Press release

National Police Foundation Selects New President

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The National
Police Foundation
(NPF) Board of Directors recently announced their
decision to name Executive Vice President Jim Burch as the
organization’s new President. This announcement comes after the
retirement of the former President and retired police chief Jim
Bueermann in 2018. Burch has been serving as interim President since
December and will begin serving as President immediately.

Burch has served with the Foundation — a non-partisan, non-profit
research organization dedicated to improving policing through innovation
and science — since 2015. During his tenure, he developed and led
multiple research, training, and technical assistance projects related
to violent crime reduction, officer safety, transparency and technology,
and international policing development efforts, resulting in substantial
growth of the Foundation’s programs serving police and communities
alike. Burch joined the Foundation after serving more than 20 years in
both federal service and the private sector. Burch served as an Acting
Assistant Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, &
Explosives, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for DOJ’s largest
agency dedicated to supporting state and local law enforcement, and as
Acting Director of the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice
Assistance where he led the development of many resources and programs
designed to support and encourage the use of science in policing.

“I am extremely pleased and honored to announce that the Board of
Directors has selected Jim Burch as our new President,” said Bernard
Melekian, Chairman of the NPF Board of Directors and Assistant County
Executive Officer over public safety in Santa Barbara, California. “Jim
is a visionary leader and has a long and distinguished public service
career. His strong dedication to NPF’s mission and proven record for
developing effective and innovative strategies to enhance policing and
justice makes him uniquely qualified to lead our organization at this
transformative time.”

As President of the National Police Foundation, Burch has identified two
major areas of focus
within the mission of the NPF — enhancing and
strengthening the profession’s reliance on science and evidence-based
policing in order to better protect communities and officers, and
working with police and community leaders to strengthen the positive
relations that exist and to rebuild strained and broken trust where it
exists in the U.S. and in fragile democracies across the world.

“Equipping police and political leaders with actionable and
science-based information about effective crime reduction and police
operations, and working to improve trust, understanding and cooperation
between police and communities across racial and demographic divides is
essential and must be priority number one for the Foundation,” said
Burch. “The Foundation will return to its roots, established nearly 50
years ago, as it seeks to advance policing at a time when the police are
so positively viewed by many and yet looked upon with skepticism,
distrust or fear by others. We cannot take a one-sided view and for the
good of our communities and the profession, we must confront the divides
that keep us apart.”

Burch is a nationally-recognized voice in law enforcement and criminal
justice and has participated in many panels, television, radio, and
print interviews, to discuss trending topics.

About the National Police Foundation:

Established in 1970, the National Police Foundation is a national,
non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to improving policing
through innovation and science. For nearly 50 years, the Foundation has
conducted research on all aspects of policing and is leading the way in
promoting and sharing evidence-based practices and innovation among law
enforcement. The Foundation is currently working with hundreds of police
agencies nationwide, as well as internationally, providing research and
translation, training, technical assistance, and modern technology
implementation. The Foundation is a leader in officer safety and
wellness, community policing, open-data, investigations, and
law-enforcement technology. The Foundation’s main goal is to improve the
way police do their work and the delivery of police services, in order
to benefit officers and the communities they serve, as well as reduce
crime.

For more information, please visit the National Police Foundation website.
For media inquiries, please contact Erica Richardson at erichardson@policefoundation.org
or at 202-833-1466.