Building Drug Intelligence Networks to Combat the Opioid Crisis in Rural Communities: A Collaborative Intelligence-Led Policing Strategy, United States, 2019-2022 (ICPSR 38672)
This NIJ-funded study used a data driven approach to understand rural police department responses to the opioid crisis. Researchers compiled County-Level Drug Data on overdose deaths to understand the spatio-temporal distribution of drug misuse and to identify counties with high levels of death that are doing better and worse than expected according to an inclusive statistical model. In combination with this data, researchers collected Police Agency Survey Data from police departments in four states to understand departments' access to intelligence resources. Based on this survey, six agencies with varying law enforcement structural relations with state-level agencies were selected to participate in the study intervention. Departments were partnered with mentors and encouraged to enhance their intelligence networks, design a simple initiative, equip themselves for it, and carry it out. Outcomes from the intervention were evaluated through survey data - available as Implementation Site Administrative and Survey Data - and through a series of qualitative interviews, which will be made available at a later date.