COMPSTAT Paper
Controlling crime and disorder has been a difficult feat for centuries. Police departments are expected to control and prevent criminal acts under high public scrutiny. In the eighties, many criminologists took the stand point that it was society that needed to be changed, not the police, in order to prevent crime. With a new outlook and some organization, police have a major effect of crime prevention. This is where the rejuvenated means of crime prevention through the management model of CompStat comes into play.
CompStat is short for computer comparative statistics. Introduced to law enforcement in January 1994 NYC Police Commissioner, William Bratton, this data management system was to be used by police to reduce crime. The means behind this process is to “collect, analyze and map crime data and other essential police performance measures on a regular basis and hold police managers accountable for their performance as measured by these data.” (The CompStat Process, 2003). Compstat has been very successful in New York over the last nineteen years. COMPSTAT led NYC to a 74% reduction of violent and property crimes (Storch). This model of crime analysis has been adopted across the US due to its success. Cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, New Orleans, and Newark, New Jersey have all experienced significant reduction in violent crimes as a result of the implementation of the COMPSTAT crime control model. (“Compstat,”)
CompStat is not major software or a computer system, but a tactical model for crime reduction. The process starts with a very strategic look at statistics on location of crimes and arrests, suspects, victims, date and time, locations, patterns, hotspots etc. And then a strategy is created to counteract the crimes through a creative means. But there is also an internal aspect to CompStat, a managerial look at how the police department is maintained is a critical component to the process. Things such as sick time,
CompStat is short for computer comparative statistics. Introduced to law enforcement in January 1994 NYC Police Commissioner, William Bratton, this data management system was to be used by police to reduce crime. The means behind this process is to “collect, analyze and map crime data and other essential police performance measures on a regular basis and hold police managers accountable for their performance as measured by these data.” (The CompStat Process, 2003). Compstat has been very successful in New York over the last nineteen years. COMPSTAT led NYC to a 74% reduction of violent and property crimes (Storch). This model of crime analysis has been adopted across the US due to its success. Cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, New Orleans, and Newark, New Jersey have all experienced significant reduction in violent crimes as a result of the implementation of the COMPSTAT crime control model. (“Compstat,”)
CompStat is not major software or a computer system, but a tactical model for crime reduction. The process starts with a very strategic look at statistics on location of crimes and arrests, suspects, victims, date and time, locations, patterns, hotspots etc. And then a strategy is created to counteract the crimes through a creative means. But there is also an internal aspect to CompStat, a managerial look at how the police department is maintained is a critical component to the process. Things such as sick time,
Cited: Compstat. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://wvpd.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21 Compstat and its next generation . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.compstat.umd.edu/what_is_cs.php (2003). The compstat process. Philadelphia Police Department DOI: www.ppdonline.org/hq_compstat.php Making Sense of COMPSTAT: A Theory-Based Analysis of Organizational Change in Three Police Departments. James J. Willis, Stephen D. Mastrofski and David Weisburd. Law & Society Review , Vol. 41, No. 1 (Mar., 2007), pp. 147-188 Shane, J. US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (2004). Fbi: Law enforcement bulletin . Retrieved from Federal Bureau of Investigation website: http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/2004-pdfs/april04leb.pdf Storch, A. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.worldwidelawenforcement.com/docs/COMPSTAT article.pdf Candace Williams CRJU: Law Enforcement 5/6/13