The Platform for Innovative Policing
Brian Mc Grew
VP of Education
Congratulations to Colonel Nathaniel McQueen, Delaware State Police on their Excellence in Policing Award.
The Center for Police Practice, Policy and Research gives this award once a year to a current sworn police officer, supervisor, commander, or executive who is a leader in their agency and has been a champion for implementation of innovative strategies that bring about change and improve policing.
Learn more here.
Law enforcement organizations face many multi-faceted challenges every day. The challenge of using data that is now widely available to be more effective and proactive can be a daunting task that gets overshadowed by other priorities. However, once the benefits of becoming more insights-led are examined, no organization can afford to not take advantage of the richness of information and analytics. Some police departments have taken the leap into gathering insights from their data to get more crime solving and prevention results. Because the insights-led approach is a continuous cycle of learning and improving, all departments and organizations can use more support in terms of becoming more insights-led.
Adventos wants all law enforcement organizations to be able to take advantage of the richness in insights and be equipped with the necessary tools to be insights-led. A recent white paper Getting Real About Insights-Led Policing is designed to present the case for utilizing an insights-led approach to policing, sharing real world anecdotes, and providing concrete steps to taking the leap. We want it to be a relevant resource for commanders and also a conversation starter with your teams about how you can take the leap into using more and better insights.
You can follow experiences of the Port St. Lucie Police Department and Chief John Bolduc to see how it plays out in a fast changing city to distill insights, apply it to all types of challenges, learn from each cycle, and reiterate for the next cycle. Chief Bolduc is realistic about the work that it takes to be true to the insights-led model, but he is enthusiastic about the results they have been able to achieve with this model of policing. He attributes the 60% reduction in property crimes to better use of insights and combining it with other tried and true policing strategies. You also won’t want to miss the colorful and “insightful” voice in which Chief Bolduc recounts his wisdom and experiences.
The free white paper lays out the characteristics and benefits of an insights-led organization. More importantly, it gives specific strategies to use mechanisms and processes you are already using like the SARA (scanning, analysis, response, and assessment) Model to get more results with insights. The SARA Model and the insights-led approach are both natural learning processes, but the intelligence that can be gathered and used with insights takes policing to the next level of effectiveness and efficiency. There are ways of ensuring accountability by implementing Stratified Policing Model to share insights from crime analysts to every level of the force and directing specific action steps to the right level of command.
SmartForce® is an indispensable tool in the insights-led approach because it is designed for modern day policing necessities such as data safety compliance and real-time sharing of information; but it also enables true collaboration within your force. With these key pieces and other fundamental components in the white paper, we lay a roadmap for you to explore becoming more insights-led regardless of where you are today in the spectrum of being only data-led to becoming more insights-led.
The first step in taking the leap into insights-led policing is downloading the white paper and sharing it with your force. As you digest it and apply it to your own work, please let us know what other resource, information, or tool we can help provide for your insight-led journey.
There are several core challenges that often stand between law enforcement organizations and their quest to improve crime reduction efforts in their communities. Selecting the right strategy (or even blend of strategies) that will address their unique problems is a major hurdle to overcome. Likewise, staffing, culture, and measuring execution in a meaningful and long-term way are also common obstacles.
While it’s certainly true that there is no “one size fits all” approach to crime reduction, there are a few core concepts that can address many of these obstacles, and help an agency accomplish its goals simultaneously.
Based on our experience, countless conversations with your peers, and case studies, we have fast-tracked the top Three Critical Keys to Success when it comes to reducing crime:
It All Begins with Accountability
One of the most important factors required to reduce crime has to do with adopting a true accountability mindset for your proactive policing efforts. The problem is that in many agencies, accountability is something that “rolls downhill” – meaning that responsibilities are often pushed down to the people who are working beneath those they were given to. A Chief gives an assignment to a Commander, who assigns it to a Captain, who delegates it to a Lieutenant, etc.
Instead, accountability needs to be shared across all levels of the organization, not just the last person it was delegated to. More than that, a successful crime reduction strategy depends on accountability being assigned based on the complexity of the crime. The more significant the crime, the higher the rank of the officer to which it is assigned. These are two critical perspectives that any agency of any size can easily adopt by sharing accountability and assigning by complexity.
Communication is King
Equally important is the concept of communication – something that most agencies could stand to improve in at least some ways. If your agency wants to focus on robberies and burglaries, for example, this needs to be communicated to everyone. This communication extends to the officers out on patrol as well as the crime analysts who are focused on data collection and the investigators who need to know what their priorities needs to be in a given day.
Likewise, actionable data must be communicated if crime reduction techniques are to be successful. Everyone in an agency needs to know what is happening, why it’s happening, and they need essential community information to gain critical perspectives on the people and groups they’re dealing with.
Remember, knowing what to communicate is often just as essential as knowing how to communicate within your agency.
The Power of Collaboration
Finally, we arrive at collaboration – or in other words, the realization that decision makers within an organization need the most accurate, actionable insights to make the best decisions possible at all times. Key data needs to be top of mind, represented visually and presented in a way that can be easily organized, searched and accessed.
Equally important is the realization that decision makers exist at every level in an agency – not just at the top. Once all of the decision makers have the knowledge they need, they’ll be in a better position to prioritize their time and respond in the right way to their own unique piece of the crime reduction puzzle.
If you’d like to find out more information about the Three Critical Keys to Success in terms of reducing crime, download our new eBook: “The Most Powerful Guide to Reducing Crime – 3 Keys to Success.”
Communication is a critical part of all Patrol and Investigations’ efforts in any law enforcement agency, regardless of its size. But achieving this is rarely as simple as flipping on a proverbial light switch. Not only do you need a culture where communication is prioritized, but one where a sense of openness is unlocked through the most important technique of all: improved and organic collaboration across the agency.
Luckily, getting to this point is not as difficult as one might think. If you truly want to improve Patrol and Investigations’ communication and empower collaboration, there are Five Key Elements that are required and can be easily accomplished using SmartForce® an Agency Management System designed specifically for Police Departments.
In many ways, shift briefings are where communication and collaboration intersect in a meaningful way. Utilizing SmartForce, Investigations can post a briefing item to advise Patrol what they are working on, and what assistance Patrol can provide. An example of this idea in action: Detectives working a bank robbery series can share the bulletin and ask Patrol to conduct specific tasks such as locating an identified suspect and conduct a road interview or bring them in talk with Detectives. Detectives can also share progress on the investigation and provide Patrol with the direct point of contact for any new information.
Along the same lines, SmartForce facilitates Operations Discussions, which go a long way towards breaking down those information silos that far too many agencies still must contend with. Investigations and Patrol can all collaborate on an issue (like a crime hotspot) in a way where everyone sees what individuals are doing. Patrol will know if a Detective needs help contacting an investigative lead, or locating a witness, and Detectives will know what suspicious activity Patrol is seeing in real time whether they are in the office or on the move.
Additionally, Operations Discussions build an investigative timeline of what is happening in terms of the investigation’s status. This goes a long way towards keeping things well organized and helps to eliminate any unnecessary redundancy and duplication of work. Overall, it fosters a culture capable of doing more of what needs to be done to solve crimes.
The “art of deconfliction” also has an important role to play in Patrol and Investigation’s communications, but from a slightly different perspective. Deconfliction logs can and should include things like drug tips and other types of activity where both Patrol and Investigations need to know what the other is working on. For example, a Patrol Officer might receive a tip about a drug house in his or her assigned area. If that Officer posts the tip to the Drug Tip Deconfliction Log within SmartForce, the Narcotics Sergeant can let the Officer know if they are either already working that address; want to work it or would like the Officer to work it at the patrol level.
During a crime series all key stakeholders involved need to have updated information in an accessible way for both Patrol and Investigations to ingest. Crime Bulletins are an excellent way to communicate between stakeholders when they are current and updated with versioning. It goes without saying but linking to this information in shift briefings and operations discussions is of paramount importance to solve crimes quickly and efficiently.
Finally, we arrive at the concept of search – something that makes sure that all this insight and expertise no longer remains in a silo, cut off from the people who need it the most. With search functionality, Patrol Officers and Detectives can quickly catch-up on current happenings after RDO’s, vacations and more – all with customized views. SmartForce is one example of a solution designed to improve communication in this way by unlocking native search functionality within the solution itself. If all areas are putting their activity in SmartForce, any searches run on people, places, vehicles and keywords will link these two critical areas together much faster than email or word of mouth could ever accomplish.
Good communication and collaboration are essential in solving crimes efficiently and quickly. SmartForce incorporates the Five Key Elements listed above to link key stakeholders within an agency giving them a one-stop-shop to get their jobs done using the best technology available today.
Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS) is a law enforcement operational model which combines data on the locations of crimes with data from traffic crashes to determine how to best place officers and other resources. This model is designed to not only reduce traffic accidents and crimes, but to enhance the presence of law enforcement in the community, putting officers in places where it is most helpful and reassuring for them to be seen. In addition, such targeted use of resources could lead to an overall cost savings for law enforcement departments in the long run.
It is generally accepted that highly visible traffic enforcement is an effective deterrent, and that crimes often involve motor vehicles. With these two facts in mind, DDACTS is designed to optimize the placement of officers to reduce crime and accidents based on real data. DDACTS uses data of a variety of types, including:
Much of this data is coded for type of incident, location, time of day and day of the week. It is used to create integrated maps that overlay crash, traffic and crime data to help to identify hot spots within a community or jurisdiction. Further analysis may show causation factors, environmental influences and time patterns for crime and traffic accidents.
Once the maps are created and data is analyzed, agencies can then devise strategies to focus law enforcement countermeasures and activities on the hot spots that were identified. This could mean increasing patrols in target areas, stationing police to manage traffic at key times, installing new traffic management devices, putting in cameras and more.
This law enforcement operational model gets stronger the more it is used and analyzed. By meeting with officers, community members, administrative personnel and elected officials, agency leaders can learn what’s working and what isn’t to better fine tune their approach. This “Team” approach also helps to get stakeholders more invested in the program so that they can be counted on for support and continued data. It is also important to do ongoing assessments of reductions in crimes and crashes, cost savings and other results of using DDACTS.
Nobody can predict exactly where a crime or a traffic accident is going to occur, DDACTS, however, can at least point out those areas where there is a higher probability of such events happening, based on historical and current data, so there is a better chance of having an officer in the right place at the right time.
As a community and its police department grow, having a police intelligence unit may be beneficial or even necessary. The purpose of a police intel unit is to provide strategic, tactical, operational and administrative intelligence analysis of crime data to a law enforcement agency in a timely manner. If you are considering adding an intel unit to your agency, there are five concepts you should keep in mind for its success: focus, structure, technology, stats/tracking, and potential pitfalls.
Focus comes down to three basic issues: jurisdiction, scope of information gathered and scope of services provided. Understanding which areas your police intelligence unit is going to focus on is key to building the unit correctly from the ground up.
– Jurisdiction: If you’re creating an intel unit for a city police department, the jurisdiction is the city. But what if it’s a unit that is shared among several departments? It could end up serving several cities, or different parts thereof.
– Scope of information: The most successful intelligence units have a wide variety of sources from which to obtain case facts and crime related information. In addition to having direct communication with criminal investigators and surveillance teams, additional sources include:
– accurate local crime statistics and police records;
– local, state and federal crime databases;
– social media sources;
– business and commercial open source data; and
– government records.
– Scope of services: Services provided might include the creation of crime bulletins, tracking of patterns and prolific offenders, radio monitoring, support in operations, warrant workups, data analysis, and other services to assist the department.
The structure of an intelligence unit depends on the size of the agency or agencies that it serves. A typical model might include a manager or supervisor, three to 12 sworn intelligence officers and three to 12 analysts, who could be sworn or not sworn. Smaller agencies may have one or two sworn officers doing double duty as intelligence officers and analysts. Many agencies require that recruits for officers and analysts have college degrees, and it’s important for anyone in this unit to be able to work independently, be persistent, communicate well and, of course, have a complete knowledge of general police practices. In addition to this, analysts may be required to have post-graduate degrees and should have excellent skills in writing, research, critical thinking and computers. The challenge for anyone beginning such a unit is finding these qualified officers and analysts or allotting enough time and budget to train them.
The scope of operations affects the technology required. A surveillance-heavy intelligence unit may require cameras, microphones and other types of high tech surveillance gear. A unit geared more toward data collection may invest in data mining software and very powerful computers. In just about all cases, the unit will need standard police gear, especially radios, tablets and cell phones to stay in communication with other law enforcement partners at all times.
When forming a police intel unit, you need to have a way to quantify your progress against your stated goals and focuses. It would be accurate to say that the goal of any intel unit is to solve crimes, so the increase in solved cases is the best measure, but this isn’t always the whole picture. Intel units also help to bring cases to trial and keep them from being thrown out on technicalities, so perhaps prosecutions are a more meaningful metric to use.
As with creating any new department or unit, there are challenges, and those challenges start with money. Hiring staff, training them and buying equipment and software all cost money. Another pitfall is that the need for rapid information sharing will require a platform, so one must be found or created. If roles are not clearly defined and communicated to stakeholders, that can be another challenge that affects the development and success of a police intelligence unit. Also, unfamiliarity or even distrust could cause officers outside the unit, other departments and other potential customers of the intel unit to be hesitant to ask for help or share information. This will require a good deal of trust building through demonstrated successes and positive results.
Source
https://www.ialeia.org/docs/Intelligence_Led_Policing-Getting_Started.pdf
Adventos is proud to announce that it has joined the Colorado Technology Association (CTA). CTA is the state’s premier nonprofit tech organization, creating meaningful connections throughout our community and advancing our technology ecosystem by establishing a diverse talent pipeline, advocating for modernized policy and fostering growth. CTA’s serves its more than 380 members across the state by offering a forum for business development, career advancement, civic engagement and access to influential thought leaders who are driving innovation.
Brian Mc Grew
VP of Education
Law enforcement organizations are moving toward a blended policing approach of both calls for service and data-driven crime reduction. Click here for a FREE download of the most powerful eBook on reducing crime available today.
Brian Mc Grew
VP of Education
By following these 10 steps, your police department can get ahead of crime trends in your community.
Read this article at PoliceOne.com
Brian Mc Grew
VP of Education
There is no shortage of training classes available in the public safety sector. However, this abundance of training is actually what makes it hard to decipher which ones provide the highest impact. Here are my Top 5 Tips & Tricks for selecting the best training conferences.
1- Look for or confirm that the training is “Evidence-Based.”
Conferences that provide speakers sharing their perspectives and best practices have value, but not as much value as speakers who have published evidence-based research that shows certain practices will generate a repeatable successful result.
2- Look for training that matches your department’s highest priorities.
This probably is a given, but I’ve seen many times that participants go to training events because they are local or free. Although the training pertains to the improvement of public safety, it may have nothing to do with the department’s focus on reducing gang activity for example. The return on investment is much higher, even if you had to spend the money traveling across the country for 3 days for an evidence-based training on something related to your 5 year plan, than attending 3 days of local, free training on public safety subjects that are not as critical and are not evidence-based.
3- Always ask for an Agenda.
Advertisements for training are to capture your attention. Make sure the conference can back up the hype. Getting a copy of an agenda, even if it is in draft form can help you determine some key factors on how valuable the training may be. Make sure the featured speakers have more than 30 minutes to discuss the topic. Speakers that have 1.5 to 3 hours of time on a topic will be presenting more than their theories and perspectives. They will likely be sharing the details on how to implement their perspectives in your agency. Great speakers understand adult learning. With a larger block of time on the agenda they can include case studies, workshops, and/or a review of guides, policies or other resources they have designed.
4- Determine if Speakers are Nationally-known or Associated with the COPS Office or the Bureau of Justice Administration.
When you or one of your subordinates goes to a conference, there is only so much that can be retained and put to use at your agency. Retaining whatever level of information from a nationally-known speaker or one that has been associated with COPS Office or BJA grants would certainly provide a high return on investment of time and money.
5- Does the conference have a Theme?
A conference that has a theme like Gang Violence, Sex Trafficking, or Pro-Active Policing has more value than a conference with a hodgepodge of topics because attendees get multiple perspectives, ideas, and ways to be successful on that particular challenge in Public Safety instead of one way to think about 12 different challenges in Public Safety.
My last piece of advice is to go to a conference that matches the criteria above so you know for certain what a high impact training conference looks and feels like, and that all others should be measured against. So, if your agency is focused on Pro-Active, data-driven policing, the next opportunity to attend this kind of high impact/low cost educational conference is the SmartForce™ Command Academy Aug. 8-10 in Breckenridge, CO. This conference will feature Nationally-known speakers that have participated in both BJA and COPS Office grants and have published evidence-based data. Email me and I’ll send you the draft agenda. Then, click here for more details and to register before all the seats are taken.
