About Us
Innovative Strategies for Public Safety
Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. (JSS) is a minority-owned business that specializes in crime and public policy issues, with an emphasis on law enforcement. JSS has conducted applied research for over 23 years. Dr. Craig D. Uchida is the President and Founder of JSS where he oversees contracts and grants with cities, counties, criminal justice agencies, foundations, and foreign nations. He is a nationally known expert in policing and has conducted numerous studies with law enforcement agencies across the country.
JSS serves as the Research Partner for a number of law enforcement agencies and community-based organizations across the country. JSS is currently the Research Partner for the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) on its Crime Gun Intelligence Center program. JSS has worked extensively with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) as its Research Partner for over 11 years. Currently, JSS is working with LAPD’s homicide detectives to improve the solvability of its cases. In addition, JSS is assisting the LAPD with the transition from the UCR data collection system to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) through a BJS grant.
Other JSS work includes a partnership with the Miami-Dade County government to reduce crime in the southern part of the county through collective efficacy; a partnership with the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office to enhance the capabilities of the Crime Strategies Unit; and JSS provides training and technical assistance on body-worn cameras to law enforcement agencies through a contract with the Bureau of Justice Assistance. JSS has worked with more than 75 police agencies across the country since its inception in 1997. The larger departments include Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Fairfax County (VA), Honolulu, Jersey City, Kansas City (MO), Los Angeles, Long Beach, City of Miami, Miami-Dade County, Minneapolis, Nashville, Newark, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Medium-size departments include Cambridge (MA), Concord (CA), Fort Lauderdale (FL), Hialeah (FL), Hollywood (FL), Inglewood (CA), Little Rock, Miami Gardens (FL), Redlands (CA), Salt Lake City, and the US Virgin Islands. Small departments include Everett (MA), Hoover (AL), Somerville (MA), Spartanburg (SC), and Westwood (MA).
Leadership
Dr. Craig D. Uchida, Ph.D.
President
Dr. Craig D. Uchida is the President and Founder of Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. (JSS), a consulting firm that specializes in criminal justice, law enforcement, homeland security, children and youth violence, public health, and public policy. At JSS he oversees contracts and grants with cities, counties, criminal justice agencies, foundations, and foreign nations.
As an educator, Dr. Uchida has taught courses at the Naval Post-Graduate School’s Program in Homeland Security in Monterey, CA and was a professor at the University of Maryland. He was the Senior Advisor to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service where he revised the entire training curriculum for this 7,300-officer department.
As a public policy administrator, Dr. Uchida was a senior executive within the US Department of Justice. He is the former Assistant Director for Grants Administration and Senior Policy Adviser for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). As the Assistant Director for Grants Administration he and his staff were responsible for developing and implementing the grant making process, making grant awards, and grant monitoring. When he left the COPS Office he had provided $3.4 billion to over 9,000 law enforcement agencies for over 65,000 officers. His efforts at the COPS Office resulted in two major US Department of Justice Awards – the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award in 1995 and the JustWorks Award for innovation in government in 1997.
As a criminologist, Dr. Uchida has studied violent crime, policing, and a variety of programs in the criminal justice system. He is the author of numerous journal articles, government publications, and monographs. He is the co-editor of two books on drug enforcement and police innovation and is co-author of a book that assessed the security of the Nation's dams, published by the National Academy of Sciences. His most recent book is, Community, Crime Control, and Collective Efficacy: Neighborhoods and Crime in Miami. His most recent journal articles include studies of body-worn cameras (in Criminology), focused deterrence (in Police Quarterly), and use of force (in the Criminal Justice Policy Review). His research and policy interests include police use of force, body-worn cameras, data-driven policing, crime analysis in policing and prosecutor offices, and technology in criminal justice.
Recently, Dr. Uchida conducted research and evaluations in the Los Angeles, Denver, and Baltimore Police Departments. Dr. Uchida received his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University at Albany and holds two Masters degrees, one in Criminal Justice and one in American History.
Dr. Shellie E. Solomon, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Shellie E. Solomon is the Chief Executive Officer of Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. (JSS), a consulting firm that specializes in issues related to criminal justice, children and youth violence, public health, and public policy. Dr. Solomon often leads efforts to aid law enforcement agencies with adopting technologies and also using “big data.”
At JSS, she has co-lead projects on geospatial predictive policing, police early warning system, child support parenting time, gang intervention, mortgage fraud and collective efficacy. Throughout her career at JSS, Dr. Solomon has worked in over 50 law enforcement agencies including Miami State Attorney’s Office, Los Angeles Police Department, San Francisco DA’s Office, Austin Police Department, Spartanburg Police Department, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Trinidad and Tobago.
Prior to JSS, Dr. Solomon was a Senior Policy Analyst at the COPS Office, serving as a point person for coordinating over 10,000 grants for small and rural agencies.
Ms. Solomon received her PhD. in governance from the University of Maastricht, Netherlands, a United Nations University through the UNU Merit Program (Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute).
Our Team
Dr. Marc L. Swatt, Ph.D.
Project Director and Senior Research Statistician
Dr. Marc L. Swatt joined Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. (JSS) in 2012 and currently serves as a Senior Research Associate and Statistician. Dr. Swatt’s primary interests include criminological theory, quantitative analysis, and neighborhood crime prevention.
At JSS, Dr. Swatt has been involved with the preparation of proposals and research plans, collecting and analyzing data, and producing research reports and journal articles across a number of funded initiatives. These projects include research on collective efficacy, geospatial predictive models, crime prevention, police technology, police strategy, prosecutor innovation, emergency response, and other topics. Further, these projects include evaluation studies of a police early intervention system, a police body worn camera initiative, a hotspot and habitual offender crime prevention program, a Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC) and acoustic firearm detection system, a “pulling-levers” program, a Data-Driven Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS) initiative, a court-based program for increasing parenting time for non-custodial parents, among others.
Dr. Swatt has extensive experience with a number of statistical methods and has published or written reports using a number of models, including generalized linear models, hierarchical linear models, structural equation models, item response theory models, time series analysis, data mining, survival analysis, missing data analysis, counterfactual models, and crime mapping and spatial analysis. Dr. Swatt has been involved with collecting, analyzing, geocoding, and mapping large databases, such as calls for service, police report data, and arrest data across multiple municipalities, including Los Angeles, Miami, Jacksonville, Omaha, Denver, San Francisco, and San Antonio.
Dr. Swatt earned a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2003. Prior to joining JSS, Dr. Swatt taught criminological theory, research methods, and statistics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Northeastern University. He currently resides in Omaha with his wife René and their two children, Gabriel and Zachary.
Alyssa Blanco, M.S.
Research Associate
Alyssa Blanco is a Research Assistant at Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. (JSS). During her time with JSS, Alyssa has worked on grants involving the LAPD Homicide Library’s analysis of Murder Books and expanding body worn camera technology to law enforcement agencies in small, rural, and tribal areas. Her work on these projects have primarily consisted of data collection and background research.
Alyssa has worked with analytical programs, such as Microsoft Excel and SPSS. Alyssa’s research interests include policing and community-police relations. Alyssa is currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the California State University of Long Beach and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a Certificate in Criminal Justice from Morgan State University.
Sean Kato, B.S.
Research Associate
Sean Kato is a Research Associate with Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. Sean graduated from the University of Redlands with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. While working as a contractor for Justice & Security Strategies, Inc., Sean has worked on research grants related to the reduction of homicide clearance rates, the implementation of body-worn cameras, the National Prosecutors’ Consortium, and LAPD’s transition to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Sean intends to continue his education and research in data analytics.
Scott Lew, B.A.
Research Assistant
Scott Lew is a Research Assistant for Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. (JSS). During his tenure with JSS, Scott has worked on grants involving the National Prosecutor’s Consortium, the LAPD Homicide Library’s analysis of Murder Books, assesment of the Denver Police Department’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center, and evaluation of the LAPD’s Body-Worn Cameras program. Scott’s research interests include criminal prosecution, policing, and wrongful convictions. Scott is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s of Arts in Political Science and Economics with a Concentration in Policy Studies from Grinnell College, IA.
Anna Goedert, M.S.
Research Associate
Anna Goedert is a Research Associate with Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. Before joining the team at JSS, Anna worked for both the Baltimore and Detroit Police Departments on their respective Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC) grants as a Program Coordinator and Manager.
With JSS Anna will work on the Baltimore CGIC project evaluation as well as the Small, Rural, and Tribal Body Worn Camera program.
Anna is a graduate of the University of South Florida with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminology and Political Science. She also holds a Master of Science degree and a Graduate Certificate from the University of North Carolina – Charlotte in Criminal Justice and Crime Analytics. Anna has a strong background in Microsoft Excel, R, and ArcGIS software for data analysis.