Police intelligence and rapidly changing crime prevention strategies

Police Intelligence: Rapidly Changing the Way Police Organizations Fight Crime

Law enforcement utilizes criminal intelligence to track and predict crime in communities. Advancements in computer technology have allowed criminal intelligence to benefit law enforcement on a global scale. Criminal Intelligence allows information to be used in a proactive manner to assist law enforcement agencies in forming strategic and tactical responses to crime. This paper focuses on how the use of criminal intelligence and computer advancements has changed the way police organizations fight crime. It will show how intelligence is an effective and proactive approach to fighting crime through a review of three relevant peer-reviewed journal articles.

Article No. 1: Nunn, S. (2001). Police information technology: Assessing the effects of computerization on urban police functions. Public Administration Review, 61(2), 221-223.

Although somewhat dated, Nunn provides a useful description concerning what is required by law enforcement agencies to make the optimal use of their information technology (it) resources. The costs associated with implementing and administering the it systems used to fight crime are significant, so it is important for these agencies to consider what is needed to make their systems as efficient and effective as possible. To this end, Nunn observes that it can be used to improve administrative functions, thereby allowing for more police officers on the street, as well as providing valuable trended information concerning areas of high crime rates. In order to maximize these it tools, though, the agency's paper-based records must be integrated into the system as well. As Nunn emphasizes, "Having some type of computer provides little value unless information that was formerly kept on paper is digitized for electronic storage. But the storage of information electronically adds little value to the agency until its members use those computerized files to perform functions that were previously performed manually" (p. 221). To the extent that digitized records are integrated with current information will likely be the extent to which police departments are able to use their it equipment to its best advantage in fighting crime.

The author also emphasizes the need to take into account all of the stakeholders that will be involved in providing data and what steps need to be taken to ensure that the transition from a paper-based methodology to an it-supported one is achieved in a seamless fashion. Finally, Nunn presents the results of his analysis of how it is being used by police agencies across the country and recommends the use of the database maintained by the U.S. Department of Justice's Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) that allows departments to identify how it is being used in similarly situated agencies and to formulate best practices for their own purposes. In this regard, Nunn concludes that, "In the context of assessing the effects of it, the LEMAS database offers a valuable opportunity for quantifying and assessing the relationships between computer hardware combinations, computerized files, and computerized functions, and between selected measures of police budgets and personnel allocations" (p. 223). Unfortunately, the author did not include any specific best practices that could be readily applied for this purpose beyond his recommendations concerning the integration of digitized paper-based records.

Article No. 2: Hammond, S. (2010, June). The DNA factor: Lawmakers are expanding the use of forensic technology to battle crime. State Legislatures, 36(6), 12-13.

The use of DNA materials such skin, hair, blood and other bodily fluids began in 1985 and by 1987, law enforcement authorities in the UK successfully used the technology to convict a suspect of rape. Since that time, the use of DNA for crime-fighting purposes has been greatly expanded and DNA has been proven to be among the most reliable tools available. Adding to the utility of DNA as a crime-fighting tool is the fact that almost all of the states (47 to date) have passed laws that allow for the collection of DNA samples from convicted felons which are added to a growing database of such samples. According to Hammond, "Studies show there is a 40% chance that burglaries and other nonviolent crimes are being committed by someone who already has committed a violent crime, perhaps even murder" (p. 12).

Other useful applications that have been identified for DNA analyses include resolving missing or unidentified people cases and the U.S. Department of Justice continues to collaborate with state and local law enforcement agencies for these applications. Beyond the foregoing uses, DNA analyses can also help prove the innocence of suspects as well as wrongfully convicted individuals who are incarcerated, a trend that has helped exonerate a growing number of individuals in recent years. Taken together, DNA testing can help identify criminals and even human remains with a high degree of certainty, as well as ensure that people who have inadvertently become entangled in the criminal justice system are not wrongfully convicted. The author, though, does not include a description of the various types of DNA testing methods currently in use which would have been a valuable addition to her review.

Article No. 3: Fillichio, C. (2005). Getting ahead of the curve: Baltimore and CitiStat; CitiStat maximizes Baltimore's efficiency by using data from the city's 311 call center to manage agencies and adjust performance as necessary. The Public Manager, 34(2), 51-53.

The article was an excellent example of using existing it resources to gain the maximum value for law enforcement efforts as possible. The author notes that the city of Baltimore was experiencing an inordinately high crime rate and departmental budgets had been adversely affected by dwindling personal income and home values that had eroded the city's tax base. Therefore, the acquisition of expensive it resources was not feasible, but the city already had some it resources in use that were not being applied to law enforcement activities. As a result, the Baltimore police department adapted CompStat which could use the city's it resources to track areas with high crimes rates including assaults, burglaries and murders, that allowed a more efficient use of law enforcement resources. Since its inception in mid-2000, the application has grown to include data input from almost two dozen city agencies, with much of the data being routinely provided by these agencies anyway. Likewise, the CompStat application draws on archived digitized records as well as the city's 311 call manager operation to identify problem areas and allocate resources effectively.