MITIGATING SHOOTING VIOLENCE: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR POLICE CHIEFS TO REMOVE BARRIERS
May 2026
Continued from page 30
New Jersey’ s police chiefs do not need another abstract discussion about gun violence. They need a practical implementation guide. They need a replicable framework that allows them to identify barriers, remove them, and pull proven levers in a timely, systematic, coordinated, and sustainable way. That framework begins with an acceptance of the basic realities the profession already knows: the criminal shooting environment is concentrated, precision policing is paramount, resources are limited, and community trust cannot be treated as an afterthought. It continues with targeted investigations, focused hot spot interventions, measurable community engagement, and connected technology that allows chiefs to identify and act on the right people and the right places.
Lives can be saved when chiefs close the gap between what is known and what is done. That is the real leadership challenge. The future of shooting hits reduction will not be determined by whether police executives can describe evidence-based strategies in theory. It will be determined by whether they can operationalize those strategies in practice, sustain them under pressure, and do so in a way that protects both public safety and public confidence. That is the work before today’ s police chief, and that is where precision policing offers its greatest value.
Author Bio Frederick P. Fife is a former FBI Special Agent and recently retired Lieutenant Colonel with the New Jersey State Police. He currently serves as the Federal Public Safety & Intelligence Executive at Peregrine Technologies. A second-generation police officer born in Philadelphia, Mr. Fife holds graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Saint Joseph’ s University, is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, and was awarded the Public Leadership Credential from Harvard’ s Kennedy School of Government. Much of Mr. Fife’ s career was spent in complex interagency environments, including eight years assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Philadelphia. He has commanded New Jersey’ s State Fusion Center, led major crime-reduction deployments in New Jersey’ s most underserved communities, served as Officer-in-Charge of the Paterson Police Department, and authored policy and reforms on gun violence reduction, fentanyl poisoning, real-time crime center integration, Rapid DNA, and human intelligence. Mr. Fife has been appointed to the IACP Committee on Terrorism and served as the Chairman of Liberty Mid-Atlantic HIDTA.
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