Compstat: Predictive Policing - Essay Example

Compstat: Predictive Policing Introduction The growing crime rates in cities and other urbanized areas have influenced countries like United States to pay particular attention to crime prevention and intervention. In order to identify the probabilities of future crimes and to take proactive measures to respond to those situations, law enforcement departments have developed an innovative concept called preventive policing. Under this technique, advanced applications of information technology and other data analysis tools are used to scrutinize historical crime data and thereby map ‘hotspots’ and problem areas. As part of promoting preventive policing, the New York City Police Department adopted a law enforcement crime fighting strategy called COMPSTAT (Computer Statistics) in 1994. This paper will evaluate the feasibility of preventive policing with particular reference given to tools like COMPSTAT. IT to reduce crime Vs random patrols Official reports indicate that effective application of advanced information technology has assisted police departments to optimize their performance to reduce crime rates. According to data published by law enforcement departments, the recidivism rate of sex offenders and parolees is high in the United States. In order to address this issue, US police departments employ global positioning system (GPS) to locate the current position of sex offenders, parolees, and probationers. Currently, global positioning chips are widely used to monitor child sex molesters continuously and to address the growing issue of child abuse in the country. Technologies used for crime prevention include “wireless video streaming from fixed surveillance cameras to police vehicles (23%), license plate readers (71%), the use of GPS technologies to track suspect movements (83%), track police vehicles (69%) and track on-duty officers (4%), and monitor social media to identify investigative leads (86%)” (Byrne & Marx, 2011). In addition, the US has huge databases containing historical crime data and these databases have been networked to assist law enforcement personnel to obtain fast access to past crime data. Similarly, IT applications greatly benefit police departments to prevent the chances of crimes without performing random patrol of the streets. Today street surveillance cameras are extensively used to figure out suspicious situations and people; hence police does not need to patrol streets randomly. Satellite based radars also aid the police to reduce crime rates significantly. To illustrate, traffic surveillance cameras would deter people from engaging in law violations like over speed and signal jumping. Four basic IS functions of COMPSTAT The four fundamental IS functions of COMPSTAT include input, processing, output, and feedback. Detective Jeff Godown describes the four IS functions of COMPSTAT clearly. He says that input is the accurate and timely intelligence or the knowledge of what is happening around; and as the input, computer generated data on crime and arrests are collected to analyze past crime information at COMPSTAT meetings. At the processing phase, effective tactics are designed to address the particular crime situation after evaluating the past crime data presented on COMPSTAT meetings. Here, police departments seek the assistance of mathematicians and data analysis experts to identify the probability of various future situations and hence to prevent crimes effectively. The output function of COMPSTAT is related to the rapid deployment of the tactics developed to eliminate the possibility of the crime. In other words, this function helps the police to obtain full control over the situation and to defeat the plans of the target. It is precise that a delay in the deployment of the strategy may result in the failure of the crime prevention. Finally, the feedback function refers to a critical evaluation of the strategy deployment in order to analyze the effects of the tactics developed on the final outcomes realized. This evaluation would assist department officials to identify pitfalls in the tactics development and deployment (if any) and to perform better in the future. Identified influences of COMPSTAT Official statistical figures indicate that preventive policing tools such as COMPSTAT have assisted police departments to respond to crime faster. The major benefit of these tools is that it assists law enforcement agencies to comprehend the criminality of places. Referring to statistical data, Dorriety points out that development of COMPSTAT aided the New York City to achieve 27% reduction in crime during the period from 1993 to 1995 while national average of crimes dropped by only 2%. Another notable achievement of COMPSTAT is that it effectively integrates the functions of various special units so as to accomplish a set of shared goals (as cited in Isaac, 2010). The most fascinating feature of preventive policing is that police can reach a spot before the crime is committed. Reports indicate that preventive policing has assisted the US police departments to defeat many burglary attempts. The Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) is helpful to prioritize phone calls on the basis of urgency and thereby help the police department to initiate an emergency response if required. SWOT Analysis The major strength of the predictive policing is that this tool can be helpful to reduce crime rates in the country and hence to minimize prevention and intervention costs significantly. In addition, preventive policing is a better tool to give peaceful living conditions to citizens. It also plays a notable role in reducing the recidivism rate. A significant weakness of this crime reduction technique is that it is based on too many assumptions and forecasts and hence desired outcomes may not be accomplished often. Likewise, the success of preventive policing is greatly depended on the skill and efficiency of police officers; thoughtless tactics development and deployment may weaken the feasibility of this approach. The fast advancements in technology raise greater opportunities for the concept of preventive policing because this technique is solely based on technological applications. In addition, growing number of university graduates who have expertise in information technology also contribute to the applicability of this method. The major threat to this approach is the counter technological developments in this regard. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that preventive policing approach greatly assists police departments to curb crime rate, particularly recidivism rate. In addition, this technique is beneficial for the government to cut down crime prevention and intervention costs. The explosive developments in technology add to the applicability of this approach. References Byrne, J & Marx, G. (2011). Technological Innovations in Crime Prevention and Policing. A Review of the Research on Implementation and Impact. CPS,3 (20): 17-40. Godown, J. The CompStat Process: Four Principles for Managing Crime Reduction. The Police Chief. Retrieved from http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=1859&issue_id=82009 Issac. (April 11, 2010). To compstat or not to compstat. Justiceguy.com. retrieved from http://www.justiceguy.com/?p=43 Read More