Every person working in a law enforcement agency has a role in victim response. Federal, state, local, campus, or tribal law Enforcement Personnel are traditionally the first professionals to interact with a victim following the commission of a crime.

The compassion and support these professionals demonstrate can have a lasting impact on each victim and case, as well as reverberating effects through the larger community. The ELERV Strategy introduces law enforcement agencies to the benefits, challenges, methods, and responsibilities for adopting victim-
centered, trauma-informed philosophies and enhancing their response to victims of crime.

The ELERV Strategy strives to create fundamental, agencywide change by addressing the seven critical needs of victims: safety, support, information, access, continuity, voice, and justice). Law enforcement agencies can address these needs by focusing on four core principles:

Leadership: Law enforcement leaders are responsible for conveying the benefits of enhanced victim response to all staff, developing and sustaining an agency infrastructure that prioritizes enhanced victim response, and fostering ongoing communication and partnerships with community stakeholders.

Partnering: Law enforcement agencies can maximize their capacity to meet victims’ needs by fostering internal and external partnerships.

Training: It is imperative to incorporate ongoing training that provides victim response skills, knowledge, and tools at all career stages and across all ranks and disciplines.

Performance Monitoring: Law enforcement agencies should document baseline information about the quality of their current victim response. Analysis of this information can guide the development of strategic goals and performance measures to assess progress.

Structured around the four core principles, each section of the ELERV Strategy, 2nd edition, features an introductory video and accompanying publications. The publications take a deep dive into the key components of each of the core principles, contain embedded links for resources from the IACP and other organizations, and include customizable templates.

Leadership explores the incorporation of enhanced victim response into the mission, vision, core values, policies, and procedures of the agency; development of agency infrastructure that prioritizes victim response; and sustainment of long-term commitment to victim-centered, trauma-informed philosophies. This section’s resources include sample mission, vision, and values statements; an implementation plan template; and goal and action planning worksheets.

Partnering highlights the importance of collaborating with internal and external partners through formalized agreements, information sharing, and development of joint training opportunities. To assist agencies with implementation, this section includes links to customizable templates for memoranda of understanding, overviews of potential internal and external partnerships, and sample language templates for engaging with new partners.

Training explores approaches such as conducting training inventories and prioritizing co- and cross-training opportunities between agency personnel and community partners. Resources include a sample training bulletin, worksheets aimed at evaluating internal practices, and complete sample training presentations on common victim response topics.

Performance Monitoring assists agencies in understanding the value of collecting both baseline and follow-up data on victim response, analyzing trends and making mid-course corrections, determining required resources, and strategies for achieving short- and long-term goals. This section includes worksheets to assist agencies in systematically identifying strengths and opportunities for growth in their victim response efforts and fully customizable survey templates for feedback from internal agency personnel, victims, community members, and community partners.