The University of Baltimore’s Center for Public Safety Innovation (CPSI) is a nationally renowned applied research center within the College of Public Affairs designed to support community safety initiatives by leveraging nationally recognized policy experts, advocates, and scholars dedicated to identifying best practices and policies to reduce violence and drug trafficking.
The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program was created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 and leverages funding from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to coordinate Federal, State, Local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies to address regional drug threats with the purpose of reducing drug trafficking and drug production in the United States. There are 33 regional HIDTAs serving all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia aligned within a specific area of responsibility (AOR).
The W/B HIDTA was created in 1994 to serve Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and parts of West Virginia. The University of Baltimore College of Public Affairs successfully brought the W/B HIDTA to the University in 2017 creating the Center for Drug Policy and Enforcement (now CPSI) providing strategic management and support to the program, which has seen significant growth since that time.
The W/B HIDTA’s mission is to reduce drug trafficking and misuse by improving interagency collaboration, promoting accurate and timely information and intelligence sharing, and providing specialized training and other resources to its law enforcement, intelligence, treatment, and prevention initiatives. Lead by an executive board consisting of public safety partners across the region, the W/B HIDTA is at the focal point of the Center’s applied research activity.
The W/B HIDTA is the leading source of information and resources designed to disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking and money laundering organizations providing an annual drug threat assessment to law enforcement detailing the greatest impacts on safety and health throughout the AOR. The program provides resources to initiatives that accomplished the following in CY 2022:
The ODMAP is a discretionary grant awarded by ONDCP under the W/B HIDTA and managed by the Center. ODMAP provides near real-time suspected overdose data across jurisdictions to support public safety and public health efforts to mobilize an immediate response to a sudden increase, or spike, in overdose events. ODMAP links first responders and relevant record management systems to a mapping tool to track overdoses to stimulate real-time response and strategic analysis across jurisdictions.
ODMAP has become one of the most important tools supporting life-saving response efforts nationally by both public health and safety partners. Millions of funds have been invested into the system by ONDCP, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to better track fatal and non-fatal overdose rates. The system has become a component of jurisdictional response and is currently used in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Nationwide participation is significant including the following:
CPSI oversees the Combating Overdose through Community-Level Interdiction (COCLI) grant program. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 107,000 people died from a drug overdose in the United States in 2021, a 15 percent increase from 2020. Government entities at the federal, state, and local level have initiated projects to respond to this unprecedented epidemic.
COCLI is a program funded through a partnership between the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the CDC, which first began in 2017. CPSI has successfully been awarded this grant since 2017, funding projects from public nonprofit institutions to develop and implement community-based efforts designed to fight the overdose epidemic and support strong partnerships between law enforcement and public health agencies. A total of $18 million has been awarded to more than 75 projects in the six years that CPSI has managed these activities:
2017 – 13 grantees for a total of $2 million
2018 – 12 grantees for a total of $3.5 million
2019 – 14 grantees for a total of $4.5 million
2020 – 8 grantees for a total of $2 million
2021 – 14 grantees for a total of $3 million
2022 – 14 grantees for a total of $3 million
The current grantees represent regional and programmatic diversity. Projects include significant efforts to address harm reduction, medically assisted treatment, overdose notification and treatment referral, as well as innovations such as gamifying parental intervention training and on-demand response through Emergency providers. The current grant recipients include the following:
MCAC serves as the focal point between federal, state, local, public, and private sector partners in coordination, gathering, analysis, and dissemination of homeland security and criminal information to keep Maryland safe. A component of the Maryland State Police (MSP) and other law enforcement partners, the MCAC was created as a modal facility for the analysis and dissemination of statewide information to support law enforcement public health and welfare, public safety, and homeland security.
CPSI was contracted to provide support to the MCAC in 2017 and has consistently provided expert research and analytical support to the program informing situational awareness related to law enforcement, fire, emergency medical and response services, public health and welfare, public safety, and security. CPSI leverages the research capabilities of the University and the W/B HIDTA program to support these activities serving a critical coordination and analysis role supporting overall safety in Maryland. The program specifically provides analytical support in the following areas:
The Maryland Criminal Intelligence Network (MCIN) is a coalition of criminal justice agencies that collaborate and coordinate tactics, resources, and intelligence through comprehensive data sharing, cross-jurisdictional partnerships, effective policies, and supporting technologies. This grant is a partnership with the W/B HIDTA designed to promote intelligence sharing through a coordinated and collaborative law enforcement investigative strategy to battle the opioid epidemic through cooperation and data sharing.
In 2017, the state of Maryland designated the W/B HIDTA Case Explorer data system as the central repository for all drug related data within the state, and the system is currently used for all drug investigations in Maryland. In 2017, CPSI applied for funds to provide leadership and support to the MCIN Heroin Coordinator Program and this grant funds a faculty research associate at the University to provide overall statewide coordination of these efforts including day to day coordination and completion of the annual report. In addition, the Center provides several coordinators for jurisdictions within the state lacking sufficient staff to enter drug related data into the Case Explorer system and share information across jurisdictions related to significant drug investigations and trends.
Additionally, the CPSI provides software and analytical tools to support local law enforcement in ten jurisdictions to better investigate drug cases using mobile forensics technology. CPSI is at the center of all drug-related activity within the state and Maryland and serves as a force multiplier in efforts to disrupt drug trafficking organizations and supporting both harm and demand reduction strategies in partnership with public health entities statewide.
CPSI Provides support to the Howard County Office of Emergency Management to better plan for and respond to emergency incidents throughout the county. Specifically, this grant employs staff to support Howard County’s coordinated emergency responses to all hazards. CPSI staff work within the Office of Emergency Management to develop and manage a variety of emergency management programs and projects.
The City of Milwaukee Health Department partnered with the North Central HIDTA and the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office to submit a Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Prevention (COSSUP) grant through the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). The Milwaukee Drug Rapid-Testing and Outreach Program (DROP) seeks to collect and coordinate near-real-time data to better inform community harm reduction partners and policies used in overdose prevention. Based upon the success of the ODMAP program, Milwaukee approached the CPSI to provide assistance on this grant to develop a visual tool to better share this information. Technical resources within the Center will work with Milwaukee officials to develop the visualization tool and relevant data features to better inform partners about drug related trends and patterns throughout the City of Milwaukee. This will be a national model that can inform and serve other localities seeking to better understand spatial and temporal patterns within their data.
CPSI has supported the needs of the ABMDI since 2017 by providing staff to support the goals of the organization. As a voluntary, not-for-profit, independent board certifying individuals who perform medicolegal death investigations, the program has five primary goals:
