About The Institute

The Future Policing Institute (FPI) was established in 2019 as a vehicle for anchoring foresight and innovation to the culture of policing. This website launched in early 2024. It is a practitioner, policymaker and community-focused knowledge organization. It examines issues and technologies that will affect policing in the future. It is predicated on the belief that the best way to predict the future of policing is to create it.

The FPI provides commentary – in the form of blog posts, articles and issue briefs – on those issues affecting the future of policing. It also provides resources for the police, elected officials and interested community members to advance a forward leading, rightful model of policing. In addition, the Institute’s Fellows provide consulting services, mentoring of policing leaders, media interviews on those issues affecting the future of policing. It is also a gateway to the discipline of futures studies for police personnel and laypeople interested in understanding and creating preferred futures.

The Institute blends multiple areas of interest its leadership believes are critical to creating, leading and interacting with a forward leaning, constitutionally correct and “rightful” model of policing. Some of these include futures studies, strategic foresight, political impacts on policing, societal trends and evolution, community policing, organizational culture, the re-engineering of policing, evidence based policing, harm reduction, officer safety and wellness, organizational development, systems thinking, preventable error, learning organizations, community building, climate change impacts on policing, and technology.

The Institute places an emphasis on the impacts of technology on policing – now and in the future. While policing is a consumer of technology, it has focused little attention on the consequences of adopting certain technologies. Few police organizations, for instance, have “police technologists” whose responsibility it is not only to seek out new technologies beneficial to the organization, but also to help leaders understand the ramifications of the technology.

This is especially true for artificial intelligence (AI). Many believe that it may, at once, be the greatest of all human creations and the most harmful. This may very well be true for policing. How police leaders view and use AI in the future will have a direct impact on policing’s rightful nature. Balancing the benefits with the inherent risk in such a powerful technological advance will be as challenging to future policing leaders as any they, or their predecessors, have faced. As such, The Institute places high value on helping police leaders, policymakers and community members understand what AI is and what it is currently capable of, and most importantly, what it will be, and do, in the future.

Other disruptive technologies that impact policing the Institute is tracking include, but are not limited to, mobile devices, social media, body worn cameras, drones, facial recognition, self-driving vehicles, robotics, virtual and augmented reality, the Internet of Things (IoT), the Dark Web, deepfake videos, sentiment analysis, open data, geographic information systems (GIS),

The Future Policing Institute articulates perspectives on these, and other issues, to stimulate thought and discussion about how policing can be thoughtfully directed toward a preferred future policing.

Our Mission

“To advance future policing that is effective, empathetic and just.”

The four core principles of the Institute’s mission - future-oriented, effectiveness, empathy and just policing - form a critical mass of deep concepts that hold the promise of meaningful and sustainable cultural change in policing.

Future oriented policing goes beyond reactive measures, using futures concepts and a anticipatory posture to understand crime and social issues and the phenomenon that will affect policing in the near future. Effectiveness goes beyond traditional measures like arrests to encompass community engagement, human rights protection and issue resolution in an open and accountable manner. Empathy and justice - two components traditionally less prioritized in traditional policing models - now take center stage as key aspects. Empathetic policing treats every public interaction as an opportunity to enhance someone's life while just policing requires impartiality and fairness in every action and policy implemented by law enforcement officers.

This move towards a new policing model isn't simply aspirational; the Institute considers it essential in meeting the complex challenges of contemporary society. Rethinking policing at a deeper level means true community collaboration and legislative reform as well as culture shift within police departments. By integrating four elements - a future-leaning, anticipatory orientation, effectiveness at controlling crime and disorder, empathy toward the people the police are paid to protect and a just framework for policing - the Institute seeks to influence policing practices by becoming a thought leader and advocacy center that transforms these principles into actionable policies while advancing a form of policing that communities can trust and actively collaborate with.

Finally, a central tenet of the Institute’s operating philosophy is the desire to help police leaders and their organizations develop a high tolerance for ambiguity and change. The only thing absolutely consistent in our world is change. As you read this, the world is changing in a myriad of ways - some beneficial, some bordering on catastrophic. Successful police leaders of the future will be anticipatory and nimble in their orientation to protecting their communities and leading their people. It will be incumbent on them to help their agencies learn to adapt to an increasingly unstable policing environment and ensure that the policing they can influence is effective, empathetic and just, no matter what changes the future brings.

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What We Believe - Our Guiding Principles

The things we believe about future policing are memorialized as our Guiding Principles. These help frame our organizational purpose, vision and direction. They reflect the values of our organization’s leadership. And they serve to attract like-minded individuals to whom these guideposts are crucial to their own journey to the future.

These are the Guiding Principles of the Future Policing Institute.

  • Only people count. Each of the people the police are sworn to protect - even those they arrest - deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

  • Every community deserves ”rightful policing” that is effective, empathetic and just.

  • The best way to predict policing’s future is to create it.

  • Every police organization’s success ultimately depends on the level of trust and confidence placed in it by the public because it is effective and responsive, transparent and accountable, protective and collaborative, and respectful and just.

  • Building trust and confidence in policing should be a primary emphasis of every police organization – now and in the future.

  • Leaders of the future must develop a high tolerance for ambiguity and help their agencies develop their own set of skills to police in an increasingly uncertain future.

  • Innovation and “outside the box thinking” must be part of future policing.

  • Effective future policing strategies will represent a mash up of multiple disciplines and perspectives.

  • Knowledge is not the sole province of experts. Practitioners, policymakers and community members also know a great deal about policing and its future. Every stakeholder has something to contribute to the future of policing.

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Meet our Founder

chief jim bueermann rightful policing

Chief Jim Bueermann (ret.) has been involved in various aspects of policing since 1978. He retired from the Redlands Police Department (CA) after 33 yrs of service, the last 13 of those as Chief of Police and Director of Housing, Recreation and Senior Services. In 2012, he was appointed president of the National Police Foundation (now the National Policing Institute). He retired at the end of 2018 and began consulting for a variety of governmental, community and private organizations. In early 2019 he founded the Future Policing Institute as a way of helping prepare policing for an increasingly uncertain future - but also one in which policing is effective, empathetic and just.

Click here to see his full bio.

Our Fellows

Our Strategic Partners

Strategic partners of the Future Policing Institute are organizations whose mission and values are compatible with those of the Institute and whose leaders are committed to collaborative explorations of policing’s future.

Police2Peace is a national nonprofit organization which is bridging the gap between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve by implementing positive changes in policing practices. Through transformational programs designed to bring about agency culture change for police and sheriffs using the framework of police officers as “peace officers”,  P2P fosters trust, understanding, and cooperation between police officers and community members through multiple, innovative initiatives.

Learn more about Police2Peace

The University of Virginia’s Center for Public Safety and Justice serves as a hub for innovation, education, and leadership development in public safety, addressing the most pressing challenges of our time. 

It aims to empower public safety leaders to improve public service and enhance the well-being of communities, not just in Virginia but across the nation and beyond. It is committed to advancing leadership, research, and education to strengthen public safety and justice in a diverse and rapidly changing world, bringing together educators, practitioners, and scholars.

Learn more about The CPSJ

The Justice Clearinghouse espouses an inter-disciplinary approach to understanding and resolving the challenges affecting our justice and public safety arena. It offers year-round “virtual conferences” for justice professionals to learn from the thought leaders, innovators, researchers, and street-wise, experienced professionals in their fields, without the cost, travel, or time out of the office.
Learn more about the JCH

The Future Policing Institute continuously searches for new collaborators. If you think our missions align, reach out and “let’s chat!”

Learn more about becoming a strategic partner of the FPI

Acknowledgement

Bill Tafoya

In 1989, I attended the FBI National Academy in Quantico, VA. While there, I took a elective graduate course - "Futuristics in Law Enforcement - taught by FBI Supervisory Special Agent Bill Tafoya. This was a very unique class he had been teaching since 1982.

As was the case for the majority of police leaders taking Bill’s class, it was a perspective-altering experience for me. I never looked at policing the same way again. And for that, I will be eternally indebted to Bill. The Future Policing Institute, and whatever value it represents, is directly connected to Bill Tafolla's desire to exponentially change the mindset of policing leadership.

Thank you Bill. Thank you for what you did for policing. Thank you for what you did for me.

Jim Bueermann
President and Founder