Address By James K Stewart at the Conference of the International Association of Police Chiefs, October 3, 1983

Mr. Stewart discusses a 4-year study NIJ sponsored on the exclusionary rule indicating that the rule does significantly impair case prosecution of narcotics and firearms offenses. He emphasizes NIJ's hope that this research will lead to constructive changes in the rule. As part of its commitment to police officer safety, he continues, NIJ has pioneered the development of a light, comfortable bullet-proof vest that does not restrict movement. Additional NIJ-sponsored research reviewed by Mr. Stewart provided guidelines for differential police responses to various types of service calls, producing a more efficient allocation of police resources; examined the importance of identifying and selectively incapacitating career criminals, who commit the majority of serious crimes; and probed the correlation between drug addiction and crime. He suggests that police chiefs become involved with researchers in determining future research agendas.