Kappeler: Community Policing, 6th Edition


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.

Questions

  1. What is the COMPSTAT Report?
  2. Correct Answer

    The COMPSTAT Report, which provides a ranking of the precincts by crime and arrests. This report allows management to make a determination about each precinct's problems and the efforts exerted to solve the problem. This report can also provide information on officer productivity to determine those officers who are making more and fewer arrests and issuing citations. This information would be helpful in identifying officers in need of additional supervision and training.


  3. What is the Commander Profile Report?
  4. Correct Answer

    The Commander Profile Report serves as a report card on how managers are dealing with their crime problems and their units. The report contains information on population and demographics for each command area, number of assigned personnel, complaints filed against officers in the command, vehicle crashes involving departmental vehicles, response time to calls for service, number of on-duty injuries to officers, and amount of overtime expenditures. This report allows administrators to examine individual commanders over time and compare each with the other commanders. Such a comparison can identify problem commands.


  5. What is the Crime Mapping Report?
  6. Correct Answer

    The Crime Mapping Report provides commanders with visual accounts of crime and calls for service in their commands. Various maps can be generated examining individual or all major crimes for a short or extended period. This flexibility allows commanders to discover trends over time or in specific locations. The maps assist the commanders in developing better tactics for dealing with the problems in their areas.


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