DOJ Elder Justice Highlighted Resources to Support Law Enforcement

EJI Law Enforcement Resources

Law enforcement plays a critical role in responding to elder abuse, neglect, financial exploitation and fraud.  The Department of Justice, Elder Justice Initiative supports this important work by developing elder abuse tools and resources to help you recognize and investigate these crimes.

This 2-minute video highlights some of the many law enforcement resources available on the Elder Justice Website’s Law Enforcement page.

Many of the Department’s elder justice resources for law enforcement can also be found in the Elder Justice Resource Guide for Law Enforcement.   

Elder Abuse Guide for Law Enforcement (EAGLE)

The online tool is designed to support officers in quickly identifying, intervening, and resolving elder abuse situations. Developed with input and user testing by law enforcement for law enforcement, EAGLE provides:

1. Tools to assist in documenting a case for prosecution
2. ZIP-code-based community resources locator
3. State-by-state penal codes relating to elder abuse
4. Curated list of webinars designed for law enforcement

NW3C Online EAGLE Training

One-hour online EAGLE-based training on elder abuse for law enforcement.  POST certified by IADLEST in 36 states.  For remaining states, print the Certificate of Completion and request certification through your POST office.

SAFE: Safe Accessible Forensic Interviewing for Elders

SAFE is a free training on how to conduct victim-centered forensic interviews of older adults.   Developed to meet the growing need for effective forensic interviews in the criminal context, SAFE is grounded in forensic interviewing best practices with considerations and adaptations to account for age-related changes in cognition, underlying neuropathology (e.g., dementia), individual disability, language capacity, and cultural background.  There are different versions of the training (1 day, 2 day, 4 day) and all of the training materials are provided below, with each training curriculum intended for a different audience.

Elder Abuse Roll Call Videos

Developed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Identifying and Responding to Elder Abuse: An Officer’s Role is a series of seven roll call videos designed for patrol officers to quickly recognize and respond to various types of elder abuse.

SAFTA  (Senior Abuse Financial Tracking and Accounting)

Guided by the adage “A picture is worth a 1000 words”, the SAFTA toolkit provides law enforcement, APS workers, and other elder justice professionals, with a simplified forensic tool for illuminating suspicious financial patterns and facilitating the prosecution of suspected elder financial exploitation. Developed by a forensic accountant, the SAFTA tool is an Excel macro-enabled worksheet into which financial records are entered and pivot tables and graphs are automatically created to provide a visual depiction of financial data.

Download the SAFTA toolkit and learn more: 
2 minute Video and SAFTA Flyer

Law Enforcement and Adult Protective Services – Educational Flyer Series

Collaboration is often the key to addressing elder abuse.  The Elder Justice Initiative, the Administration for Community Living (ACL), The EAGLE, and the Adult Protective Services Technical Assistance Resource Center partnered to create a series of 3 flyers to facilitate understanding and collaboration between law enforcement and Adult Protective Services on elder abuse cases.

Multidisciplinary Team Technical Assistance Center
(MDT TAC)

The MDT TAC provides tools, resource materials, and individualized consultations to facilitate the expansion of elder abuse case review MDTs across the nation.

One of our top resources is the Network Locator Map designed to enable elder justice professionals to locate and collaborate with elder justice networks/teams across the nation.