CompStat

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See also: New York City Police Department

CompStat—or COMPSTAT—(short for COMPuter STATistics or COMParative STATistics) is the name given to the New York City Police Department's accountability process and has since been replicated in many other departments. CompStat is a management philosophy or organizational management tool for police departments, roughly equivalent to Six Sigma or TQM, and is not a computer system or software package.

Instead, CompStat is a multilayered dynamic approach to crime reduction, quality of life improvement, and personnel and resource management. CompStat employs Geographic Information Systems and was intended to map crime and identify problems. In weekly meetings, ranking NYPD executives meet with local precinct commanders from one of the eight patrol boroughs in New York City to discuss the problems. They devise strategies and tactics to solve problems, reduce crime, and ultimately improve quality of life in their assigned area. The system is also in use in other major metropolitan cities including Los Angeles [1], Philadelphia [2], and in Baltimore, Maryland where the system is shown in use in the The Wire on HBO. Baltimore's system is called Citistat[3].

Origins

See also: William Bratton

CompStat originated in the New York City Police Department in 1994, under leadership of Police Commissioner William Bratton and Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple. They modified conventional community policing ideology after realizing that, to reduce crime and respond to communities' needs, many operational decisions should be made by commanders at the precinct level. They reasoned that precinct commanders are in a better position than headquarters executives to appreciate and meet their communities' needs, and so gave precinct commanders authority to direct the 200 to 400 police officers that they manage. They also posited that precinct commanders are in a better position than beat officers to understand and harmonize the agency's policies with social dynamics of their geographic compass. To enact this change, Bratton revised NYPD policies to empower precinct commanders, significantly expanding their authority, responsibility and discretion, as well as their degree of control over personnel and other resources. As their authority was expanded, their responsibility, discretion and accountability increased as well. Bratton's ideas[4] are based on community policing and the Broken Windows Theory by George L. Kelling. The LAPD has further expanded Bratton and Maple's work and the results from New York into COMPSTAT Plus[5]

Operations

Weekly crime reports

On a weekly basis, personnel from each of the NYPD's 76 precincts, nine police service areas and 12 transit districts compile a statistical summary of the week's crime complaints, arrests and summons activity, as well as a written report of significant cases, crime patterns and police activities. This data, with specific crime and enforcement locations and times, is forwarded to the chief of the department's CompStat Unit, where information is collated and loaded into a city-wide database. The unit runs computer analysis on the data and generates a weekly CompStat report. The report captures crime complaints and arrest activity at the precinct, patrol borough and city-wide levels, presenting a summary of these and other important performance indicators. The data is presented on a week-to-date, prior 30 days and year-to-date basis, with comparisons to previous years' activity. Precinct commanders and members of the agency's top management can easily discern emerging and established crime trends, as well as deviations and anomalies. With the report, department leadership can easily make comparisons between commands. Each precinct is also ranked in each complaint and arrest category.

Accountability

The CompStat program involves weekly crime control strategy meetings. These gathering increase information flow between the agency's executives and the commanders of operational units, with particular emphasis on crime and quality of life enforcement information. In the department's vernacular, these briefings are referred to as CompStat ("computerized statistics") meetings, since many of the discussions are based upon the statistical analysis and maps contained within the weekly CompStat reports. These meetings and the information sharing they generate are an important part of a Bratton's comprehensive, interactive management strategy: enhancing accountability by providing local commanders with considerable discretion and resources. The program also ensures that precinct commanders remain aware of crime and quality of life conditions within their areas of responsibility. By meeting frequently and discussing the department's ten crime and quality of life strategies, the iniatives are fully implemented throughout the agency. Precinct and other operational unit commanders use this forum to communicate with the agency's top executives and other commanders, sharing the problems they face and successful crime reduction tactics. The process allows top executives to monitor issues and activities within precincts and operational units, evaluating the skills and effectiveness of middle managers. By keeping abreast of situations "on the ground," departmental leaders can properly allocate resources to most effectively reduce crime and improve police performance. It is important to note that the weekly CompStat report and crime strategy meetings do not focus simply on enforcement of the seven major crimes comprising the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) Index, but also capture data on the number of shooting incidents and shooting victims, as well as gun arrests. Summons and arrest activity are also captured. By arresting or issuing summonses to people who engage in minor violations and quality of life offenses--such as public drinking and public urination, panhandling, loud radios, prostitution and disorderly conduct--ensures that those behaviors are deterred. As explained in the Broken Window Theory, aggressive enforcement of all statutes has been shown to restore a sense of order. By capturing enforcement data as reflected in summons and arrest activity, the department is better able to gauge its overall performance.

Commander profile reports

The CompStat Unit also develops and prepares commander profile reports. These weekly reports help executives scrutinize commanders' performance on a variety of important management variables. All profiles furnish information about the unit commander's appointment date and years in rank, the education and specialized training he or she has received, his or her most recent performance evaluation rating, and the units he or she previously commanded. Every profile also captures some non-crime statistics: the amount of overtime generated by members of the command, the number of department vehicle accidents, absence rates due to sick time and line-of-duty injuries, and the number of civilian complaints lodged against members of the unit. Community demographics and information on the unit's personnel is also included. With this data, executives can monitor and assess how commanders motivate and manage their personnel resources and how well they address important management concerns. The commander profile also acts as a motivational tool; profile subjects are familiar with the criteria used to evaluate them--and their peers--enabling report subjects to monitor and compare their own success in meeting performance objectives with others' achievements.

Crime strategy meetings

Crime Strategy Meetings are convened twice weekly in the Command and Control Center, a high-tech conference facility at Police Headquarters. These meetings are attended by all commanders of Precincts, Police Service Areas, Transit Districts and other operational unit commanders within a given Patrol Borough, including the commanding officers and /or supervisors of precinct-based and specialized investigative units. Depending on their weekly crime statistics, every commander can expect to be called at random to make his or her Crime Strategy Meeting presentation approximately once a month. Also in attendance are representatives from the respective District Attorney's Offices, command personnel from the Board of Education's Division of School Safety and a variety of other outside agencies involved in law enforcement activities, the Transit and Housing Bureau Commanders whose jurisdictions lie within the patrol borough, the Crime Strategy Coordinators from other patrol boroughs, Internal Affairs Bureau personnel, and ranking officers from a variety of support and ancillary units (such as our Legal Bureau and Management Information Systems Division) which do not perform direct enforcement functions. This configuration of participants fosters a team approach to problem solving, and ensures that crime and quality of life problems identified at the meeting can be immediately discussed and quickly addressed through the development and implementation of creative and comprehensive solutions. Because ranking decision-makers are present at the meetings and can immediately commit their resources, the obstacles and delays which often occur in highly structured bureaucratic organizations also tend to be minimized.

Among the Command and Control Center's high-tech capabilities is its computerized "pin mapping" which displays crime, arrest and quality of life data in a host of visual formats including comparative charts, graphs and tables. Through the use of geographic mapping software and other computer technology, for example, the CompStat database can be accessed and a precinct map depicting virtually any combination of crime and/or arrest locations, crime "hot spots" and other relevant information can be instantly projected on the Center's large video projection screens. Comparative charts, tables and graphs can also be projected simultaneously. These visual presentations are a useful and highly effective adjunct to the CompStat Report, since it permits precinct commanders and members of the Executive Staff to instantly identify and explore trends and patterns as well as solutions for crime and quality of life problems.

During their presentation, members of the Executive Staff frequently ask commanders probing questions about crime and arrest activity as well as about specific cases and initiatives they have undertaken to reduce crime and enforce quality of life offenses. Commanders are expected to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the crime and quality of life problems existing within their commands and to develop innovative and flexible tactics to address them.

As noted above, the weekly COMPSTAT meetings are but one facet of the Department's comprehensive system by which we monitor and evaluate our performance. There are also pre-COMPSTAT briefings convened at the local patrol borough level, Precinct Management Team meetings in each precinct and strategy evaluation projects conducted by ranking members of the department. In addition, the Police Commissioner meets with New York City's Mayor on a weekly basis to brief him on the department's activities and performance. He also provides the Mayor with a formal report capturing much of the data contained within the CompStat Report. Finally, a great deal of the CompStat data and other indicia of performance are provided to the public through inclusion in the Mayor's Management Report. This Report and the preliminary report issued four months into the Fiscal Year provide detailed comparative data on the performance of every mayoral agency within city government. The process permits personnel at all levels to monitor and assess the effectiveness of their efforts and re-direct those efforts when necessary.

The process described here truly represents a revolution in the way police agencies are managed and has been adapted for use in many other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation and overseas.

Technology

Because it often relies on underlying software tools, CompStat has sometimes been confused for a software program in itself. This is a fundamental misconception. However, CompStat often incorporates crime mapping systems (such as ArcGIS, MapInfo Professional, Microsoft MapPoint or Google Maps) and a database collection system, which can be homegrown or from off-the shelf providers such as Versaterm, Tritech, Intergraph, Spillman or FATPOT.

In some cases, police departments have started offering information to the public through their own Web sites. In other cases, police departments make an XML feed available to the public which is then displayed on a map using systems such as CrimeReports.com, used by the Metropolitan Police of Washington DC and many other police departments nationwide.

Critique

Some, however, such as University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt, have argued that COMPSTAT's crime-reducing effects have been minor [6]. The introduction of COMPSTAT happened alongside:

  • The training and deployment of around 5,000 new better-educated police officers,
  • The integration of New York's housing and transit police into the New York Police Department
  • Police decision-making being devolved to precinct level
  • The clearing of a backlog of 50,000 unserved warrants
  • Mayor Giuliani's robust 'zero tolerance' campaign against petit crime and anti-social behavior
  • Widespread removal of graffiti
  • Programs that moved over 500,000 people into jobs from welfare at a time of economic buoyancy
  • Offering housing vouchers to enable poor families to move to better neighborhoods.
  • Demographic changes including a generation raised in the social welfare systems started in the 1970s and 1980s.
  • End of the crack epidemic and a shift to a marijuana based drug economy with a larger consumer base and less competition.
  • Advances in medicine play a role in the declining number of homicides. Better life saving techniques learned in correlation to ongoing modern day military conflicts.
  • Gentrification, displacement of lower income individuals more likely to commit crimes from gentrifying or gentrified communities.

Another criticism of the COMPSTAT program is that it may discourage officers from taking crime reports, thereby reducing reported crimes, thereby indicating false resolution of community problems. [7][8][9]

Similarly, crimes may be reported, but downplayed as less significant, to manipulate statistics to reflect inaccurate improvement of community issues. For example, before a department began using CompStat, 100 assualts were listed as aggravated and 500 were classed as simple assault. Then, under CompStat, if those same statistics were noted for a second year, no improvement is made.

However, if some of the aggravated assaults were downplayed and listed as mere simple assault (25 aggravated and only 450 simple assault), the department and precinct commander would seem to have made progress--albeit only on in reports; regardless of how the assaults were classed on paper for purposes of CompStat, the assaults were aggravated.

Therefore, the community reaps no benefit--except being able to say that statistics show aggravated assault is decreasing. The community's number of aggravated assaults is the same; they are only classified as less serious crimes to appear as though progress is being made.

Manipulating reporting data may also negatively affect personnel and financial disbursement; communities whose improvements (on paper) show they need less resources could lose those resources--and still face the same amount of actual crime on the streets.

External links

References

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