Alex Piquero is leaving as director of the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, BJS said in an email announcement on Thursday. Piquero is turning to the University of Miami to resume his teaching and research. Piquero joined BJS a year ago. The agency said he "elevated BJS’s public profile by engaging with stakeholders to share information about the scope and value of statistics produced by BJS." During his tenure, BJS launched new data visualization features and a new report series, Just the Stats, aimed at presenting important data on key crime and justice questions in easily digestible ways.
Principal Deputy Director Kevin M. Scott will head the agency. Scott has been with BJS since 2017. The agency pledged to "will continue the important work of serving as the primary statistical agency of the Department of Justice responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating statistics on crime, individuals who commit crimes, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government."