The __________ was a federal agency that provided huge amounts of funding for research in the 1960s and the 1970s and established the tradition of scientific police management.

• A. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration
• B. National Institute of Justice
• C. Federal Bureau of Investigation
• D. Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

Answer: (A)

Funding for police research and the push toward data-driven, evidence-based policing in that era came mainly from the federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. Established as part of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, LEAA poured large grants into police departments, universities, and research centers. This infusion supported experiments, program evaluations, training, and the development of standardized practices, all aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness in policing. The result was a shift toward “scientific police management”—making decisions based on data, measurement, and rigorous study rather than intuition alone.

The National Institute of Justice is a major research arm of the Justice Department, but its creation and role came after the LEAA’s big funding wave and it did not define the era’s funding in the same way. The FBI is an enforcement agency, not a funder of broad policing research. The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services did not exist in the 1960s–70s and became prominent later. So the best fit for this description is the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration.