At its core, crime analysis uses data to identify patterns, reveal trends, and calculate statistics. Crime analysis goes beyond what you think you know about crime patterns and problems to uncover what you don’t know. It’s the backbone of data-driven policing. But what exactly does that mean in practice? How does a crime analyst help law enforcement agencies succeed? Here is a “boots on the ground” look at crime analysis in action through the Bureau of Justice Assistance Crime Analyst in Residence (CAR) program.
What is the Crime Analyst in Residence program?
The Department of Justice designed the CAR program to help small and rural police departments and other law enforcement agencies across the nation establish or enhance their use of data analytics to inform their operations and practices. Using a hybrid approach of onsite and virtual technical assistance, the CAR training and technical assistance (TTA) team, comprised of embedded analysts and subject matter experts, provides hands-on training during four- to six-month engagements to help law enforcement agencies learn how to integrate tailored crime and data analysis tools and practices more fully into their crime reduction efforts. The CAR TTA team works closely with program participants to assess and build their capacity to solve cases, identify crime patterns, develop problem-solving approaches, and implement crime-reduction strategies using a variety of templates and other resources developed through the program.
Crime Analysis Success Stories
In the Midwest, a CAR TTA team provided training to two detectives for the creation of a recurring incident report that identified repeat calls for service within a 28-day period, with a specific focus on domestic and disturbance calls by address. A second report was designed to identify individuals with frequent police interactions of other kinds across different locations, such as persons experiencing mental health crises. The agency has increased its capacity to intervene earlier following implementation of these reports and has observed a noticeable reduction in repeat calls for service. The embedded analyst also aided the agency in constructing a comprehensive regional spreadsheet documenting similar thefts. The agency independently expanded this effort after the training engagement, and it led the police to connect of dozens of cases across multiple jurisdictions to a single group of suspects. This achievement further enhanced information-sharing between the regional fusion center and surrounding suburban agencies.
In southwest Virginia, the CAR TTA team assisted an agency by integrating disparate records management systems using free, readily available desktop tools to automate an offender workup. With a few simple clicks, the analyst can search a suspect’s name across multiple databases simultaneously, which significantly reduces hours spent on offender research. The final product includes offender demographics, known vehicles, pertinent addresses, and incident summaries. This tool also enhances information-sharing. It can provide daily alerts to agency personnel when high-priority offenders are encountered within the jurisdiction, such as those offenders designated by Project Safe Neighborhood. These alerts can improve officer and citizen safety as well as situational awareness. The CAR team also assisted in automating crime statistics and link charts to support each facet of the SARA (scan, analyze, respond, assess) model.
At other sites, the CAR TTA team has focused on constructing analytical dashboards, automating crime maps, generating real-time officer workload and well-being statistics, facilitating information exchanges between analysts and behavioral health units, and more.
Institutionalizing Crime Analysis
The achievements of the CAR program in enhancing analytical capacity and capability at specific sites are a tribute to the dedication to crime analysis shown by the agencies’ trainees and leaders. The integration of crime analysis into policy and accountability mechanisms is vital for sustainability. Generating support and buy-in for crime analysis should extend across all levels of a department. It’s not only important for agency personnel to grasp the significance of crime analysis but also to understand how to act upon analytical insights.
Are you affiliated with a law enforcement agency that could benefit from the training and technical assistance offered by the Crime Analyst in Residence program? Feel free to submit an application and become part of the next crime analysis success story.
This is the second in series of articles InDepth is publishing on the value of crime analysts to law enforcement.
