Background
The Portland, Oregon Police Bureau (Police Bureau) has 940 officers—a 1.6 officer per 1,000 resident ratio. While this may seem like sufficient resources, it is actually below the national average. With a low ratio of officers, it is paramount the Police Bureau use its resources as efficiently as possible.
A study conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2007 found “a majority of departments serving 25,000 or more residents used computers in an analytic capacity related to intelligence gathering, crime analysis, analyzing community problems, and crime mapping.” Experts agree that effective crime prevention and reduction cannot be accomplished effectively without this kind of analysis.
The Police Bureau, and specifically its Crime Analysis Unit, is doing quite a bit in terms of data-driven and evidence-based policing. However, the department realizes it could do more. To help, the Police Bureau’s Sergeant Greg Stewart reached out to the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) National Training and Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC) for help in analyzing its current data-driven and analytic policing efforts, identify gaps, and recommend fixes.
Analyzing Data-Driven Crime Solutions
BJA NTTAC offered resources to the Police Bureau to facilitate the delivery of Crime Analysis on Demand training and technical assistance (TTA) and identified Julie Wartell, a crime analyst and BJA NTTAC consultant, to serve as the provider to help the Police Bureau analyze its current data-driven efforts. With this, the Police Bureau aims to improve its workflow and processes to help handle the increase in demand for crime analysis.
During her evaluation, Ms. Wartell discovered the Police Bureau has an above average crime analysis capacity in terms of evidence-based policing. For example, crime analysts distribute regular maps and statistics, including daily and monthly reports. Additionally, there are a number of crime analysis-related tools already on the Police Bureau’s public website, which include CrimeMapper, CrimeStats, and CrimeReports.com.
This assessment also revealed significant gaps, the largest of them being that the Crime Analysis Unit assisted a handful of officers and units on a regular basis, but it did not focus on the needs of the organization as a whole. “They recognized this gap,” said Ms. Wartell. “They needed to create products and tools that help more officers in the field as well as streamlining their outputs.”
The Police Bureau needed to figure out what is needed for patrol and investigations, and develop materials that support those efforts. Simply put, it needed to refocus its efforts on officers in the field. Some of Ms. Wartell’s recommendations included improving areas such as staffing and training, marketing and education, products and functionality, and technology.
- Provide training for analysts: While some analysts may be more proficient at some tools, all crime analysts should be trained on the Police Bureau crime analysis tools, techniques, and applied crime theory concepts.
- Provide training for officers at all levels: Everyone should be educated about the value of analysis and what types of things the Crime Analysis Unit can provide, and the officers should also be trained on the available tools they could use for basic stats and maps.
- Automate regular maps and reports: Any regular (i.e., daily, weekly, or monthly) process to extract data and provide statistics and maps should be automated whenever possible.
- Produce a list of crime analysis data and products: A detailed list of accessible data should be created so all personnel are aware of what information is at their disposal.
- Market crime analysis to all department personnel, including precincts, detectives and other specialized units, and command staff: Analysts should establish and maintain rapport by attending patrol line-ups, investigative team meetings and informal interaction, and going on ride-alongs. In this regard, analysts can listen to officer needs, share information and successes, and take advantage of the officers that are already crime analysis-knowledgeable to be “champions” for crime analysis.
The Crime Analysis Unit is doing a great deal of excellent work and is supporting a wide variety of people and projects with limited resources. However, the recommendations above will allow the Police Bureau to progress toward its goal of continuing to be a leader in evidence-based, data-driven policing.
If you belong to a law enforcement agency interested in building its crime analysis capacity or would like to submit the work of your organization or jurisdiction for consideration to be featured in a future BJA NTTAC TTA Spotlight, please email BJANTTAC@ojp.usdoj.gov.