No, this article is not about trains, but chances are the sub-title has got you wondering. When you think about it, the concept of Intelligence Led Policing is not unlike a train itself. A train  is “a series of railroad cars moved as a unit by a locomotive or by integral motors.”  So when you speak of a train, you speak of all of the cars linked together moving down the track toward one common destination.This analogy should be the same for the functionality of our departments. Theoretically we should be moving toward the same destination. Unfortunately that’s not often the case.

In my last blog entry I wrote that to introduce Intelligence Led Policing to your department first required a supportive and informed command structure. So now that our command structure has bought in to the concept, we need that information to be distributed throughout the entire department. Easier said than done. As law-enforcement entities we have a tendency to compartmentalize ourselves into different divisions or groups. The great majority of which have a purposeful and utilitarian role; patrol units, criminal investigation units, crime scene units, community outreach units, support services units, and the list goes on. However, these necessary yet compartmentalized units are a double edged sword. What I mean is, all of this compartmentalization adds to one of our departments greatest hurdles: where the right-hand doesn’t know what the left-hand is doing. We all know and experience this problem day in and day out. No matter which of these units you find yourself in, very seldom do you understand the scope of direction of each individual department.

Department-wide Roll Out

It is for this very reason that when you implement Intelligence Led Policing into your organization, it is imperative that you move forward with a Department-wide Roll Out. Do not fall victim to the line of thinking that says the only person(s) in your department that needs to be trained in Intelligence Led Policing are those that are in your ILP division. This is the same line of thinking that believes ILP can work based on ILP staff issuing reports to the department anchored solely on the training and information only the ILP staff know. In reality that kind of thinking just leads to a lack of trust and belief in the system because it all hovers around one individual or a group of individuals that seem to “hold the keys.” Allow your trained Intelligence Led Policing staff to introduce and train the rest of your department in how the methodology works and how each department member can and should have a role in the process. This way everyone becomes a stakeholder with key roles and responsibilities, guiding them to take ownership in the program’s success. This approach holds true for departments large and small – even those that can’t afford to have an ILP division with multiple people in it. No matter how you decide to implement Intelligence Led Policing into your agency, it must be implemented and trained upon at a departmental scale.

Here’s a Few Steps to Follow 

• Evaluate Technology Vendors – What vendors offer industry specific analytics solutions? Define a list of feature must haves versus nice to haves. Look at how any given system handles your RMS/CAD data, what feature sets it has (and what those allow you to do), how it secures your data, what type of support is provided by the company, how long a typical implementation and training takes, and of course cost. Note: while it isn’t totally necessary to make a technology purchase, the point is to develop new insights from analyzing your data over time in a rapid, on-demand manner. Manual analysis requires detailed manipulation that can take days or weeks to build reports – instead of minutes.
• Introductory Meeting – Be prepared to introduce ILP to your agency in a series of meetings held with one to two departments at a time. You’ll want to define it, illustrate current agency pain points, describe goals with moving towards this methodology, and present a plan with a timeline for a full roll out.
• Data Management - You’ve got to have a basic understanding of your data. Make sure your crime reports correlate to the appropriate crime types. They should also include date, time, location, and detailed notes. Some analytics solutions will help you clean your data so that you get valuable information out of your systems. But you still need to understand how that data has been entered into the system over the years. This may be a painful process, but will reap rewards that in the end allow you to make tactical decisions that help you lower crime.
• Create Expectations - Moving towards an ILP model – while directed by the people in charge of intelligence – requires multiple stakeholders to pitch in. From analysts, to command staff, to officers, and dispatch, there should be clear training and expectations on how new systems will be used and processes followed.
• Support Expectations With Training - In order to make sure all agency members are on the same page, prepare entry level training into how to conduct ILP and how to use new systems. Understand that some people will learn by listening and others need visuals. Don’t just talk about the new system. Be ready to open it, walk through it, and show the trainees basic functionality. Also, tailor your presentation to your audience. If your analysts will use the technology differently than your command staff (and they should), make sure you show each audience how they can use it to their specific benefit. Conducting online training? Record the session so people can follow up. To do all this you may need to bring in your technology provider to conduct the training. Reputable vendors will provide this as part of their package/service. Additionally, some will have options for consultancy. An consultant will be able to review your data, set up your systems, and take a deep dive with your intelligence person(s) in a way that goes beyond basic training.
• Follow Up  – Prepare follow up emails with tips and best practices throughout the year following the launch of your ILP initiative. It’s important to continually positively reinforce what your staff can do with the system. Schedule group meetings from time-to-time to illustrate key points. And finally, report results on a monthly basis so that everyone in the agency can see how this methodology is making an impact in the community.

In my first year of moving to ILP and integrating an new analytics solution we were able to gain insights and make field-level decisions that ultimately led to a 20% reduction in FBI part 1 crimes. The downward trend continued in the two years that followed. If you’re interested in learning more about how to get started, send me a note at daniel.seals@publicengines.com, I’d be glad to have a chat with you. Stay tuned for my next entry in this Yardsticks for Intelligence Led Policing series.

Just came across this great news story about CrimeReports from Fox 10 in Pensacola, Florida. Near the end a man who runs a community center comments that a map like our could harm people who live in high-crime areas. What are your thoughts?

James Gunter is the editor of The Crime Map and the director of social media for CrimeReports.com.

Get on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com

Thanks to 11 Alive in Atlanta for the video

James Gunter is the editor of The Crime Map and the director of social media for CrimeReports.com.

Get on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com

A recent study

The study found that local news broadcasts devoted an average of 22 seconds of each broadcast to local government, but devoted almost 3 minutes to stories on crime. Not only that, but nearly 15 minutes of each 30 minute broadcast consisted of commercials and teasers.

The study also found that 1 in 3 broadcasts led with a story on crime, while only 1 in 10 led with a story about local government. So the next time you ask yourself why the local news is so scary and why you don’t know what is going on at city hall, this might be an explanation.

For more details on the study, check out a video explanation by Jay Rosen embedded below.

James Gunter is the editor of The Crime Map and the director of social media for CrimeReports.com.

Search your neighborhood crime map at CrimeReports.com

This week, the Orlando Police Department becomes the 31st law enforcement agency in Florida to share their crime data on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com. More than 4 million Floridians now have online access to crime information through the most widely adopted crime-mapping site in North America.

“We are providing information to the public that will significantly enhance our crime prevention and crime reduction efforts,” said Orlando Police Chief Val B. Demings. It’s a trend that has been building statewide for the last few years, and the addition of the Orlando PD will make it even easier for law enforcement across the state to share crime information with the public and with each other.

Pembroke Pines was the first Florida law enforcement agency to publish crime data on the National Crime Map back in October 2007. “CrimeReports allows residents of Pembroke Pines to obtain information about crimes that are occurring in their neighborhood,” said Sgt. Carlos Bermudez of the Pembroke Pines Police Department. He adds that CrimeReports has significantly reduced the amount of time they spend on routine information requests from the community; they can simply refer citizens to the website. “We are grateful that we can provide this service to our residents,” he added.

Over the past year, a national trend to share more data with the public has boosted state and local efforts to better inform the public through new technology. “Law enforcement agencies across Florida have caught the vision of public data sharing,” said Greg Whisenant, founder and CEO of CrimeReports. “They’re working together, forming better relationships with citizens, and really closing the information gap between law enforcement and the public.”

Orlando joins law enforcement agencies across the state who are already sharing crime information online, like St. Petersburg, Fort Myers, Daytona Beach, Port St. Lucie, and Ocala, as well as Collier, DeSoto, Flagler, Hardee, Levy, and Palm Beach counties. In the next few weeks, a host of other law enforcement agencies across Florida are also set to start publishing their crime data on the national map.

CrimeReports partners with over 700 law enforcement agencies across North America and publishes sex offender data for all 50 states. In addition, CrimeReports recently released a free iPhone app, so citizens can access crime information for all participating agencies while on the go.

James Gunter is the editor of The Crime Map and the director of social media for CrimeReports.com.

Get on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com

The recent CompStat controversy in the NYPD has caused quite a stir within the law enforcement world. Although a new study attempts to throw doubt on the pioneering crime tracking and accountability system—claiming that many retired officers reported that they were aware of crime stats being fudged—many law enforcement professionals are defending the system.

Heather Mac Donald, who recently wrote about the death of the poverty=crime theory, just published an article defending CompStat. She calls the new study’s findings “irredeemably-flawed” and shallow. Then she goes on to vigorously defend the NYPD’s CompStat policy, using concrete examples and well thought out logic. Says Mac Donald, “Nothing in the survey discredits Compstat or its crime-fighting accomplishments.”

She goes on to discuss the NYPD’s audit system and the attitude from current officers that number’s tampering is both strongly discouraged and considered a career killer for any officer attempting to do it.

Here is another highlight:

“The NYPD’s intense dedication to reliable data grows out of the Compstat philosophy itself. One of Compstat’s most powerful accomplishments was to yoke crime data and analysis intimately to deployment decisions. Compstat can accomplish its crime-lowering goal only if the crime data that commanders scrutinize so obsessively is accurate. ‘Jack Maple [Compstat’s flamboyant co-originator] stressed the necessity for accurate and timely intelligence,’ recalls Edmund Hartnett, a former executive officer of the NYPD’s Narcotics Division and now commissioner of the Yonkers police department. ‘Everything that we do is based on crime data; if the data is not accurate or you are missing dots on the map, you’re not deploying properly.’ A pattern of felony thefts ignored because of data manipulation will spread and worsen, a contagion that no police commissioner should be confident can be manipulated out of public awareness. In the Compstat era, commissioners live and die by the reality of crime. It is overwhelmingly in their self-interest to ensure faithful crime reporting since, without it, they will misallocate their scarce crime-fighting resources.”

If you are in any way interested in the survival of CompStat as an effective crime-reduction program, I highly encourage you to read the article in it’s entirety here: http://www.city-journal.org/2010/eon0217hm.html

James Gunter is the editor of The Crime Map and the director of social media for CrimeReports.com.

Get on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com

Over the weekend, two criminologists released findings from a study alleging that a number of retired NYPD officers and commanders witnessed or felt pressure to underreport crimes in order to appear as if crime was falling more dramatically than it was.

An allegation like this can be very damaging to a department like the NYPD that has worked hard for the last 20 years to turn crime around in their city, lowering crime rates, and ferreting out corruption in the police force. It can also leave members of the community disenfranchised, losing faith in a department that they had come to trust and rely on.

In defense of the NYPD, a NY Times article points out many flaws in the study and the criminologists’ methodology. And virtually everyone agrees that NYC is safer now than it was 5 and 10 years ago. But despite doubts as to the study’s veracity and findings, it’s hard to undo the PR damage done by a headline that reads “Former Commander Recalls Pressure to Alter Reports,” as well as the subsequent finger wagging by citizen bloggers and other news organizations.

But the effects of bad PR can be lessened by a gesture, on the part of any law enforcement agency, to let the public see what is really going on—let them in the door and show them that law enforcement officers are still working hard for them.

CrimeReports has found that sharing crime data publically breeds trust in local law enforcement and provides citizens with a way to keep themselves informed. When law enforcement shares data with the pubic, they are entrusting citizens with the power to participate in their own crime prevention efforts. Citizens feel like they are in control. And in return, the citizens give that trust back to the law enforcement agency.

When the media tells the public that crime is on the rise (or decline) citizens who have access to their law enforcement agency’s data through online crime mapping, can look for themselves. They can look at crime on their street and see that, “Yes, the NYPD is working for me. And they are keeping my block safe from crime.”

Opening up crime data to the public in a way that is easily accessible, relevant, free, and easy to use and understand, can help stem rumors and allegations of runaway crime rates. As CrimeReports expands its coverage across the US and Canada it is actively seeking to provide citizens with the type of official data that will inform citizens rather than scare them. Agencies from LA County to Portland to Baltimore, Boston, and Buffalo have seen the benefit of publishing near-realtime crime maps through CrimeReports.

For examples of the way that public-facing crime mapping is helping law enforcement across the country, see these articles:

Albuquerque, NM
Atlantic Beach, FL
Lake Havasu City, AZ
McMinnville, OR

James Gunter is the editor of The Crime Map and the director of social media for CrimeReports.com.

Get on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com

Get on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com

Business Partnerships

“From a community perspective, knowledge and information is power,” says Callaway. That’s why the Albuquerque PD has chosen to make CrimeReports part of its overall community outreach program, not only targeting residential neighborhoods, but sharing crime data with local businesses. For example, the Albuquerque PD organized the Construction Industry Crime Association (CICA) in order to prevent crime in the local construction industry. “We brought together groups of people who work in the construction industry and who have experienced some of the crime that is unique to that industry. For example: copper piping thefts, construction and heavy equipment and tool thefts,” says Callaway. And, when they get together each month, officers show the group CrimeReports.com and ask them to help make the map even more accurate and up-to-date by reporting theft and vandalism when it occurs at their construction sites.

By diligently staying informed and sharing information with police, all the local construction companies are aware of the problems and crime trends at sites around the city. “These companies can get on CrimeReports and see what is being stolen and where. They can work together to prevent these crimes from occurring at their own job sites.” In addition to using CrimeReports, they have also set up a specific email list so that business owners can stay in touch with each other about local industry crime. Callaway adds, “And since the market for construction equipment is other construction companies, they can be on the lookout for anyone trying to sell stolen equipment.”

Similarly, the Albuquerque PD has created crime prevention associations for the Hotel/Motel industry, local retailers, and downtown businesses. “Wal-Mart is sharing information with Walgreens, who is sharing information with Staples and so forth,” says Callaway. The local businesses are using CrimeReports, communicating with each other and, ultimately, says Callaway “communicating with us more. And sharing information in this way leads to a more accurate establishment of patterns and arrests.”

An Informed Community

“We are always barraged with requests for information about what’s going on in a particular neighborhood,” says Callaway. “Our substations are open during normal business hours, but questions come up after hours, and it’s not necessarily the job of our first responders to answer simple informational questions. What we wanted was a system where community members could actually pull up the information themselves and see what is going on in their own neighborhood.” When the Albuquerque PD discovered CrimeReports, they found a solution that perfectly fit their needs.

Callaway has found that when he goes out to local community watch or neighborhood association meetings one of the most frequent questions he gets asked is, “What’s going on in my neighborhood?” The first thing he and other officers do is point citizens to CrimeReports.com. “We show them the information they can access,” he says. “We show them the tools that are available to them, and how to use that information. You want accurate information, up-to-date information? Well, here it is.” In turn, he asks citizens to keep the police department informed about criminal activity they see in their neighborhood.

Providing timely crime data to citizens recently paid off with a string of neighborhood burglaries. After being alerted to the problem, a neighborhood board member sent out an email to others in the neighborhood with the description of a vehicle spotted at some of the burglaries. With a combination of sharing crime data and an engaged community, the vehicle was spotted within the week, and the Albuquerque PD was able to apprehend the individuals responsible.

Making it Easy

Callaway believes that CrimeReports has lowered the barrier of entry for citizens and business owners who want to get involved in local crime prevention efforts. “The more information they can retrieve on their own,” says Callaway, “the more informed they are, the better they will be in terms of being our eyes and ears in the community—and the more interest they will take in their neighborhood.” Citizens are so busy between work, school, social activities, running businesses, and taking kids to soccer practice that not everyone has time to go to a community watch meeting or go out and patrol their neighborhood. “But,” says Callaway, “everyone has the internet” and it only takes a few minutes to check your neighborhood online or sign up for a free email crime alert.

Information Sharing

“Community awareness and crime prevention is not just the Albuquerque Police Department’s responsibility—it’s everybody’s responsibility,” says Callaway, and sharing timely, accurate information is key to that philosophy. “If we can show community members what we are doing to provide them with this information, it helps them become more involved as well. It’s a two-way street.” Callaway feels, in a very real way, that the department should be accountable to the citizens it serves. And a good relationship with citizens is key to helping the department prevent crime. So, he says, “you foster those relationships by keeping them informed.”

For the Albuquerque PD, CrimeReports has been essential to filling a gap in communication between police, residents, and businesses. “CrimeReports is a piece of the puzzle,” says Callaway. “It leads to an increase in community interaction and involvement, and—ultimately—that is an important component to helping solve crime and reduce crime rates.”

James Gunter is the editor of The Crime Map and the director of social media for CrimeReports.com.

Get on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com

CrimeReports partners with law enforcement agencies to publish their crime data on the National Crime Map, which now includes data from nearly 700 law enforcement agencies across North America. CrimeReports low cost and quick integration has led to a current sign up rate of 50 new agencies per month.

“The real credit for our growth goes to our partner agencies, who have opened up their crime data to the public” said Greg Whisenant, founder and CEO of CrimeReports. “Essentially, we’re providing an inexpensive, powerful service to law enforcement agencies who already wanted to get this information to the public.”

CrimeReports has seen a steady rise in its traffic and users over the last year. CrimeReports currently has over 100,000 users in the U.S. and Canada who receive daily, weekly, and monthly crime alerts for their neighborhoods.

The CrimeReports website is free to the public allowing any citizen, anywhere in the world, access to the site to monitor crime in participating areas across North America. In addition, CrimeReports recently added national sex offender data to the National Crime Map, so users in the U.S. can see sex offender information in their area whether their local law enforcement agency is participating or not.

Currently, CrimeReports’ service areas cover more than 20% of the US population, mapping more than 10 million crimes last year and include major metropolitan areas like San Francisco, Boston, San Jose, Washington DC, Baltimore, Dallas, Portland, Los Angeles County, and others.

Additionally, more agencies are using CrimeReports to report information to their public constituencies than other popular social media tools such as Twitter.

“The real beneficiary of our service is the general public,” says Whisenant. “They have quick, easy access to timely crime information that they didn’t before. And law enforcement agencies have a new tool they can use to communicate with citizens and engage them in better crime prevention efforts.”

In addition to the website and iPhone app, CrimeReports has also launched Command Central, an internal law enforcement crime dashboard used to generate crime statistics, monitor trends, and help law enforcement agencies to implement CompStat and accountability management practices.

Get on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com