020 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program.

The FBI’s Preliminary Uniform Crime Report, January–June, 2020, reveals overall declines in the number of violent crimes and property crimes reported for the first six months of 2020 when compared with figures for the first six months of 2019. The report is based on information from 12,206 law enforcement agencies that submitted three to six months of comparable data for both years to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

NY Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced a new social media campaign to raise awareness of human trafficking and help dispel common misconceptions about the crime and its victims.

Hospitals in Glasgow, Scotland have reported a rise in verbal and physical attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing them to draft in extra security to tackle the attacks.