COMPSTAT’s role in Intelligence Led Policing

Introduced in the mid-90’s by New York Police Department officials, COMPSTAT (Computer-aided Statistics) is a crime-reduction program that uses statistics, maps and information sharing to hold police supervisors accountable for the reduction strategies that they adopt in their jurisdictions. Typically, an agency’s Crime Analyst participates in this forum on a scheduled basis to inform key personnel of past and current crime patterns; command staff then uses the information to create solutions that could reduce or end crimes occurring in their districts. This type of pro-active crime reduction program has led to the creation of Intelligence Led Policing – a method of incorporating critical data and intelligence analysis as well as input from the public in order to reduce crimes in specific neighborhoods.

In addition to sharing data among key personnel in a law enforcement agency, it has also become more popular to also share critical information with an agency’s community through some sort of online crime mapping program. By sharing data (albeit limited), citizens can become more aware of crimes in their particular neighborhoods, resulting in more cooperation with their local law enforcement to assist in reducing those crimes. In addition, citizens are given the ability to send information back to the Law Enforcement agency about crimes in progress, suspect locations or other tips that may help an agency solve crimes.

RAIDS Online provides the public with many of the same statistics that law enforcement use. The interactive map allows you to filter out or query certain data by crime type, date, and a search radius. The grid behind the map reflects your filters and provides information about each event such as location type and 100 block addresses. The analytics in RAIDS Online show crime percentage breakdowns, crime by day of week, a crime timeline and a temporal topology to show the time of day and day of week when the incidents are occurring.

While the statistics viewed by the public on RAIDS may or may not be an indication of a crime pattern, RAIDS does contribute to the public’s safety by keeping citizens informed about activities in their neighborhoods plus offers a method for citizens to share critical information with their law enforcement agency.