COMPSTAT
FOR MORE EFFECTIVE POLICING
Random Police Patrolling vs. IT Policing Application
The research supported by the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice presented eight major hypotheses on crime prevention by the police (Sherman et al., 1990). The third was random patrolling, which assumed that the more random patrols in public places, the greater the perceived "omnipresence" of police force to discourage crime. Early beat officers checked on specific areas at specific times according to strictly supervised patterns (Reiss, 1992 as qtd in Sherman et al.). The adoption of the Rapid 911 response scheme in automobiles gradually replaced random patrolling. The basis was the perceived unpredictability of patrolling patterns, which would create police omnipresence to discourage crime in public places. Finding of a research came up with weak evidence on the effect of patrolling either in number or variations. It concluded that patrol presence in big cities had no crime prevention effects. The reported weakness was greater according to another study, which added daytime foot patrols. Large incidents of burglary and robbery occurred at night when the foot patrols were not in the areas. However, many police chiefs and mayors still believe that random patrolling would help reduce crime (Sherman et al.).
In comparison, the application of technology to law enforcement has revolutionalized its work in deterring crime in the past few years (Roberts, 2011). The increasing capabilities of computer technology, its continuous diminishing costs, the progressive and extensive growth mobile communications, and the expansion of available and innovative technological applications have greatly enhance the work of law enforcement throughout the country. Police patrols are now equipped with the most technologically sophisticated vehicles, laptop computers or mobile digital...
Police officers now carry or wear technological gadgets, such as a smartphone, video camera or a less deadly weapon. These are in addition to the standard weapons, handcuffs, ammunition, baton and a flashlight (Roberts).
2. COMPSTAT and Its Basic Functions
The four basic steps in information systems are input, process, output and storage (Jacobson, 2014). Input is anything that the user wants to put inside a system for any use. A keyboard, scanner, microphone, mouse and another computer are among the resources for inputs. An input has any purpose only when it is processed and produced into some kind of output. Processing occurs in the inner components of a computer when it converts inputs into something usable. An output is the processed information in some usable form. It takes many forms, such as monitor or printer for visual product or a speaker for audio. It may be usable for short duration, such as printing photographs or for longer periods and must be kept or stored. And storage is the component for saving data. Data are stored for any reason. They may be kept for future reference or to prevent their loss. Data storage is important. Outputs and processed data may be stored in the hard disk, in the USB drive or as a CD (Jacobson).
COMPSTAT or Computer Comparison Statistics is a multifaceted system used to manage police operations (Godown 2014). It helps the organization fulfill its mission and achieve its goals. As a crime control process, it consists of recurring meetings during which performances are critically reviewed in search of improvements and for greater opportunities. It is two-pronged. It reviews crimes outwardly and its effects in the community. And it evaluates the organization internally in identifying the best practices for personnel management. The COMPSTAT process is guided by the four principles, namely, accurate and timely intelligence; effective tactics; rapid deployment; and relentless follow-up and assessment. In implementing accurate and timely intelligence, the police force must know what is happening. In enforcing effective tactics, the force must create a plan. Deployment should always be rapid. And relentless follow-up and assessment mean that is something works, it should be repeated. If it does not, something else should be done in its place that will work (Godown).
3. How Information Systems Enable Faster Crime Response
Technology has done wonders in empowering police officers, especially those in the field (Roberts, 2011). It enables them to inquire or search into…
BIBLIOGRAPHY
EndVAWNOW (2012). Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT)
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Knowledge Centre to End Violence against Women and Girls. Retrieved on April 19,
2014 from http://www.envawnow.org/en/articles/1055-strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-and-threats-SWOT-analysis-.html
For example, using predictive policing will likely be at odds with many of the organizational cultures found in traditional police forces in many cities. Furthermore, different objectives may also take precedence over the use of COMPSTAT systems such as political goals as well as the ability for policing organizations to provide the needed resources to take advantage of a COMPSTAT system. The various COMPSTAT systems can take various inputs, such
, Skolnick and Fyfe, and Walker, that conclude racial discrimination has been found in several policing duties, facilitated by police discretion, including shootings, use of force, arrests, street stops, offense charging, search and seizure, and equality of coverage. Police discretion allows for this discrimination to occur. Skogan and Frydl (2004) concur that police discretion is an increased concern, in relation to racial profiling and discrimination. The authors surmise that pro-active special
Police Intelligence: Rapidly Changing the Way Police Organizations Fight Crime Since the professional era of policing, the traditional role of the police officer in the United States has primarily been that of crime fighter. Law enforcement officers detect and arrest offenders to keep the public safe and until relatively recently, the job was pretty straightforward. The officer would walk his beat, talking to the community and acting to reassure them. If
Predictive policing is a trend that uses technology to predict hot crime spots and send police to the area before a crime is committed. By using data mining and crime mapping, police are deployed to areas based on statistical probability and geospatial predictions. This technology is based on the same technology used by businesses to predict sales trends and customer behavior patterns. Now, police departments can use the same technology
Community Policing Efficacy The Violent Crime Control & Law Enforcement Act of 1994 heralded the beginning of a massive effort to reform policing strategies in the United States, in part through implementation of community-policing programs at the local level. Congress has allocated billions of federal dollars over the years since to support such efforts and by the end of the 20th century, close to 90% of all police departments serving communities
American Policing As one would expect, the police are aggressive, noticeable and thespian. It is easy for them to happen to be the objects and representatives of order, jeopardy, and inscrutability. They not only mark the boundaries of an urbane organization and regulation but also are the boundary markers themselves. They have vast authority over the legal resources including lethal and nonlethal weapons, specialized vehicles, adequate personnel etc. (Manning, 2008).
