; Whereas the Task Force recommended that law enforcement agencies engage in proven and successful community-policing tactics, such as combining a focus on intervention and prevention through problem solving and collaborative partnerships with schools, social services, and other stakeholders; Whereas the Task Force also recommended law enforcement departments should strive to increase the diversity of their workforce; Whereas community-oriented policing is a philosophy that promotes the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions of public safety, crime, social disorder, and fear of crime; Whereas studies consistently find that community-policing strategies like those supported by the Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) have a positive effect on citizen satisfaction and trust in law enforcement; Whereas a 2007 survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found a commitment to community policing may be more evident in departments with a formal, written community-policing plan; Whereas according to a 2007 survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, only 16 percent of police departments, employing 48 percent of officers, across the country had a formal written community-policing plan; Whereas from 2000 to 2007, the percentage of local departments using community policing officers declined from about 66 percent to 47 percent, while the number of community policing officers declined by more than half from 103,000 officers to 47,000 officers; Whereas Congress recognizes the vital role and practice that community-oriented policing plays in building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve and protect; Whereas a study published in The New York Times, found in 2015 that of hundreds of police departments across the United States, the percentage of Whites on the police force is more than thirty percentage points higher than Whites in the communities they serve