Data becomes information when it is effectively analyzed.

August Vollmer

(1876 - 1955)

August Vollmer has been called the "father of American policing." Vollmer served as Chief of Police in Berkeley, California, from 1905 to 1932. His inovations range from police radios to fingerprinting, and include pin mapping, the regular review of incident reports, and the formation of patrol districts based on crime volume.

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"On the assumption of regularity of crime and similar occurences, it is possible to tabulate these occurences by areas within a city and thus determine the points which have the greatest danger of such crimes and what points have the least danger." - "The Police Beat"

Orlando Winfield Wilson served as a police executive in a number of agencies, including the Chicago Police, where he was superintendent from 1960-1971. Wilson wrote several influential books including "Police Records" (1942), "Police Administration" (1950) and "Police Planning" (1957). The first written citation of crime analysis was made in Wilson's second edition of "Police Administration" (1963).

"The crime analysis section studies daily reports of serious crimes in order to determine the location, time, special characteristics, similarities to other criminal attacks, and various significant facts that might help to identify either a criminal or the existence of a pattern of criminal activity. Such information is helpful in planning the operations of a division or district." Though this is the earliest known source of the term, Wilson's use suggests that there were already crime analysis units in existence.

Law Enforcement Assistance Administration provided federal funds in support of crime analysis units and published a series of manuals in the 1970s. Crime analysis became one of the four facets of LEAA's Integrated Criminal Apprehension Program (ICAP).

Herman Goldstein worked with O.W. Wilson in Chicago and wrote "Problem-Oriented Policing" in 1990.

Crime analysts study crime and disorder data; identify and anhalyze patterns, trends and problems; and create and disseminate information that helps police agencies solve, reduce and prevent crime and disorder.

Criminal Intelligence Analysts concentrate on the collection and dissemination of information about criminals, particularly organizations and conspiracies. Intelligence analysts hunt for leads on the structure and hierarchy of criminal organizations, the flow of money and goods, relationships, current activities and plans and personal information about the participants - usually with the goal of arrest, prosecution and conviction of the offenders involved.

Criminal Investigative Analysts create physical, behavioral and psychological profiles of offenders based on the characteristics of crimes they have committed.

Crime analysis is the systematic study of crime and disorder problems, as well as other police -related issues - including sociodemographic, spatial and temporal factors - to assist police in criminal apprehension, crime and disorder reduction, crime prevention and evaluation.

Tactical Crime Analysis includes the daily identification of emerging or existing crime patterns, including series and hot spots. The goal of tactical analysis is to:

1. Identify emerging crime patterns as soon as possible
2. Comprehensively analyze any patterns
3. Notify the agency about the existence of patterns
4. Work with the agency to develop the best tactics to address the patterns.

Trends are long-term increases and decreases in crime, or changes in the characteristics of a crime over a period of time. Crime trends can occur over months, years, decades, even centuries, but are rarely discussed in terms shorter than a month or longer than a decade. Sometimes they can be traced to a single cause (e.g., a new shopping mall, fluctuations in the price of heroin); other times they have numerous obscure and indirect social, environmental, economic, and political causes.

Positive Crime Trends

Negative Crime Trends

Neutral Crime Trends

Positive Crime Trends represent increases in crime

Negative Crime Trends represent decerases in crime

Neutral Crime Trends represent consistent volume although may include shifts in crime characteristics

1. Data collection and management
2. Data scanning and querying
3. Data analysis
4. Information Dissemination
5. Response
6. Evaluation and feedback

1. Knowledge about crime and criminal behavior
2. Knowledge about policing and police strategy
3. Knowledge about the jurisdiction
4. Knowledge about the police agency

1. Incidents
2. Other agencies
3. Jurisdiction
4. Persons and businesses
5. Police activity
6. GIS

Four main factors can impact data quality:

1. Accuracy
2. Reliability
3. Completeness
4. Timeliness

Situational Crime Prevention - Five Strategies

1. Increase effort necessary to commit crime
2. Increase the risk of getting caught
3. Reduce potential rewards
4. Reduce provocations
5. Remove excuses by setting clear rules

Situational Crime Prevention suugests that crime can be prevented by one of five strategies:

1. Increase the effort that criminals must expend to commit the crime
2. Increase the risk criminals face while committing the crime
3. Reduce the rewards of the crime
4. Reduce provocations of offenders
5. Remove excuses for crime by setting clear  rules, posting signs and controlling drugs and alcohol.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS

Data becomes information when it is effectively (blank).

a. Disseminated

b. Analyzed

c. Correlated

d. Coded

Information becomes knowledge when it is effectively (blank).

a. Communicated

b. Learned

c. Categorized

d. Applied

The first written citation of crime analysis was mentioned in the second edition of "police Administration" written by (blank)?

a. Herman Goldstein

b. O.W. Wilson

c. August Vollmer

d. John Eck

The crime analysis process includes how many steps?

a. 4

b. 10

c. 6

d. 5

L.E.A.A. stands for (blank)

a. Law Enforcement Analysts Association

b. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration

c. Law Enforcement Analysis Administration

d. Law Enforcement Administration Association

The "San Diego Wheel" suggests three tactical avenues for crime patterns. The three avenues are (blank)?

a. Apprehension, Arrests, Target Hardening

b. Apprehension, Suppression, Target Hardening

c. Target Hardening, Prevention, Suppression

d. Suppression, Target Denial, Apprehension

The "San Diego Wheel" suggests three tactical avenues for crime patterns. The three avenues are:

(b.) Apprehension, Suppression, Target Hardening

The analytical process of counting, summarizing or averaging is known as (blank)?

a. Categorization

b. Comparison

c. Aggregation

d. Correlation

The statistical technique that determines if one set of data is related to another set of data is known as (blank).

a. Relation

b. Comparison

c. Projection

d. Correlation

The staffing level of analysts within an agency should be based on (blank)?

a. Population

b. Number of officers

c. Volume of crime

d. Area in square miles

One might think of "trends" as the symptoms and "problems" as (blank)?

a. ongoing trends

b. foundation of trends

c. patterns

d. underlying causes