NEW ROCHELLE, NY — 
Out of 18,000 police agencies in the country, the New Rochelle Police Department has been designated as one of the elite 100 departments selected to participate in a new program designed to advance the current state of knowledge and practice in American policing.
The National Police Research Platform, which is funded by the National Institute of Justice, is a consortium of police executives and researchers, whose goal is to promote organizational excellence in law enforcement. The platform for this project has been developed and will be overseen by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Research in Law and Justice.
After a 3 year testing phase, the effort is moving forward with a national sample of 100 police and sheriff agencies. The goal is to collect systematic data about law enforcement agencies to help establish benchmarks for excellence in policing. These data will be gleaned from surveys conducted solely by the university overseeing the research.
The surveys will be voluntary and the anonymity of the participants will be protected. Citizens will be asked to share their experiences after recent contacts with police, and officers and civilian personnel will be surveyed on a variety of aspects of the organization.
“We are honored and excited to have been selected to partake in this important study,” New Rochelle Commissioner Patrick J. Carroll said. “These findings will present us with a crucial link to our Community Policing efforts. We will be provided with an X-ray into the internal and external workings of our department, and a future roadmap that will guide us in our quest to provide optimal police service with a dedicated professional police force.”
Commissioner Carroll says former Mayor Ed Koch of New York City was famous for his opening remarks with community groups in saying, “How am I doing?” “Well, now we will now have the resources to truly answer that question,” said Carroll. “We will have the benchmarks of 99 other agencies to learn and improve our day-to-day operations.”
Police encounters from traffic accidents and traffic stops along with non-violent crimes will be part of the survey. Encounters from more serious violent crimes and those involving juveniles will not be surveyed.