Tracking offenses as they occur is a critical element of the department’s crime reducing tactics.  It allows for the district commanders to deploy the decentralized resources to attack emerging crime patterns and trends.  Crime Analysts are assigned to each district to provide timely and accurate crime intelligence.  They create a daily report card that identifies when particular crimes were occurring, how and where the crimes are being committed and identifies a list of possible offenders.  This information allows for a much more efficient and effective deployment of the officers.

The computer mapping of crime data is completed on a weekly and monthly basis.  Commanders and officers can easily determine where crimes are being committed geographically and are able to utilize the information from these maps to assist in decision making and strategies.

Daily Crime Reports

These daily reports detail the crimes committed in a 24-hour period and compare each day’s Uniform Crime Report’s Part I crimes to the previous month and to the same month from the prior year.  The FBI established the Uniform Crime Report, known as UCR, in 1930 so cities have a standardized national system for measuring their crime rates.  The Part I crimes are Murder, Sexual Battery, Aggravated Battery, Robbery, Auto Theft, Burglary, and Auto Burglary.  Supervisors closely followed what became known as the “Big Four”; Robbery, Burglary, Auto Burglary, and Auto Theft.  These crimes which make up the majority of UCR Part I crimes.  These high volume crimes tend to occur in patterns that can be tracked and therefore more easily solved.  By reducing the Big Four, officers also reduced more violent offenses.  Since most criminals are not specialist, the same suspect who steals a car to commit multiple burglaries or robberies is also likely to get into a fight with a friend or spouse that results in an aggravated battery or homicide.  Success is evaluated on the crime rate reduction for that month, as compared to the same month the prior year.  This provided district commanders and their staff the ability to easily discern emerging and established crime trends, design tactical responses and deploy personnel as necessary.

COPPER

To ensure accountability at all levels, a monthly review process was instituted.  Crime Analysts generate COPPER Report for each district, at the end of the month.  These reports, known as the Comprehensive Police Performance Effectiveness Review or COPPER for short, contain a comprehensive view of all crime activity for the previous month and the first two weeks of the current month.  This allows the Assistant Chief of Operations to review crime data with each component of the department, making certain that each is doing its part to reduce crime.  It has become the report card for each district commander and their staff.  District and support personnel attend the COPPER meetings, where they are questioned concerning specific crimes, initiatives, deployments, and productivity.  These meetings are highly charged and extremely productive.