Case Studies with Questions and Answers
Chapter 05: Managing and Implementing Community Policing
The NYPD recently implemented the use of COMPSTAT. William Bratton and Jack Maples are credited with the creation of COMPSTAT (computer statistics). COMPSTAT is not merely a computer program; it is a multifaceted "approach to crime reduction, quality of life improvement, and personnel and resource management" (Wikipedia, 2011). COMPSTAT uses geographic information systems that map crime and identify "hot spots" of criminal activity. The New York Police Commissioner and other administrative officials meet weekly with the police precinct chiefs in the eight boroughs of New York City to discuss crime and quality of life issues in these boroughs.
Recently NYPD was implicated in a scandal involving COMPSTAT. Police chiefs stated that they felt pressured to demonstrate that crime had been reduced in their boroughs. They believed that if they did not achieve significant reductions in crime that their jobs would be on the line. The police chiefs encouraged subordinates to misrepresent crime reports. For example, if a police officer answered a call to an aggravated assault, they were encouraged to write it up as a simple assault (reducing a felony report to a misdemeanor report). Obviously, this is a gross distortion of the intention of COMPSTAT.
You have been brought in to retrain the NYPD in the appropriate use of COMPSTAT.