U.S. Department of Justice 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services 

DOJ Seal

Community Oriented Policing Services COPS Publication 
www.usdoj.gov/cops/ 

Police Department
Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project

ISTEP




Police Department
Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project 

ISTEP 

Authors: 
Terence Dunworth, Gary Cordner, Jack Greene, Timothy Bynum, Scott Decker, 
Thomas Rich, Shawn Ward, Vince Webb 

Prepared for 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 
Program/Policy Support and Evaluation Division 
1100 Vermont Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20530 

Prepared by 
Abt Associates, Inc. 55 Wheeler Street Cambridge, MA 02138 

This project was supported by cooperative agreement #97-CK-WXK-005 awarded by the Office 
of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or 
opinions contained in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily 
represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. 


SUGGESTED CITATION 

Abt Associates. Police Department Information Systems Technology 
Enhancement Project (ISTEP). Washington, D.C.: Department of Justice, 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2000. 


Acknowledgments 

Abt Associates, Inc. wishes to thank the five ISTEP Phase One Departments for their willing 
and open cooperation in the ISTEP project. The Departments were selected using 
several criteria, with a department wide commitment to community policing as a primary 
factor for inclusion. The Departments were also selected because they had significant 
experience with technology innovation and were in an advanced state of strategic 
planning to support information technology. 

We requested and, with the full support of the command staff in each department, were 
given virtually unrestricted access to staff and records concerning the IT developments 
that were under way in each location. Without this generous approach to the work we 
were doing and the insights provided to us, the effectiveness of the inquiry and the utility 
of the reports contained in this document would have been significantly 
diminished. 

Many individuals in the departments gave us their time and expertise, and it is difficult to 
identify particular individuals without running the risk of leaving somebody out. 
However, we want to express our gratitude and appreciation to several departmental 
personnel at the five ISTEP Phase One sites who were particularly helpful in providing 
information, organizing our site visits, and contributing feedback on our case studies. 
In particular, we wish to thank Chief Dennis Nowicki and Dr. Maureen Brown from 
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina; Chief Joseph Coughwell and Captain William Reilly 
from Hartford, Connecticut; Deputy Chief Ron Glensor from Reno, Nevada; Assistant Chief John 
Welter and Sergeant Ralph Garcia from San Diego, California; and Chief Ron Burns 
and Rachel Boba, Ph.D. from Tempe, Arizona. 

Of course, the reports presented herein are our assessment of the information provided 
to us, and none of the individuals named above, or any other individuals from the departments, 
should be considered responsible for any deficiencies that the reports are 
considered to contain. Further, the fact that departments cooperated unstintingly 
should not necessarily be interpreted as an endorsement of the content of these reports. 
We would like to stress that, in our opinion, these Departments were in the top tier of 
police agencies that have strategically planned for and implemented information 
technology to support community policing. Therefore, any comments contained in the reports 
which may portray the Departments as struggling with planning for or 
implementing technology should be considered valuable lessons for other agencies. 

This publication reflects the state of each Department's information systems and planning 
process based on site visits conducted and information gathered primarily in 1998. Due 
to the lengthy publication process since that time, each of these agencies has made 
progress  some significant  in their information systems implementation. 

We also wish to thank the editors at The Cygnus Corporation for their detailed review, 
comments, and suggestions on all of our reports. 

We especially want to thank Veh Bezdikian from the COPS Office for overseeing the project and 
for his diligence, effort, and insight in helping to make ISTEP a project with 
practical applications for the field. We also thank Veh in helping to put this publication 
together and providing helpful suggestions for improving the reports. 



Foreword 

Since the inception of the COPS Office in 1994, this agency has provided upwards of 
one billion dollars in grants to state and local police agencies for information technology 
development and enhancement. The primary vehicle for this funding has been 
the COPS MORE (Making Officer Redeployment Effective) grant program which has 
had a tremendous impact at the community level. By providing agencies with the 
tools needed to effectively perform their jobs, the COPS MORE grant program is meeting 
the increasing demands placed on law enforcement as we enter the next century. 
The range of technology products funded cover a broad spectrum, from uniquely 
configured network enhancements at larger departments to simple off-the-shelf hardware 
and software products in some of the nation's smaller agencies. However, the 
underlying goal of this effort has been a universal oneto advance the practice of 
community policing by creating a more effective police force and improving the flow 
of information among police, local government service providers, and the citizens 
they serve. 

In 1997, COPS launched the Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project 
(ISTEP), conducted by Abt Associates, Inc. The purpose of this project was to identify 
the basic principles of community policing as well as the added demands placed 
on departments transitioning to community policing. That information was then used 
to examine five police agencies that were successful in implementing and integrating 
the new technology. Each of those five case studies that follow contain valuable 
insights about the experience of law enforcement agencies involved: what worked, 
what didn't, and how to make the move toward updated technology a successful part 
of community policing. 

It is our hope that this product will prove to be a valuable asset, as law enforcement 
agencies nationwide continue to expand their technological capacities and look to 
maximize the application of technology to community policing. As the former 
Commissioner of the Baltimore City Police Department, I was able to oversee the 
transition to a more technologically advanced police force and witness the tremendous 
benefits. Based on my experience, I would encourage all police managers to 
take advantage of the lessons learned at each of these departments studied and look 
to apply these lessons in your own internal strategic planning. 

Tom Frazier, Director
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

Image of Tom Frazier


Contents 

Chapter 1: ISTEP Conceptual Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 
1. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 
2. Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 
3. Community Policing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 
4. Users and Consumers of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 
5. Analysis of Police Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 
6. Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 
7. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 
8. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 

Chapter 2: Tempe, Arizona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 
Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 
1. Purpose and Scope of Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 
2. Police Department Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 
3. Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 
4. Analysis Methods Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 
5. Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 
6. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 

Chapter 3: San Diego, California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 
Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 
1. Purpose and Scope of Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 
2. Police Department Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 
3. Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 
4. Analysis Methods Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 
5. Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 
6. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 

Chapter 4: Hartford, Connecticut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 
Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 
1. Purpose and Scope of Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 
2. Police Department Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 
3. Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 
4. Analysis Methods Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 
5. Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 
6. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89 

Chapter 5: Reno, Nevada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 
Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95 
1. Purpose and Scope of Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97 
2. Police Department Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 
3. Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 
4. Analysis Methods Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 
5. Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 
6. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 





Chapter 6: Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 
Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 
1. Purpose and Scope of Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 
2. Police Department Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122 
3. Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 
4. Analysis Methods Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 
5. Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145 
6. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 

Chapter 7: Cross-Site Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 
1. OverviewInformation Systems Technology Enhancement Project (ISTEP) . . . . . . 153 
2. Information Technology and COP/POP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154 
3. Is Technology Driving COP/POP or Is COP/POP Driving Technology? . . . . . . . . 154 
4. Is Technology Planning Integrated with Strategic Planning? . . . . . . . . . . .157 
5. Is the Process of Designing and Acquiring Technology Bottom Up or Top Down? 158 
6. What Is the Level of External Support for These Processes, and What Linkages with Other 
Information and Intervention Systems Are Present? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159 
7. What Is the Mix of In-House Versus Out-of-House Expertise Shaping Technology Planning 
and Acquisition? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 
8. Who Is Responsible for Integrating Technology with Operations? . . . . . . . . .161 
9. How Do the New Systems and Processes Affect the Quality and Output of Police Work, and 
How Would These Changes Be Measured? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 
10. How Does the Process of Assessment Continue? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 
11. How Is Such Change Financially Supported? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163 
12. Concluding Note: The Uneven Development of Information Domains in Support of 
COP/POP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164 

Author Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 




Chapter 1

Police Department

Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project 

ISTEP 

ISTEP Conceptual Framework 

October 1998 

Prepared for 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 
Program/Policy Support and Evaluation Division 
1100 Vermont Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20530 

Project Director 
Terence Dunworth, Ph.D. 

Authors 
Gary Cordner, Ph.D. 
Terence Dunworth, Ph.D. 
Jack Greene, Ph.D. 

Abt Associates Inc. 
55 Wheeler Street 
Cambridge, MA 02138 


Contents 

ISTEP Conceptual Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 

1. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 
1.1 Community Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 
1.2 Inter-Organizational Linkages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 
1.3 Work-Group Facilitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 
1.4 Environmental Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 
1.5 Problem Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 
1.6 Area Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 
1.7 Strategic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 

2. Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 

3. Community Policing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 
3.1 Citizen Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 
3.2 Geographic Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 
3.3 Prevention Emphasis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 
3.4 Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 
3.5 Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 
3.6 Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

4. Users and Consumers of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 

5. Analysis of Police Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 

6. Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 

7. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 

8. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 




ISTEP Conceptual Framework 

The Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project (ISTEP), funded by the 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, focuses on enhancing the use of 
information in the context of community policing. Enhancements are implemented 
through two related but separate initiatives: (1) improvements in police information 
systems technology (e.g., hardware, software, connectivity) and (2) improvements 
in police data analysis methods (e.g., crime analysis, operations analysis). 

1 Overview 

Community-oriented policing (COP) is a modified approach to policing that redefines, 
extends, and expands the law enforcement approaches that have predominated for many decades. 
COP is best viewed as an addition to traditional or professional-era law enforcement, rather 
than a replacement of it. Professional-era law 
enforcement refers to a departmental emphasis on efficiency and narrowly defined 
responses to crime and disorder. Strategic and tactical decisions, under professional-era 
policing, are based on limited analysis of standard internal information such 
as calls-for-service and crime reports. As such, COP imposes new information needs 
on law enforcement. 

What are these new information requirements associated with COP? Based on several factors 
discussed in this report, we have identified seven key information 
domains that must be addressed for successful COP implementation: 

 Community interface 
 Inter-organizational linkages 
 Work-group facilitation 
 Environmental scanning 
 Problem orientation 
 Area accountability 
 Strategic management 


1.1 Community Interface 

Community policing emphasizes that the police should work closely with the community in 
addressing crime and disorder issues, that genuine partnerships should be 
created, and that individual citizens and community groups should play a larger role 
in maintaining public safety. Achieving these goals requires that the police engage in 
much more information sharing with community groups (both providing information to the 
community and obtaining information from the community). 

1.2 Inter-Organizational Linkages 

In community-oriented policing, the police strive to work closely with other government 
agencies (e.g., code enforcement, public works), nonprofit organizations, and 
the private sector to address crime and disorder issues more effectively. This 
requires access by law enforcement to information systems maintained by other 
agencies and organizations (e.g., databases on property ownership), and the provi



sion of information by law enforcement to such agencies (e.g., drug-related calls and 
arrests at rental properties). 

1.3 Work-Group Facilitation 

COP imposes new or different information needs on officers and supervisors because 
of a new focus on joint action and shared responsibility for geographic areas and 
problems. This focus reflects the trend toward deemphasizing temporal and functional 
distinctions between work groups. For example, several officers and detectives 
working jointly on a problem-solving effort need the capacity to share information and 
coordinate their activities, even though they may be assigned to different units. 
Similarly, several officers jointly responsible for the condition of a beat need such a 
capacity, even though they work different shifts. Equally important, supervisors need 
information with which to direct, control, and coordinate work-group members who 
may not have the same work hours as the supervisor. 

1.4 Environmental Scanning 

Under COP, police departments have learned that they need to scan the environment 
more broadly than was traditionally the case. This need includes scanning to identify 
problems (the first step in the problem-solving process), as well as scanning for 
environmental data such as community characteristics, business cycles, land use, drug 
markets, and crime patterns. To do effective community policing, both police officers 
and police executives need substantial information about a wide range of existing and 
emerging issues and problems in the community. 

1.5 Problem Orientation 

Traditional information systems and analytical approaches in policing have tended to 
be incident oriented. These systems and approaches are not adequate for a successful COP 
approach, and they must be expanded. Information and analysis must be 
reoriented so that they support officers and detectives in identifying and analyzing 
problems related to their new responsibilities, as well as in assessing the effectiveness 
of responses once implemented. In a traditional policing context, there is often little 
opportunity for an officer to learn how chronic problems have been handled in the 
past, except by reviewing individual cases. Historically, there has been little or no 
systematic effort to develop and share institutional knowledge across officers about what 
works in solving problems. In community policing, however, this type of information 
is crucial for effective problem solving. 

1.6 Area Accountability 

COP emphasizes decentralized management of well-defined geographic areas. Such 
management entails flattening the police management hierarchy and decentralizing 
control and responsibility for particular geographic areas. Consequently, COP 
requires that area command have a different and more sophisticated level of information 
about available resources and their potential deployment than used to be the 
case. This information must permit an understanding of the range and kinds of problems 
that must be addressed; the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the workforce 
itself; the effectiveness of different kinds of interventions; and how to make resource 



allocation decisions that bring these elements together in the most effective way. This 
management structure emphasizes the need to achieve results in a particular geographic 
area and refocuses accountability on area command. That can be intimidating for some 
commanders, and it is imperative that the information provided to them 
be adequate to their needs. 

1.7 Strategic Management 

The new information domain associated with strategic management is probably the 
most difficult to deal with satisfactorily. Though there is general acceptance that COP 
imposes more extensive demands on police executives, making their roles and 
responsibilities more complex, the magnitude and character of these new demands 
have not yet been systematically identified. 

We can assert with confidence, however, that at least three factors are critical for a 
police chief dealing with strategic management issues: the needs and expectations of 
communities, links with other government as well as nongovernmental agencies, and 
area accountability. The nature of the police chiefs role is changing; todays executives 
must develop the ability to use information about and from these sources in handling 
service demand and service delivery issues. Under the professional model, for 
example, police executives virtually had a formula, based largely on analysis of past 
calls-for-service data, for measuring environmental demand for police services and 
calculating resource needs. Under COP, however, this approach is no longer adequate. 
The resource demands of COP are generally believed to be different (and higher) than 
those of the professional policing model. But there is no established method for calculating 
this demand in a systematic way. In addition, acknowledging the new demand 
does not dispense with the need to respond effectively to calls for service. That is, COP 
is not a replacement for traditional reactive policing; rather, it is an extension of it 
that expands the definition of policing to meet todays needs. 

2 Framework 

The following sections of this document address several contextual questions pertinent to 
the ISTEP project in order to demonstrate the salience of the seven new information domains 
identified above. These questions include: 

 What are the changes in police work and police administration associated with 
community policing that create new and/or different demands for information? 
 Who are the new and/or different users and consumers of information associated with COP? 
 As a consequence of these changes and the new or different users of information, what is 
the impact of COP on the types of data analysis that police agencies ought to perform? 
 What are the implications of these changes for the types of information systems 
that modern police agencies need? 




Discussing these issues in this order allows us to work back from (1) what the information 
is needed for and (2) who needs it, to (3) the new types of analysis that must 
be performed and (4) the new information systems required so that they can be performed. 

3 Community Policing 

Although community policing continues to defy simple definition, a host of characteristics 
are widely recognized. Six of these characteristics seem to be particularly important and to 
create different demands for information: 

 Citizen input 
 Geographic focus 
 Prevention emphasis 
 Partnerships 
 Problem solving 
 Management 


3.1 Citizen Input 

One characteristic of COP is a sincere and systematic effort to obtain and use citizen 
input when establishing police priorities, policies, and programs. Methods for obtaining 
citizen input can be informal or formal; in larger agencies, especially, they can 
include community meetings, community surveys, customer re-contacts, advisory 
boards, and Web home page feedback forms. 

Obviously, citizen input is a unique, stand-alone type of information. Police agencies 
that take COP seriously have to devise not only ways of obtaining citizen input but also 
appropriate methods for analyzing and interpreting such information. This has not 
necessarily been a high priority for police departments operating under the traditional model. 

The citizen input element of community policing leads directly to the increased importance of 
two information domains for modern policing  community interface and 
environmental scanning. 

3.2 Geographic Focus 

Another characteristic of COP is a refocusing of police attention and responsibility 
toward appropriate geographic units, such as neighborhoods, communities, and 
beats. The principal basis of police accountability is shifted away from time (e.g., the 
patrol shift) and function (e.g., burglary investigation) toward geography. 

This aspect of COP creates a need for better geographically based information 
hence the interest in crime mapping and geographic information systems (GIS) generally. 
Officers and detectives with geographic assignments need timely and accurate 
information about their areas of responsibility. Similarly, managers need geographically 
based information to allocate resources wisely and to evaluate officers, programs, and 
strategies. Surprisingly, despite a long history of using such organization-



al constructs as beats and precincts, most police departments have not traditionally 
engaged in thorough or sophisticated collection or analysis of geographically based 
information. 

COPs focus on geography helps account for the increased importance of two information domains: 
the focus leads directly to area accountability and indirectly to 
work-group facilitation, since teams are often assigned the responsibility 
for managing crime and disorder problems in defined geographic areas. 

3.3 Prevention Emphasis 

A third characteristic of COP is an emphasis on prevention. This emphasis reflects 
both a more proactive approach to policing and a higher priority for preventing crime 
and disorder from occurring in the first place, in contrast to a reactive emphasis on 
after-the-fact enforcement and investigation. Popular prevention approaches include 
crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) and situational crime prevention, 
as well as primary prevention efforts, which focus especially on youth. 

A strong emphasis on prevention raises several information requirements, including: 

 More attention to evaluation, to identify successful and unsuccessful 
prevention strategies (and to rule out displacement or general societal 
trends when beneficial effects seem to have been achieved). 
 More sophisticated crime-specific data collection and analysis, to 
illuminate crime problems and search for solutions. 
 More reliance on information from external sources (research institutes, police associations, 
etc.) about promising new prevention programs and strategies. 


The three new police information domains most closely associated with COPs emphasis on 
prevention are environmental scanning, problem solving orientation, and 
strategic management. Effective prevention requires information about community 
conditions, emerging problems, and effective preventive responses. 

3.4 Partnerships 

One of the central elements of COP is partnerships. Police officers and police departments 
endeavor to work more collaboratively with individual citizens, community 
groups, other government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector. 
These entities are encouraged to take more responsibility for the control of crime and 
disorder, recognizing that the police alone have limited authority and resources. 

The partnerships element introduces three separate information-related demands: 

 Police agencies need information about the other entities with which 
they might partner, such as membership, leadership, purposes, authority, and resources. 



 These other entities, in order to shoulder their new responsibilities 
effectively, need information about crime and disorder. 
 Both parties (the police and their partners) need information about 
what the other is doing, in order to collaborate effectively. 


The partnerships element of COP can also lead to new information sharing, such as 
when police departments gain easier access to information available to parole and 
probation agencies or to code enforcement and licensing agencies. 

The emphasis on partnerships in community policing gives heightened importance to 
two information domains: community interface and inter-organizational linkages. 

3.5 Problem Solving 

The process of problem solving, a key operational element of COP, includes four 
information-dependent steps: scanning, analysis, the search for responses, and assessment. 
Police officers, and others with whom they collaborate in problem solving, need 
both traditional (e.g., crime) and nontraditional (e.g., fear of crime) types of police 
information to identify the most significant problems in their areas of responsibility, 
to analyze those problems, to choose appropriate responses, and to evaluate the success of their responses. 

The problem-solving element of community policing obviously corresponds to the 
increased importance given to problem orientation as a police information domain. 
This COP element also: 

 Relies on community interface to assure that the communitys problems 
that are being addressed. 
 Relies on inter-organizational linkages in identifying, analyzing, and 
responding to problems. 
 Relies on environmental scanning for early detection of emerging problems. 
 Raises the importance of work-group facilitation, since problem solving 
is often a team-based activity. 
 Often overlaps with area accountability, since most problems are geographically based. 


3.6 Management 

It is important to consider the managerial implications of community policing. These 
include: 

 More managerial accountability for geographic areas. 
 More attention to quality rather than quantity. 




 More delegated authority (and concomitant responsibility) for mid-
level managers. 
 A more genuinely open and collaborative approach to the community. 
 A more coaching and participative style toward subordinates. 


Each of these changes in police management potentially raises new or different information requirements. 

The managerial implications of COP increase the importance of three police information domains: 
work-group facilitation, area accountability, and strategic management. These domains correspond, 
roughly, to changes in the responsibilities of police 
supervisors, commanders, and top-level executives associated with a full-fledged 
commitment to community policing. 

Users and Consumers of Information 

Traditionally, three groups were seen as the users of the raw data provided by police 
information systems and the more focused information provided by police analysts: 

(1) police executives, (2) police supervisors/managers, and (3) police 
officers/detectives. In most police departments, officers and detectives made the primary 
use of raw operational data about suspects, vehicles, property, etc.; these data 
supported such decisions as how to handle calls and suspicious people, whether to 
arrest, whether to tow a car, and whether to seize property. Supervisors and managers 
used raw quantitative data in evaluating their subordinates and sometimes used crime 
analysis reports to direct the tactics and targets of their units. Police executives made 
the primary use of analysis products to make resource allocation and deployment 
decisions and to inform media and political officials about specific events and overall 
crime trends and conditions. 

Community policing promotes two fundamental types of changes in these traditional 
usage patterns. First, supervisors/managers and, especially, officers/detectives should 
make much greater use of analysis products to meet their newly delegated responsibilities 
in such areas as prevention, partnerships, and problem solving, as well as to 
enhance their geographically based knowledge and responses. Second, external 
demand for police data and information by citizens, community groups, and others 
should greatly increase as these entities take on more responsibility, in partnership 
with the police, for controlling crime and disorder. The legitimation of these external 
audiences for police data and analysis creates a potential quantum leap in the number and 
range of users of police information. 

Table 1 compares usage patterns for each of the seven emergent information domains 
under professional-era policing and community policing. 





-Information Domain 
-Information Usage Patterns: Professional-Era 
-Community Policing 

-Community Interface 
-One-way flow of information; information incident-oriented and obtained in 
reactive situations; narrow range of information desired (just the facts); interaction 
mainly limited to officers/ detectives gathering raw data from crime victims 
and other complainants 
-Two-way flow of information; proactive and problem-oriented information emphasized; 
wide range of information desired; all levels of police organization need both raw data 
about the community and analysis products; much greater emphasis on providing information 
to the community 

-Inter-Organizational Linkages 
-Little information sharing among police and other types of government as well as 
non-governmental organizations; not seen as relevant or important 
-Substantial information sharing; crucial to effective problem solving; two-way flow of 
information; information needed by line-level problem solvers as well as by managers and executives 

-Work-Group Facilitation 
-Not seen as very important; incident-oriented policing primarily an individual-level activity 
-Problem solving and geographic focus enhance the importance of work groups; officers/detectives 
need more information in order to coordinate with their colleagues, and supervisors need more 
information to direct, control, and coordinate their subordinates, especially under conditions 
of functional diversity or temporal complexity 

-Environmental Scanning 
-Not seen as very important; primarily an executive-level activity; generally limited 
to serious crime issues in the community and major developments within the policing profession 
-Seen as an important activity at all levels of the organization (beat officers, area commanders, 
functional specialists, top executives); a wide range of issues are seen as relevant (crime, 
disorder, drugs, fear, community relations, economic conditions, sociodemographic conditions, 
new technology, professional developments, etc.); an 
important area for analysis, not just raw data 




-Information Domain
-Information Usage Pattern: Professional-Era 
-Community Policing 

-Problem Orientation 
-Focus on incidents, not problems 
-Policing and police-community partnerships focus primarily on problem solving; thus, raw data 
and, especially, analyses need to be organized and aggregated so they contribute to problem 
identification, problem analysis, the search for responses, and assessment; these data and 
analyses must be available to problem solvers, i.e., officers/detectives, citizens, community 
groups, other government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, as well as police supervisors,
 managers, and executives 

-Area Accountability 
-Accountability primarily temporal (by shift) or functional (e.g., patrol, investigations); 
raw data and analysis not focused primarily on geographic areas 
-Accountability primarily geographic; thus, data and analyses need to be geographically oriented; 
police officers/ detectives, work teams, supervisors, commanders, and executives all need 
geographically based information to carry out their responsibilities effectively; citizens, 
community groups, other government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations also need 
geographically based information to effectively collaborate with the police in 
dealing with crime and disorder 

-Strategic Management 
-Commanders and executives rely on a narrow range of information (crime, calls for service) when 
analyzing service demands and designing service delivery systems; police 
management much more reactive, tactical, and defensive than strategic 
-Police management more complex; wider range of objectives seen as relevant (crime control, order 
maintenance, fear reduction, public satisfaction, integrity, accountability); wider range of 
programs, policies, tactics, and strategies seen as potentially viable; thus, a more strategic 
approach to planning and management is 
required; this increases substantially the information needs of police executives 



5 Analysis of Police Data 

In the professional era, police agencies emphasized four types of analysis: 

 Crime analysis. Focuses on trends and patterns in ordinary street crime. 
 Operations analysis. Focuses primarily on calls for service. 
 Intelligence analysis. Focuses on organized crime, drug trafficking, 
gangs, and repeat offenders. 
 Administrative analysis. Focuses on a variety of organizational issues as 
they arise, such as budgets, personnel turnover, fleet maintenance, and 
property inventory. 


Under community policing, to support new information usage patterns and the key 
elements of COP discussed previously, these types of analysis remain important and 
cannot be ignored. They may, however, undergo significant change. Crime analysis, for 
example, may become more geographically focused and also more attuned to the 
needs of officers/detectives and citizens/community groups. Operations analysis may 
become less concerned with response times and equalizing call-for-service workloads 
across shifts and more concerned with matching resources to problems. 

In addition, several other types of analysis become salient in the COP context: 

 Community analysis. Focuses on the characteristics of neighborhoods 
and communities, including such conditions as fear, disorder, and 
police-community relations, as well as socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. 
 Problem analysis. Focuses on specific problems that have been, or 
should be, targeted by officers/detectives and their collaborative partnerships, including but 
not limited to hot spots analysis. 
 Program evaluation. Focuses on assessing the effectiveness of programs, tactics, and strategies. 
 Policy analysis. Focuses on anticipating the consequences of various 
policy options. 


Although each of these new types of analysis might serve multiple audiences, community analysis 
and problem analysis tend to produce information of particular value to 
COP operatives (officers, detectives, citizens, community groups, etc.), whereas program evaluation 
and policy analysis primarily serve the needs of managers and executives. 



6	Information Systems 

Corresponding generally to the traditional users of police information and types of 
analysis emphasized during the professional era, three types of police information 
systems have traditionally predominated: 

 Operations information systems. Include the police radio, police 
records, NCIC, MDTs, MDCs, cellular phones, etc.; designed to supply 
police officers and detectives with raw data on such topics as calls for 
service, persons, property, and vehicles. 
 Command and control systems. Comprise operations information system components plus 911, E911, 
CAD, vehicle locator systems, etc.; 
designed to aid supervisors and managers in directing and controlling 
their subordinates, especially patrol officers. 
 Management information systems. Consist of various databases pertinent to the internal 
management of the police organization, such as 
officer productivity, citizen complaints, and inventory; designed to aid 
managers and executives in carrying out their administrative duties. 


Adjustments to each of these three types of information systems are called for under 
community policing. For example, operations information systems need to supply 
COP operatives with more geographically based information, more information about 
problems and not just incidents, and more analysis products instead of just raw data. 
Command and control systems need to focus less on efficient incident handling and 
accountability for each minute of time, and more on effective problem solving and on 
accountability for conditions in geographic areas of responsibility. Similarly, management 
information systems need to focus more on substantive issues and on quality 
rather than just on internal administrative processes. 

In addition to these adjustments to existing systems, COP creates a need for at least 
three other general types of police information systems: 

 Geographic information systems. Systems that relate data to locations 
and that result in maps and other products pertinent to identifying and 
analyzing geographically based problems and conditions, and the way 
they change over time. 
 Problem-solving information systems. Databases and systems that capture information 
about completed and ongoing problem-solving efforts 
and that aid officers and citizens in identifying, analyzing, and responding to 
substantive problems in communities. 
 External information systems. Systems that aid the police in obtaining 
data and information from other organizations and from the public, 
and that also aid those entities in obtaining information from the police. 




7 Summary 

The line of reasoning in this report has proceeded as follows: 

 Community policing includes a number of elements with information-
related implications, including citizen input, geographic focus, prevention emphasis, 
partnerships, problem solving, and management. 
 COP changes the types of information needed by front-line police officers as well as by 
managers and executives, and it also creates new information users, citizens, community groups, 
other government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations. 
 COP also changes the types of analysis that police departments need. 
 Existing police information systems need to be adjusted and new systems developed to provide 
the data required by analysts and by COP 
operatives. 
 These factors point to seven domains of police information that are critical to the successful 
implementation of community policing: 
 Community interface 
 Inter-organizational linkages 
 Work-group facilitation 
 Environmental scanning 
 Problem orientation 
 Area accountability 
 Strategic management 






Among the questions that these observations raise are the following: 

 What will it take to meet the new information needs associated with 
community policing? 
 What new data sources, information processing technology, and data 
analysis methods will be required? 
 What systems have already been developed by leading-edge police agencies? 


These are some of the issues that the ISTEP project is designed to address. 

8 Conclusion 

Clearly, community policing creates both new and qualitatively different information 
needs for police agencies and their COP partners. It would be a mistake, though, to 



assume that all that is required to satisfy these new needs is advanced information 
processing technology. Besides technological solutions, police departments seeking to 
fully implement community policing could benefit from guidance and support in three 
other areas: (1) reconceptualizing the domain of police-related information; (2) 
locating and gathering new types of data; and (3) analyzing data and producing information 
that is timely and relevant. These three elements of the solution to the information-related 
needs created by COP may be every bit as challenging as the seemingly more advanced 
technological aspects of the situation. 

What seems clear from the reported experience of departments that are seeking to fill 
these needs is that the approaches taken should not be defined and driven by vendors. 
Any company marketing hardware and software must place the development and dissemination 
of its own products as its primary objective. That is normal and appropriate. Police 
departments, however, need a broader perspective on these issues than any 
single vendor can provide. ISTEP is deliberately organized to avoid any dependence 
upon or even association with particular products or vendors. A long-run ISTEP 
objective is to provide police departments with specific recommendations concerning 
the products that are appropriate and suitable for particular needs. 



Chapter 2

Police Department

Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project 

ISTEP 

Case Study: Tempe, Arizona 

April 1999 

Prepared for 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 
Program/Policy Support and Evaluation Division 
1100 Vermont Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20530 

Project Director 
Terence Dunworth, Ph.D. 

Prepared by 
Vince Webb, Ph.D. 
Tempe Site Leader 
Scott Decker, Ph.D. 
Shawn Ward 

Abt Associates Inc. 
55 Wheeler Street 
Cambridge, MA 02138 


Contents 

Tempe Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 

1 Purpose and Scope of Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 

2 Police Department Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 
2.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends . . . . . . . . . . . .26 
2.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 
2.3 Extent of Departmental Efforts in Community Policing . . . . . . . . . . . .27 
    Solicitation of Citizen Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 
    Geographic Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 
    Emphasis on Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 
    Problem-Solving Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 
    Adoption of Community-Oriented Policing Management Styles . . . . . . . . . 29 
2.4 Community-Oriented Policing Training and Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 

3 Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 
3.1 Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 
3.2 State of Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 
3.3 Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing . . . . . . . . . .31 
    Operations/Command and Control Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 
    Management Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 
3.4 Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing . . . . . . . . .32 
    Geographic Information Systems (GIS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 
    Problem-Solving Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 
3.5 Relationships and Experience with Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 
3.6 Future Acquisition and Development Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 
3.7 IT Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 

4 Analysis Methods Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 
4.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 
    Crime Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 
    Operations Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 
    Intelligence Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 
4.2 Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 
    Community Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 
    Problem Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 

5 Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 
5.1 Community Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 
5.2 Inter-Organizational Linkages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 
5.3 Work-Group Facilitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 
5.4 Environmental Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 
5.5 Problem Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 
5.6 Area Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 
5.7 Strategic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 
5.8 Other Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 
    Use by Officers, Detectives, Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 
    Use by Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 

6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 
6.1 Overall Assessment of Information Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 
6.2 Tempe Police Departments Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 



Tempe Highlights 

Community policing is in the operational fabric of the Tempe Police Department. 
Since the department adopted the philosophy in 1988, Tempe residents have come to 
expect innovative action and proactive policies from their police force. Officers 
working specific beats must develop problem-solving goals with their supervisors. 
To support this strategy, officers are assigned to beats for a minimum of one year. The 
department also created a Problem Solving Process manual which includes a format 
for problem-solvers to track their efforts and time spent on projects. 

The city of Tempe reorganized its information systems in 1998 by eliminating 
autonomous technology units within city divisions. A centralized Information 
Technology Division (ITD) was formed to develop a more integrated effort. The city 
assigned an ITD business analyst to the police department to serve as a liaison and 
an advocate for the department. An important advantage of ITD is the citys ability 
to purchase hardware and software in larger quantities and at a lower cost than individual 
divisions would be able to do. This reorganization has also helped the police 
department to be more successful in planning information technology acquisitions 
to support community policing. 

The Tempe Police Department has established a Workload Committee to analyze 
operational and administrative data for resource allocation planning. The department 
is using a software program  Staff Wizard  to help analyze these data to develop beat 
officer staffing schedules. This software has been a great tool for not only the 
Workload Committee, but for general operations analysis. 

Much of the responsibility for using internal police information systems to support 
community policing rests with the Crime Analysis Unit. Arguably one of the most 
accomplished crime analysis units in the country, the staff perform three types of 
analysis  tactical, strategic, and administrative. This unit provides police information 
to citizens of Tempe either via the Tempe Police web site or by individual request. The 
major products produced by the Crime Analysis Unit are monthly reports on police 
activity and crime, an ongoing series of tactical crime trend reports, and monthly and 
annual reports on crime and calls-for-service by specified land uses. The unit also 
conducts an annual citizen survey and prepares a report summarizing the survey findings. 

The departments web site is maintained by the Crime Analysis Unit as well. The site is 
elaborate and contains several categories of information from crime prevention tips 
to a sex offender database. The Tempe Crime Analysis Unit is most importantly a key 
component in forging a community interface with residents. 



Purpose and Scope of Report 

This case study is one of several produced for the Information Systems Technology 
Enhancement Project (ISTEP), a project funded by the Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services. The aim of ISTEP is to increase the use of information and information 
technology in police departments, particularly regarding the implementation 
of community policing. The case studies document the current state of information 
technology and the use of information in five police departments: Tempe, Arizona; San 
Diego, California; Hartford, Connecticut; Reno, Nevada; and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, 
North Carolina. These case studies are based on a limited review of the status of 
information technology in the departments. A separate cross-site report synthesizes the 
findings of the individual case studies. A report on the projects conceptual framework 
presents the overall ISTEP approach and discusses how community policing demands 
different types of information systems, analysis methods, and uses of information than 
those required under the professional-era model of policing. 

The Tempe, Arizona, ISTEP case study is based on two site visits to the Tempe Police 
Department. The Abt ISTEP team conducted the first site visit on August 16-19, 1998. 
The focus of this visit was to review technology history, use, and plans for future 
development and to collect documentation on the departments use of information technology, 
especially in support of community-oriented policing. The ISTEP team interviewed the 
administrator of the Office of Management, Budget and Research (OMBR), 
and the commander of the Support Services Division. The team also observed a meeting 
of the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee (CJAC), which is composed of a group 
of representatives from the city court, city prosecutors office, Community Services, the 
police department, and the citys Information Technology Division (ITD). The purpose 
of this group is to technologically integrate and operationally maximize the efficiency 
and effectiveness of the criminal justice system in Tempe. The ISTEP team also interviewed 
a crime analyst in the Crime Analysis Section. A business analyst working for 
the city of Tempe Information Technology Division within the police department, and 
the command staff were also interviewed. The command staff interview included the 
chief of police, four commanders (North Patrol, South Patrol, Investigations, and 
Support Services), and the administrator of OMBR. Ride-alongs with officers were 
also conducted. 

The second visit to the department took place on January 12, 1999, with telephone 
follow-up interviews conducted on January 13, 1999. On-site interviews were conducted 
with a crime analyst, a business analyst, a beat sergeant assigned to the North 
Division, and the commander of the North Division. Additional information was 
collected after the site visit through telephone follow-up and meetings. The focus of this 
visit was to glean information on community and problem-solving policing operations, 
to obtain an update on IT developments, and to fill in other ISTEP-related information 
gaps. 



The organization of this case study document follows the overall conceptual framework 
for the ISTEP project. Accordingly, after providing background information on 
the police department in Section 2, particularly with respect to implementation of 
community policing, the case study describes current and planned information systems 
(Section 3), analysis methods (Section 4), and uses of information (Section 5). 
Section 6 summarizes our findings. 

2 Police Department Background 

2.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends 

The Tempe Police Department serves a city of 158,000 residents and encompasses an 
area of 40 square miles. There are 406 Tempe police employees: 291 sworn officers 
and 115 civilians. The department also uses, on average, 130 volunteers, who work 
an average of 10 hours each per month. The department is organized into four divisions: 
North Patrol, South Patrol, Investigations, and Support Services, each headed 
by a commander. Geographically, the department is organized into two patrol divisions, 
North and South. The North Division covers 16 square miles, and the South 
Division covers 23.8 square miles. 

Tempe is a university city with an economic base of service-related and light industries 
that include a strong technology sector. The city is the home of the main campus 
of Arizona State University, one of the nations largest public universities. Tempe is 
known as a special events city, with major tourist attraction activities such as the 
annual Fiesta Bowl. 

In 1997, the police department received 118,652 calls for service. The most frequent 
calls for service were burglary alarm calls (11%), traffic accident calls (8.5%), 
suspicious activity calls (7.4%), check the welfare calls (5.6%), and both theft from 
vehicle and loud music/noise/party calls (5.4% each). There were 15,217 Part I 
crimes in 1997, or 9,619 per 100,000 residents. These included 12 homicides, 72 
forcible rapes, 280 robberies, 504 aggravated assaults, 2,197 burglaries, 10,223 larcenies, 
and 1,883 motor vehicle thefts. Part I crimes have increased slightly over the 
past five years, with most of the increase in the area of larcenies and modest 
increases in violent crimes (1997 Report on Policing in Tempe). 

2.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background 

The Tempe Police Department maintains an ongoing commitment to community-oriented 
policing (COP). The department also enjoys a reputation as a COP pioneer; but 
it appears that in recent years the department has been searching to find a balance 
between COP and the publics demand for maintaining superior traditional police 
services. Maintaining this balance is tough for all departments committed to a 
department-wide philosophy of community policing. The Tempe department consistently 
reviews community priorities and performs internal assessments to help in the 
process. 



COP is evidenced in several ways, including COP training for new officers after they 
complete recruit training, a requirement for setting beat goals that entails problem 
solving, a strong emphasis on interface with the community through meetings, and the 
direct provision of information on crime and crime-related issues. 

Officers are assigned to one of 15 beats and, along with their supervisors, are held 
responsible for them. Beat integrity is a feature of the Tempe Police Department 
operational practice, and officers generally work in the same beat for a year. In addition, 
knowledge of and commitment to COP is taken into consideration in selection, promotional 
practices, and performance reviews. Recruits and field training officers are 
encouraged by patrol commanders to pursue COP principles and practices. Recently, 
the department established a work group charged with developing a system for tracking 
officer time spent on community policing in an attempt to integrate COP-related 
efforts as a more systematic part of workload and activity measurement. 

Although commitment to community-oriented policing and problem solving is not 
uncommon to innovative departments, such commitment varies from one division to 
another, from one beat to another, and between command and line staff. Some beats 
are described as having significant problem-solving activity, while others have less 
activity. Supervisors point out that the commitment to COP by line officers depends 
upon the individual. The difference in COP between the South and North Divisions 
appears, in part, to be a function of differences in the characteristics of the areas 
encompassed by the beats, as well as of the management styles of the commanders 
responsible for those divisions. Although both the South and North Divisions practice 
community policing, the effort is managed differently in each. The varied management 
styles may actually benefit the department, as staff can assess the effectiveness of each 
style. 

Extent of Departmental Efforts in Community Policing 

Solicitation of Citizen Input 

The Tempe Police Department uses a variety of methods for soliciting citizen input to 
help with the implementation of community policing. These methods include an annual 
community survey, neighborhood meetings, and a policy that encourages citizens to 
call beat sergeants to voice concerns or obtain information. Several information 
products are produced by crime analysis and targeted for distribution and consumption by 
Tempe residents. These include results from the community survey, monthly Part I 
crime statistics by beat, maps to help citizens locate their residence within a beat, and 
various reports on crime in apartment buildings and mobile home parks. The Tempe 
Police Department Web page is an important means of disseminating this information. 
The community survey is the responsibility of the Crime Analysis Unit and is conducted 
annually with the assistance of student interns from Arizona State University. The 
survey provides the department with an indicator of citizen perceptions of police 
performance, as well as a measure of citizens feelings of safety and security. The survey 
also provides information used to help set priorities for service delivery. 



Geographic Focus 

The department practices geographic assignments to support community policing. 
Patrol officers work within specific patrolling areas and remain in these areas for at 
least a year. Emphasis is placed on maintaining beat integrity. Tempe is organized into 
15 beats, which are drawn using both natural geographic boundaries and analysis 
results from calls-for-service data. Each beat has a sergeant assigned to coordinate the 
efforts of the officers on the shift beat team. The sergeants are required to set three 
goals for their beat each year. Beat officers seem to be well aware of requirements for 
beat problem-solving projects, and officers and line supervisors appear to develop an 
intimate understanding of the neighborhood encompassed in their beat. 

Emphasis on Prevention 

The Tempe Police Department places considerable emphasis on crime prevention. 
Evidence of this is the departments commitment to crime prevention through environmental 
design (CPTED), as well as the production of newsletters and bulletins that 
promote crime prevention. The city has a CPTED ordinance, and the Tempe Police 
Department has two officers assigned to the city department tasked with reviewing 
building permit applications, construction plans, and site inspections. This arrangement 
is under review, however. It appears that the department may be forced to reassign those 
officers to other duties in the crime prevention unit, since these positions 
are not being integrated and supported by city Development Services. 

The city also has a program to promote crime-free multi-housing, and the Tempe 
Police Department plays a significant role in supporting that effort. Crime analysis 
generates ongoing reports of crime in public housing that serve as a basis for the 
development of specific crime prevention measures. The department also publishes 
and distributes a 75-page Practical Guide for Landlords, Tenants, and Property 
Managers in an effort to decrease illegal activity and nuisance problems in multi-
housing areas. 

The Crime Prevention Unit offers several community-involved proactive programs to 
address crime and fear-of-crime issues, including the Citizens on Foot Patrol program, 
which involves residents observing and reporting incidents to police using cellular phones. 
The unit also offers residential security surveys, neighborhood watch 
programs, and citizen police academies to help citizens understand police work and 
encourage them to partner with police to prevent crime. 

Problem-Solving Orientation 

The practice of problem solving is well ingrained in the organizational culture of the 
Tempe Police Department. Beat sergeants and beat teams identify problems and 
develop responses. Beat sergeants call on crime analysis for assistance in identifying 
crime patterns and trends, and officers and supervisors receive training in problem 
solving. The systematic use of a problem-solving system has recently been codified in 
Tempe Police Departments Problem Solving Process. Department staff now fill out 
community-policing project forms when a problem solving project is identified. The 



form requires them to fill in information on project type, description, objective, 
strategy, results, and actions taken. Also unique in the process is that exact hours 
spent on these projects are documented to show dedicated levels of staffing for the project. 
These hours can be aggregated to determine the total amount of time officers have 
devoted to community policing and problem solving. This process will enable Tempe 
to continuously assess the effectiveness of problem solving. 

Adoption of Community-Oriented Policing Management Styles 

Management has a strong commitment to COP, and COP principles and practices seem 
to be an important force in department planning and resource allocation. 
Management supports COP, problem-solving training, and capacity building, and the 
COP emphasis is reflected in the selection and promotion of managers. The department 
uses calls-for-service studies as a baseline pointer for their strategic planning 
process that drives the departmental priorities and direction. A Workload Committee 
is trying to develop a system to factor COP activity into resource allocation and the 
strategic planning process by analyzing calls-for-service loads. 

Community-Oriented Policing Training and Assessment 

Beat officers receive training in COP when they go through the basic police officer 
training course at the Phoenix Regional Police Academy. The regional academy uses 
an integrated approach to COP training: COP concepts are integrated throughout the 
basic 614-hour police officer training curriculum. Officers also receive approximately 
40 hours of additional training in COP provided by the Tempe Police Department 
when they complete recruit training. Officers are evaluated in field training on 
community policing, including problem-solving activities, resource utilization, interaction 
with community members, and community awareness and service. Officers are also 
evaluated on their commitment to COP in their daily and weekly probationary and 
annual evaluations. Emphasis is placed on having Field Training Officers reinforce 
COP values and practices. In-service training opportunities on COP-related topics are 
also made available to beat officers. 

Since most supervisors come up through the ranks, they receive much of the same 
COP training as beat officers receive. In addition, supervisors (both sworn and civilian) 
and management staff are active participants in State, regional, and national 
organizations and conferences that present them with important opportunities to 
acquire information on COP practices and trends. This includes the programs of the 
Arizona Community Policing Institute. 

The department has a solid commitment to community-oriented policing and has 
implemented the philosophy for several years. The Tempe Police Department can 
probably be thought of as a second-generation COP department. COP appears to be 
ingrained in the department and is practiced as part of the way in which the 
department conducts business. The departments openness with the community and 
willingness to share detailed information with Tempe residents is important evidence of this 
commitment. 



3 Information Systems 

3.1 Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility 

As in many police departments, Information Technology (IT) responsibility was 
housed, until recently, in the Information Management Bureau (IMB) organized 
internally under Support Services. Technology came to be located in Support Services 
because it was seen as an essential tool to support community policing by the command staff. 
Politically, the police department maintained considerable independence 
and autonomy from city government. This was the case for some time, as the city 
viewed the department as fully capable of managing its own affairs. The department 
did respond effectively to political, financial, and intellectual forces in growing its 
technology capabilities. IT decision makers began formal planning early on by coordinating 
the gradual phase-in of new IT infrastructures related to communications, 
records management, and CAD systems. As the cost and complexity of technology 
increased, however, the city took steps to centralize all IT, police included. 

In May of 1998, the city reorganized IT and centralized all departmental IT units into 
one city Information Technology Division (ITD). This was seen as a positive move by 
some in the command structure, but many patrol commanders and communications 
staff were not so willing to hand over control of IT. Financially, it made sense for the 
city to coordinate IT; the city could better integrate systems and, through economies 
of scale, buy in bulk more efficiently. Further, the police department appeared to be 
stagnant on many pressing issues, including systems coordination, management, liability, 
and upgrading computers. As a consequence, the city-centralized IT came at an 
advantageous time for the Tempe Police Department. 

3.2 State of Information Systems 

As noted, Tempe has recently undergone a reorganization into the Information 
Technology Division. As of May 1998, the city reorganized its technology information 
assignments. As a result, the police department lost four civilian positions to the city. 
In most cases, this meant that a city employee (known as a business analyst) was 
assigned to each division of city government. 

The decision by the city to absorb the four police positions and the responsibility 
associated with them seems to have been precipitated by a request from the police 
department to replace their laptops at a cost of more than $5,000 per machine. The 
absorption of these positions by the city is generally seen in positive terms by the 
department. This positive perception is linked to the view that the police will fare well 
in almost any decision-making process, that the city will absorb a large chunk of the 
risks involved in decision making, and that the city has deeper pockets than the police 
department. 

This reorganization was done as a consequence of a needs assessment conducted by 
the city. The bias in the planning process was toward integrating IT across city departments. 
Over the past two years the city has standardized the Oracle database for all 



mid- to large-size databases. These databases are managed by the centralized Data 
Management section of ITD. Now, all remote sites can access all database servers. 

The police department suspects that future IT improvement projects and recommendations 
will receive more support, since these recommendations will come from the 
city and will not be seen as self-serving. The reorganization meant that the Criminal 
Justice Automation Committee and the Criminal Justice Operations Committee were 
merged. In addition, the police department is optimistic about the changes because 
many needs that were left unmet will be addressed. Historically, the police department 
thought that certain needs were to be met by the city, and the city assumed that the 
police department was to meet those needs. In reality, neither group met the needs of 
the other. Overall, the Tempe Police Department command staff views relocating the 
IT function into the city as a compromise between fiscal needs and control. 

Another obvious advantage of centralizing IT responsibility is that city IT employees 
are more capable of handling IT decisions than police employees. They are more 
knowledgeable on various IT systems and platforms and hardware and software 
upgrades. The department also saves the costs of training sworn staff on IT systems 
and software. 

The Tempe Police Departments involvement in technology early on appears to be the 
result of leadership and financial resources. Fifteen to eighteen years ago, commanders 
and lieutenants led the charge for greater use of technology. Tempe is a relatively 
affluent city with significant fiscal resources and was in a position to add technology. 
In addition, the presence of Arizona State University in Tempe has meant that expertise 
has been readily available to the city in areas such as crime analysis and computer 
engineering. To date, Arizona State has provided interns and assisted with annual 
surveys. 

Although commanders and the Tempe Police Department chief indicated that a commitment to 
community-oriented policing helped the city get more involved in technology, it is 
difficult to directly link IT to COP. It appears that the primary means by 
which the Tempe Police Departments commitment to COP has been put into action in 
Tempe is through neighborhood policing. The most obvious link of IT and COP seems 
to be through crime analysis, with data being analyzed, reported on, and mapped at 
the level of the beat or sub-units (reporting districts) within beats. 

Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing 

Operations/Command and Control Systems 

The departments computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system was originally acquired in 
1982. The CAD architecture consists of one centralized minicomputer talking to 
mobile data terminals (MDTs). The system uses Public Safety Systems Incorporated 
(PSSI) designed and supported software. The records management system (RMS) is 



about 12 years old. Both the RMS and the CAD have been updated regularly. The 
department uses ALERT as its primary RMS and a response CAD system; both are produced by 
PSSI and, therefore, communicate well with each other. ALERT has a calls-
for-service module that is synchronized daily. ALERT users can access CAD data as little 
as 24 hours old. A major short-term goal is to have a stand-alone RMS that will be 
year 2000 (Y2K) compliant. 

Motorola MDTs are in the process of being replaced. All cruisers are being fitted with 
dockable Panasonic laptops that will communicate and transmit data using radio frequency 
(RF) technology. Beta testing of these units is complete, and department-wide 
installation was scheduled for completion in January 1999. Installation was delayed 
due to problems in securing mounting hardware for the units. For several years, 
officers and cruisers have been issued laptops with limited applications, such as field 
reporting. The new Panasonics will combine MDT functions with a yet-to-be-developed 
automated field reporting (AFR) system. This system should be developed and 
in place sometime in the year 2000. 

Management Information Systems 

Management information systems (MIS) in the department encompass elements from 
the departments entire menu of IT operational applications and specialized applications 
related to personnel management and budget. One specialized MIS application 
used heavily by the Tempe Police Department is Staff Wizard. This resources-allocation 
application uses a variety of data  including calls for service, average response 
time for calls with varying priorities, and miles patrolled to provide an approximate 
best schedule for officers. The software is instrumental in shaping decisions about 
officer deployment. The Staff Wizard program is an information tool operated by the 
Crime Analysis Unit and patrol management. The information produced is given to 
commanders who then have sergeants and lieutenants review drafts of schedules and 
provide command staff with feedback. 

3.4 Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 

The GIS software standard for the city is MapInfo. GIS technology in the police department 
is managed by the Crime Analysis Unit. This unit uses MapInfo to prepare a variety of maps 
and reports that are used throughout the police organization; the primary 
customers of GIS/crime analysis applications, however, are seen as beat sergeants, 
line officers, and detectives. GIS applications are limited to the use of crime and calls-
for-service (CFS) data. Unfortunately, there do not appear to be any near-term plans 
to provide beat officers direct access to GIS-based information via the new Panasonic 
laptops. 

Crime analysis also produces a number of maps that can be accessed by citizens on 
the Tempe Police Department website. These include monthly Part I crime hot spot 
maps and beat maps. Maps are based on reporting districts, and specific address 
information is not available to citizens, although they are able to determine the reporting 
district location of their own address. 



Problem-Solving Information Systems 

At this time the department has no information systems or software dedicated to problem 
solving, although such a system is being developed. The 1998 Tempe Police 
Department Workload and Activity Measurement System Strategic Plan notes that there 
is not a consistent method for tracking the problem-solving activities of officers or the 
amount of time spent on such activities. The impetus for the development of such a 
method seems to be officer concerns about checking-off and being out of service 
on COP/POP activity and, as a result, missing opportunities to respond to basic calls 
for service. There is concern that the COP emphasis may have resulted in a reduction 
of traditional police services. In an effort to catch up, the department hired an intern 
to develop a method for documenting problem-solving projects that inventories the 
problems addressed and methods employed. 

A related goal is the development of a CAD-based system for documenting officer time 
spent on problem solving that permits automated level-of-effort data aggregation and 
summarization. The goal is to be able to quantify such activity in order to incorporate 
it into performance reviews and strategic management decisions related to department 
resource allocation. The department evaluates officer performance on both traditional 
(e.g., CFS-based arrests) and COP activities. Under the Additional Work 
Group/Team Support Activities section of the Performance Evaluation Form, officers 
are evaluated on team project participation, proactive problem solving, and beat ownership. 

3.5 Relationships and Experience with Vendors 

The department interacts with software and hardware vendors on an as-needed basis. 
There does not appear to be a regular set of meetings or ongoing communication, 
even with vendors that the department has a relationship with. Overall, vendors have 
played a minor role in determining departmental needs, even though the Tempe 
Police Department relies on vendors for beta testing all new systems. Since it has been 
some time since a complete new system (RMS, CAD) has been purchased, there is little 
information in the way of recent precedent to guide the department. 

3.6 Future Acquisition and Development Plans 

Although the CAD and RMS are dated, they have been improved regularly and there is 
no plan to replace them. The view is that they are an acceptable platform for IT that 
can be upgraded over time when funding is available. The police department and ITD 
are in the process of upgrading the RMS from a host-based system to a client-server 
system. The department stressed that this will increase the ability to query data for 
analysis. 

Ruggedized Panasonic computers have been purchased to replace Motorola MDTs. 
The new MCTs/laptops are capable of displaying calls for service and canned or 
prepackaged information from Crime Analysis, including mug shots and police 
reports. Another major technology effort at the current time is the document-imaging 
project being conducted in the Records Bureau. This project is of considerable inter



est throughout the department. The project calls for scanning the document number 
and crime report as an attached file and feeding the scanned data into the departments 
Oracle database. 

Much of the IT development effort is devoted to updating old DOS-based applications 
that are no longer supported and bringing them into the Windows environment. The 
replacement of field reporting software is also a priority, and a major component of 
this effort will be expanded field reporting capabilities, including vehicle/accident 
reporting. Automating field interrogation files and improving the GIS capabilities of 
the dispatch system are two additional IT development goals. It should be noted that 
Tempe is in the process of implementing a three-year strategic plan known as the 
Management Services Information Technology Strategy Plan 1998-2001. 

3.7 IT Training 

Training for technology applications is fulfilled by a semi-formal train the trainer 
approach. For example, a small cadre of 10-12 interested officers volunteered to be 
trained to use the new Panasonic laptops, and these officers will provide the department 
with the capacity to train additional officers as the new technology comes on 
line. Traditional technology training (e.g., MDTs) is carried out as part of the on-thejob
/field-training-officer (FTO) training process. The Arizona Police Officer Standards and 
Training Board (POST) academy also now includes computer training. 
Crime analysis training for officers is provided either during a 3-week post-academy 
training or during their 14-week field training. 

4 Analysis Methods Used 

4.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods 

Crime Analysis 

The Crime Analysis Unit performs tactical, strategic, and administrative crime analysis. 
The Tempe Police Department is divided into two command areas, North and 
South. Each command area has one crime analyst assigned to it. Part-time analysis 
assistants and Arizona State University student interns make up the rest of the units 
staff. The physical location of the crime analyst within each patrol division has important 
implications for the demand, flow, and use of crime analysis information. The 
North Command Area is in the same facility as police headquarters. The crime analysis 
office is located near the general public reception area, an area that receives less 
traffic from patrol officers and their supervisors than does the South office. The 
principal clientele for the crime analyst located in that office includes administration, 
detectives, and citizens. The crime analyst for the South Command Area is located next 
to the patrol assembly area, and placement in that location generates considerable 
interaction with patrol officers and their sergeants. Queries from officers and beat 
sergeants constitute the principal source of requests for information directed to the 
South Command Area crime analyst. 



The major information products produced by the Crime Analysis Unit are monthly 
crime, calls for service, alarm, and accident reports; ongoing series of tactical crime 
trend reports; and monthly and annual reports on crime and calls for service in 
schools, apartment communities, and mobile home communities. In addition, the unit 
conducts an annual citizen survey and prepares a report summarizing the survey findings. 
The unit also prepares custom reports in response to requests from all departmental units,
other units in city government, and community agencies. The Crime Analysis Unit has a 
well-developed Web page and regularly posts most of the information listed above. 

Operations Analysis 

One important form of operations analysis is the use of calls-for-service data to develop 
beat-officer staffing schedules. Staff Wizard, developed by Corona Solutions, is the 
software application used for this purpose. It uses CFS data and other operations and 
administrative data to generate draft schedules that are reviewed by supervisors, who 
then make recommendations for schedule adjustments to the department command 
staff. Tempe was a test site for Staff Wizard. Corona Systems worked with the department 
to test, modify, and refine the software. 

Intelligence Analysis 

Intelligence analysis is largely the responsibility of specialized operational units (e.g., 
drugs, gangs). The Tempe Police Department is an active participant in various metro task 
forces and accesses intelligence maintained by those task forces. The Arizona 
Department of Public Safety maintains several extensive intelligence databases that are 
shared with police agencies throughout the metropolitan area. 

Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods 

Community Analysis 

The Tempe Police Department has access to a variety of citywide criminal justice and 
non-criminal justice databases. The non-criminal justice databases include census 
information, commercial permits and licenses, traffic engineering, and housing data. 
One goal is for city IT to develop a data warehouse populated by these and other city 
databases. At the present time, the use of non-criminal justice databases is somewhat 
limited, although crime analysis uses them to prepare reports that overlay crime data 
on various data sets. Examples include reports on crime in mobile home parks, 
apartment communities, parking lot locations, parks, and schools. 

Problem Analysis 

The approach to problem analysis at the Tempe Police Department was previously ad 
hoc. However, as mentioned earlier in the document, the department is using a newly 
created Problem Solving Process form and tracking system that requires staff to fill in 



information, once a problem is identified, on project type, description, objective, 
strategy, results, and actions taken. This formalization of problem identification and 
follow-through should produce more accountability in problem solving. 

Prior to this process, most problem analysis was conducted by the Crime Analysis Unit 
at the request of beat sergeants and officers who were setting and working on beat 
goals. It should be noted, however, that although many of the reports prepared by 
crime analysis can be thought of as problem analysis, the depth of these analyses is 
limited by the reliance on narrowly constructed databases. The departments Oracle 
database, which is the principal source of incident report data in the department, is 
described as difficult to manipulate. Also, problems with cleaning data in the Oracle 
database have been reported. Both of these factors make its direct use by officers and 
sergeants nearly impossible. 

5 Use of Information 

The ISTEP conceptual framework identifies seven information domains that are critical to 
the successful implementation of community policing. The seven domains are 
community interface, inter-organizational linkages, work-group facilitation, environmental 
scanning, problem orientation, area accountability, and strategic management. 
In each of these domains, information technology can, if properly applied, greatly 
enhance the effectiveness of community policing. 

Each of the five police departments that ISTEP staff have visited excels in one or more 
of the seven domains. The following discussion details Tempes participation in the 
seven information domains. 

5.1 Community Interface 

The Tempe Police Department maintains a strong interface with the community, and 
the strength of that interface is probably a function of the community and departments 
history. Tempe has maintained the police-community relationship that existed 
when both were much smaller entities. 

The Tempe Police Department maintains an elaborate website that provides a large 
amount of information to the community. Included are pin-maps of crime trends, thematic 
maps of beats and reporting districts by crime and calls for service, and beat 
maps that indicate the streets and numbers of the reporting districts. Even the 
addresses, names, and photographs of registered sex offenders can be accessed. The 
Web page takes on added significance in a community such as Tempe, which is a 
major university town with a significant IT base. On a per capita basis, Tempe citizens 
probably have greater Internet and World Wide Web access and skills than those 
found in other communities of similar size. It follows that emphasizing the use of the 
World Wide Web to promote community interface makes a great deal of sense in a 
community like Tempe. 



The department has increased the use of cell phones, e-mail, and voice messaging in 
recent years. Beat sergeants and officers are expected to respond directly and promptly 
to inquiries by citizens. Officers are expected to give out cards that contain telephone 
contact information. Crime analysis will respond directly to citizen requests, 
although a small fee is charged for analysis and production of custom reports. 
Community meetings, newsletters, and extensive involvement of police managers and 
command staff in civic organizations are some of the low-tech approaches to community 
interface in Tempe. The department also coordinates Citizens on Foot Patrol, 
which involves residents observing and reporting incidents to police using cellular 
phones. 

Additional interfaces include the departments use of cable channel 11, neighborhood 
block watch and association meetings, an annual neighborhood problem-solving 
meeting, and a Youth Police Academy. 

Inter-Organizational Linkages 

The recent centralization of IT into one city department is probably strengthening the 
Tempe Police Department linkages with other organizational units of the city. Two of 
the perceived benefits of the arrangement are better access to the financial resources 
of Tempes Information Technology Improvement Program (TIP) and increased 
capacity for successfully implementing major technology projects. Linkages with the 
Development Office result from the citys CPTED ordinance and the assignment of 
officers to that office to conduct CPTED reviews. Similar linkages exist with the housing 
office in conjunction with the public housing program. The department has a Crime-
Free Multi-Housing Coordinator who works with managers and residents from apartment 
communities to make them safer and uses CFS, crime, and other data to problem solve. 
The ITD business analyst assigned to the police department also serves as 
an important avenue for information exchange between the Tempe Police Department 
and other city agencies represented in the IT department. 

The Criminal Justice System Integration Committee provides another set of important 
inter-organizational linkages. The committee is composed of the following members: 
the Deputy Court Administrator, the business analyst for the Court and Prosecutor, 
another representative of the city courts program, a data manager for ITD, the business 
analyst for the Tempe Police Department, the Civil Court budget manager, the jail 
automation manager, the Supervisor of Diversion Services (probation), the Manager 
of Police Records, and the Tempe Police Departments Commander of Support 
Services, who serves as committee chair. The goal of this committee is to produce a 
single point of entry (and exit) for criminal justice data, and to integrate operations. 
The new committee structure is a direct consequence of the 1998 decision to move 
the Tempe Police Departments IT into the city ITD. 



5.3 Work-Group Facilitation 

The department has provided all supervisors with team and facilitation/meeting skills 
training. The department has cross-functional teams, including a policy team, management 
team, and specific committees addressing various issues. However, cross-
shift and cross-unit coordination is largely a function of informal contacts and 
arrangements initiated by the beat sergeant. This seems most evident in communications and 
facilitation between patrol shifts. E-mail capabilities, as well as shared 
reports, including those produced by the Crime Analysis Unit, provide a basis for 
some cross-shift, cross-unit communication and information sharing. 

Regularly scheduled command staff meetings can cover a range of topics, including 
substantive problems in the community. The focus on community problems, when it 
occurs, can lead to coordination across units, shifts, and city agencies as the command 
staff attempts to impact these problems. 

5.4 Environmental Scanning 

Systematic environmental scanning is improving. The Tempe Police Department is in 
the beginning stages of developing a systematic approach to environmental scanning. 
The new Workload Committee is using a variety of department and city databases to 
make mid-range projections of demand for services and workload impacts. That 
effort appears likely to evolve into a formal, ongoing strategic planning process with 
scanning as an essential part of the process. 

The reports on crime trends prepared by crime analysis represent a form of scanning, 
albeit somewhat informal. Although crime analysis develops a large quantity of useful 
information, it does not appear to be used for systematic scanning by management. 
The departments coordinated efforts with city agencies, such as traffic engineering 
and planning and development, also involve it in limited scanning processes. 

5.5 Problem Orientation 

The problem orientation of the department has been somewhat informal, although the 
department has improved the process and is clearly committed to community-oriented 
policing, with problem solving being an important COP strategy. The training of 
new officers and supervisors in COP/POP reflects this commitment, as do promotion 
and selection processes. The requirement for beat sergeants to set three annual beat 
goals also reflects the departments problem orientation. 

Crime analysis data, which are largely CAD-generated data, are the principal source 
of information used to inform SARA-like problem solving (scanning, analysis, 
response, and assessment) in the department. These data must be accessed through 
the Crime Analysis Unit, and that unit indicates that sergeants setting beat goals are 
among their most frequent customers. Crime analysis will produce custom reports 
and maps and limited analyses on request. POP/COP activity is documented in the 



daily activity reports, logs of beat officers, and in the recently developed problem-solving forms. 

Some officers seem to lack an understanding that problem solving is frequently a long-
term process, and community-oriented policing is viewed more as a program than a 
philosophy. Consequently, these officers tend to see COP in discrete terms with a 
beginning and an end. 

5.6 Area Accountability 

Although area accountability is accomplished through the organization of the departments 
two major geographic divisions into 15 beats, the beats were not created using 
specific neighborhood boundaries. They are broken down into reporting districts, 
however, for more effective analysis. The patrol officers are assigned to a beat, and 
the department uses a beat team concept. Assignment to a beat is usually for one year. 
A sergeant is assigned to a beat for two years, with responsibility for coordinating the 
work activity of the beat team. Most of the 15 beats have a satellite office, usually 
colocated in and donated by a business, school, or other city department. Sergeants are 
responsible for setting problem-solving goals, and problem solving is taken into 
account when annual performance reviews are conducted. GIS applications support 
the beat and reporting-district boundary delineation and activity data within those 
areas. 

5.7 Strategic Management 

Management appears to be concerned about developing a balance between community policing 
and traditional police service. There is a perception by some in the community that too 
many resources allocated to COP may have resulted in a reduction in 
traditional services, such as responding immediately to all calls for service. 
Management describes COP as an ongoing challenge for the department  the goal 
being to provide traditional police services while still doing POP and COP through 
participation with the community, in an appropriate balance. 

The establishment of the Workload Committee is a result of this concern for balance, 
and one of the committees objectives is to develop an approach for workload allocation that 
reflects an agreed upon balance of traditional and COP police activity. For 
example, under the present system, an officer doing COP or POP checks off with 
dispatch and is out of service (red light) and unavailable to respond to a call for service 
(green light). The committee is looking at the possibility of creating a conditional 
status (amber light), so that an officer could be performing COP/POP activities but still 
be available to respond to calls. The concern about balance is also reflected in the 
development of the POP activity tracking system. The focus of that new system is to 
capture officer time spent on COP/POP so that it can be quantified and part of an overall 
officer deployment and resource allocation system. 



5.8 Other Uses 

Use by Officers, Detectives, Management 

Increased use of IT by officers, detectives, and management will most certainly occur 
in the near future. The new laptops that will soon be in place will provide increased 
access to information by officers. Officers are allowed to take home the personal 
computers assigned to them. A new AFR system will provide an improved source of 
incident-level data. Aggregate data and future developments in the computerization of 
field interview files will be important information resources for officers and detectives 
alike. The POP activity tracking system will also be used by management in support of 
planning and budgeting. 

Use by Others 

Citizens and other city agencies are likely to increase their use of Tempe Police 
Department police-related data in the future. The creation of a Tempe data warehouse 
will provide some direct access to data by other city agencies. Increased integration 
of criminal justice system data will provide non-police criminal justice agencies with 
greater access to police data and will provide the police with greater access to other 
types of data. Increased awareness of the police-related data presently available to 
citizens on the departments website will probably result in a demand for more information
and in the use of that data to support citizen-driven strategic initiatives. 

6 Summary 

6.1 Overall Assessment of Information Technology 

Information technology that supports community-oriented policing is improving in 
the Tempe Police Department. IT development seems to be incremental, but senior 
staff have been aggressive in upgrading the CAD and RMS systems to improve the ability to 
perform ongoing analysis and problem solving. The current effort replacing the 
Motorola MDTs with new, ruggedized Panasonic MCTs and AFR is another gain. A 
new document imaging system will improve incident report storage. Planned 
improvements not specifically related to community policing include an automated 
fingerprint identification system (AFIS) and a digital mug shot system. 

The Tempe Police Department implemented community policing and problem solving 
in 1988. COP/POP seems to be part of the departments philosophical and operational 
fabric, and the department can be described as being well beyond the banner waving stage 
of community-oriented policing. In some ways, the Tempe Police 
Department seems to be at a critical stage in that it is reassessing the emphasis placed 
on COP versus traditional police services. Perhaps this means that it has yet to find a 
way to fully integrate the two, if such integration is really possible. 



Tempe Police Departments Best Practices 

The Tempe Police Departments Web page, especially the crime analysis section and 
the variety of information provided, is a best practice supporting community interface. 
Citizens are able to locate their address within a beat and get current crime information 
for that beat. The various reports (notably those related to mobile home parks, 
apartment communities, and schools) produced by the Crime Analysis Unit are also 
best practices related to community interface. 

The Tempe Police Department Crime Analysis Unit is a good example of how crime 
analysis can use CFS data and make it useful to beat officers. The unit conducts tactical 
analyses that identify crime trends in relatively small geographic areas. Trends are 
considered the beginning of crime hot spots. In addition to statistical information, the 
trend reports provide information on suspects and crime characteristics. Over 80 
such trends were identified and disseminated by the Crime Analysis Unit in 1998. This 
appears to be a good way of translating basic police data into operational tactics and 
strategies. Interestingly, the software used in tactical analysis, Automated Tactical 
Analysis of Crime (ATAC), was developed by a former department crime analyst who 
is now a Tempe police officer. 

The use of the Corona Solutions Staff Wizard for operational and administrative management 
is also a best practice. Studies that show time spent on calls for service and 
develop a real picture of how officer time is spent are important to management. The 
department is also looking at expanding the scope of this analysis in the near future. 



Chapter 3

Police Department

Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project 

ISTEP 

Case Study: San Diego, California 
April 1999 

Prepared for 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 
Program/Policy Support and Evaluation Division 
1100 Vermont Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20530 

Project Director 
Terence Dunworth, Ph.D. 

Prepared by 
Scott Decker, Ph.D. 
San Diego Site Leader 
Gary Cordner, Ph.D. 
Shawn Ward 

Abt Associates Inc. 
55 Wheeler Street 
Cambridge, MA 02138 


Contents 

San Diego Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 

1 Purpose and Scope of Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 

2 Police Department Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 
2.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends . . . . . . . . . . 50 
2.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 
    Solicitation of Citizen Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 
    Geographic Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 
    Adoption of Community-Oriented Policing Management Styles . . . . . . . .51 
2.3 Community-Oriented Policing Training and Assessment . . . . . . . . . . .51 

3 Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 
3.1 Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . 52 
3.2 Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing . . . . . . . . 53 
    Operations/Command and Control Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 
3.3 Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing . . . . . . . 53 
    Geographic Information Systems (GIS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 
    Problem-Solving Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 
    External Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 
    The Communicator Notification System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 
3.4 Relationships and Experience with Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 

4 Analysis Methods Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 
4.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 
    Crime Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 
4.2 Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 
    Community Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 
    Problem Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 

5 Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 
5.1 Community Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 
5.2 Inter-Organizational Linkages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 
5.3 Work-Group Facilitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 
5.4 Environmental Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 
5.5 Problem Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 
5.6 Area Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 
5.7 Strategic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 
5.8 Other Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 
    Use by Officers, Detectives, Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 
    Use by Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 

6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 
6.1 Overall Assessment of Information Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 
6.2 San Diego Police Departments Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 



San Diego Highlights 

The San Diego Police Department supports a department wide community policing 
philosophy and has been a pioneer in problem-solving. In these regards, the department is 
a model for many police agencies. San Diego defines their policing style as 
neighborhood policing. The dedication to this philosophy spans the administrations 
of at least three chiefs and is demonstrated in the departments strong relationship 
with other governmental agencies and neighborhood organizations. In recognition of 
their innovation, San Diego hosts the Problem-Oriented Policing Conference each 
year. 

The department has also set a high standard for using technology to support problem 
solving. The Information Services Unit is housed in the Neighborhood Policing 
Division. This is an unusual organizational arrangement but it exemplifies San Diegos 
commitment to use technology to support problem-solving. The most recognizable 
example of software technology supporting community policing is the use of POP 
Track, a software program that helps officers solve identified problems using the 
SARA model. On a larger scale, the recent purchase and ongoing implementation of 
mobile computer terminals (MCTs) and automated field reporting (AFR) software 
enables officers to generate reports on their MCTs and send them electronically to 
supervisors and directly into the records management system. This process allows for 
quick dissemination of data and subsequent analysis to recognize recent trends or hot 
spots in the neighborhoods. The training provided for officers on the use of the MCTs 
and AFR is comprehensive and serves as a model to other cities considering the 
implementation of similar systems. 

Crime analysis is the most recognized technical application in the San Diego Police 
Department that supports problem-solving for line level officers. Crime analysis staff 
are nationally recognized and frequently present workshops at conferences on the use 
of computerized mapping to support problem-solving. They also offer advice on 
methods of sharing police data with the community. 

The San Diego Police Departments web site is among the best in the country, and displays 
up-to-date crime maps on each city neighborhood. San Diego has also invested 
significantly in an automated notification system used to send public safety messages 
to selected residences and businesses in a specific geographic area. The system interfaces 
with computerized mapping to help in identifying areas in which notifications 
are to be sent. Finally, SANDGIS (a citywide GIS management group) collects and 
makes available data from several city agencies for use on inter-organizational projects. 
The ability of the police department to perform subsequent analysis using several 
non-police data sets is instrumental in taking problem-solving to a new level in San 
Diego. 



Purpose and Scope of Report 

This case study is one of several produced for the Information Systems Technology 
Enhancement Project (ISTEP), a project funded by the Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services. The aim of ISTEP is to increase the use of information and information 
technology in police departments, particularly regarding the implementation 
of community policing. The case studies document the current state of information 
technology and the use of information in five police departments: Tempe, Arizona; 
San Diego, California; Hartford, Connecticut; Reno, Nevada; and Charlotte-
Mecklenburg, North Carolina. These case studies are based on a limited review of the 
status of information technology in the departments. A separate cross-site report 
synthesizes the findings of the individual case studies. A report on the projects 
conceptual framework presents the overall ISTEP approach and discusses how community 
policing demands different types of information systems, analysis methods, and uses 
of information than those required under the professional-era model of policing. 

This report is based on four site visits to the San Diego Police Department. The first 
visit occurred on November 10, 1997. During this visit the core members of the Abt 
Associates ISTEP team met with the manager of the Technology Unit and Technology 
Unit staff members. This visit could be characterized as exploratory in nature, since it 
consisted of a meeting, a brief tour of the New Technologies Unit, and a demonstration 
of the terminals in patrol cars. This visit helped to shape both the questionnaire 
used to guide subsequent visits and this final report. 

The second visit occurred February 6-9, 1998. It included interviews, demonstrations, 
and observations. In addition, a number of primary documents were provided to the 
Abt team. A key feature of this visit was observation of the bid presentation by the 
Sierra Group, which was chosen to develop the records management system (RMS). 

The third visit took place August 9-11, 1998. The primary purpose of this visit was to 
conduct interviews with targeted individuals, interview individuals from the 
Neighborhood Policing Division, and conduct a ride-along. The fourth and final visit 
occurred October 27-29, 1998. This visit focused on interviews, observations of automated 
field reporting (AFR) training, and a ride-along. On each visit, an important 
goal was to obtain documentation. In San Diego this goal was met both with internal 
documentation provided to the research staff and the ability to download documentation 
from the San Diego Police Department website. 

The organization of this case study document follows the overall conceptual framework 
for the ISTEP project. Accordingly, after providing background information on 
the police department in Section 2, particularly with respect to implementation of 
community policing, the case study describes current and planned information systems 
(Section 3), analysis methods (Section 4), and uses of information (Section 5). 
Section 6 summarizes our findings. 



2 Police Department Background 

2.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends 

The San Diego Police Department has a budgeted strength of 2,683 personnel, 2,038 
of whom are sworn and 645 of whom are civilians. The total departmental annual 
budget is $206,669,345. Personnel expenses total $186,010,271, of which 77 percent 
is salaries and wages. The departments nonpersonnel expenses comprise the remainder of 
the budget, $20,659,074. 

The department is organized into eight divisions: Field Operations, Special Operations, 
Neighborhood Policing, Training and Development, Office of Administration, 
Personnel Services, Professional Responsibility, and Support Services. All divisions 
are commanded by an assistant chief except Personnel Services, which is managed by 
a civilian personnel director. 

Overall, crime in San Diego has been declining. The most recent year for which crime 
data are available is 1997. Fewer homicides were recorded in 1997 than in any year 
since 1978. Given the population growth over the last two decades, the homicide rate 
in 1997 was lower than in 1978; indeed, the murder rate of 6 per 100,000 in 1997 
is lower than or equal to any homicide rate since 1972. The violent crime rate in 1997 
was 819 per 100,000, lower than at any time since the mid-1980s. Property crime has 
shown a similar decline. The property crime rate of 4,115 crimes per 100,000 residents 
in 1997 is the lowest recorded since 1968; and some crimes, such as burglary, 
have also dropped significantly in the past 20 years. 

This picture of substantial declines in crime rates over time does not mean that San 
Diego is now crime-free. The city still has crime rates equal to or higher than those 
for the United States as a whole. As in many cities, crime in San Diego has a spatial 
distribution in specific neighborhoods. That is, while many neighborhoods record little 
violent crime and low rates of property crime, some neighborhoods continue to be 
plagued by high rates of both crime types. These neighborhoods have exceptionally 
high levels of crime, rates that range from four to ten times higher than the citywide 
average. 

2.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background 

The San Diego Police Department has a strong commitment to community-oriented 
policing. In San Diego this commitment is defined as neighborhood policing. The 
commitment extends beyond the term of any individual police chief. Command rank 
can identify at least three chiefs who supported and implemented neighborhood 
policing. The commitment to neighborhood policing can be seen in a number of 
departmental activities. These include the departmental mission statement, which 
explicitly recognizes the role of community-oriented policing; the use and presentation 
of neighborhood-level crime data on the Internet; partnering with other city agencies; 
citizen police academies; training; implementation and emphasis on the four-
step SARA model (scanning, analysis, response, and assessment); use of problem 



solving for promotional purposes; and the integration of technology into problem-
solving efforts. 

San Diego is considered a national leader in problem-oriented policing (POP), and 
each year the San Diego department co-hosts the Problem Oriented Policing 
Conference with the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). The conference is 
attended by law enforcement representatives from across the nation. Plenary and 
small-group sessions allow for the identification and discussion of problem-solving 
techniques, skills, and strategies. This conference has become one of the nation's 
largest conferences for line-level police officers. 

Solicitation of Citizen Input 

The San Diego Police Department engages in a variety of efforts to solicit citizen input, 
including the use of surveys, neighborhood meetings, and citizen police academies. A 
variety of other means of citizen input are supported through technology, such as the 
Communicator notification system, e-mail, and the departmental Web page. The police 
department also places a strong emphasis on partnerships. To this end, the department 
promotes problem solving that includes multiple agencies and commits the 
resources of non-law-enforcement groups. 

Geographic Focus 

The patrol methods used by the San Diego Police Department reflect a strong geographic 
focus. Policing occurs within neighborhoods, and officers understand and 
know the geographic boundaries of the neighborhoods. They also understand that 
individual neighborhoods have identifiable problems that do not necessarily exist in 
other areas. Geographically based policing in San Diego is supported by the use of 
geo-mapping by the Crime Analysis Unit. In addition, the Neighborhood Policing Unit 
helps to train and direct officers to maintain a strong neighborhood focus. This group 
serves as mentors to patrol officers and is available citywide to help officers develop 
POP projects and be more effective in neighborhood policing. 

Adoption of Community-Oriented Policing Management Styles 

Management styles encourage citizen participation, officer problem solving, and the 
use of data to assess problems. The involvement of command staff in beat meetings, 
up to and including the chief in some instances, is further evidence of the adaptation 
of management styles to support community policing. The regular meetings of the 
chief and assistant chiefs include a focus on community policing and problem solving. 
These meetings are often driven by data generated by the Crime Analysis Unit. 

Community-Oriented Policing Training and Assessment 

Recruits receive mandatory academy training in community-oriented policing, and 
beat officers are provided with in-service training in the philosophy. In addition, the 
department supports officers in seeking out additional training. There are numerous 



in-service training opportunities, and officers with whom we spoke could identify specific 
training sessions of interest to them and spoke of general departmental support 
for engaging in such efforts. There are also a number of national opportunities, and 
the department is actively involved in PERF-sponsored activities as well as the U.S. 
Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs Evaluation Conference. 

Promotion practices reflect the departmental commitment to community-oriented 
policing. Promotions into supervisory positions are gained through a thorough understanding 
of neighborhood policing and the necessity to relay that understanding to 
subordinates. In addition, each officer who wishes to be promoted to sergeant is 
expected to take part in or complete a POP project or understand and support the 
problem-solving process. 

3 Information Systems 

3.1 Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility 

Information Services is housed in the Neighborhood Policing Division, commanded 
by an assistant chief. This division consists of the Neighborhood Policing Unit; Sports, 
Training, Academics, and Recreation (STAR); the Police Institute; and Information 
Services. This is an unusual arrangement, since information services, technology, and 
data systems are typically located in a support division. The Area-wide Regional 
Justice Information System (ARJIS) and Records divisions are located under another 
assistant chief, who is in charge of Support Services in the department. However, the 
decision to co-locate Information Services and Neighborhood Policing reinforces the 
importance of problem solving and the corresponding need for information. The 
structure of the Neighborhood Policing Division is a direct result of the chiefs commitment 
to community policing. 

The Crime Analysis Unit, Data Systems, and New Technology are subdivisions of the 
Technolgy unit, each with its own supervisor. Currently Crime Analysis has 12 analysts, 
6 funded by the city and 6 funded by grants. This unit is responsible for identifying 
problems in the city by analyzing data from calls for service, crime reports, and other 
related data sets. Problem analysis is completed by looking for patterns or trends in 
events by time of day, day of week, method of operation (MO), and suspect or victim 
characteristics. To improve the analysis of these data, mapping is used to amplify any 
spatial patterns in the specific problem being analyzed. 

The New Technology Unit (NTU) is staffed by patrol officers who are knowledgeable 
about and committed to the integration of technology. This unit, headed by a sergeant, 
is in charge of preparing new laptops for installation by installing software, debugging 
them, and writing new programs where necessary. In addition, NTU conducts officer 
laptop and AFR training. 

There has been consistent support from at least four chiefs for the development of 
information systems to support the problem-solving focus of the San Diego Police 



Department. This emphasis reflects a long-standing commitment on the part of the 
department, and there is evidence of organizational change within the department to 
affirm the significance of information for effective policing. 

3.2 Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing 

Operations/Command and Control Systems 

The San Diego Police Department is in the process of implementing laptop mobile 
computer terminals (MCTs) throughout the department. Panasonic computers were 
chosen over PC Mobile because the screens, batteries, and motherboards of PC 
Mobile often crashed and were problematic. PC Mobile was tested initially because it 
had an illuminated keyboard, which is a key feature. The Panasonic computers did not 
have an illuminated keyboard, making them the second choice. However, the San 
Diego Police Department found a mount that illuminates the keyboard, is easy to dock 
in and out of, and does not break the pins in the connection. 

The use of AFR is a key aspect of the upgrade of the operations information systems. 
The link between AFR and the RMS will allow the department to more effectively manage 
information at all levels. Prior to the bid on the RMS, the San Diego Police 
Department used a paper-only system. The new RMS will allow for the automated 
transfer of incident information once an incident report is closed. The current RMS is 
incapable of supporting the demand for information expected to be generated by the 
department's use of laptop and AFR technology for problem solving. Currently, paper 
reports are filed, entered by hand in the Records Division, and uploaded into the system. 
This process is in transition as the RMS and AFR are being integrated into the 
department. 

3.3 Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 

The department uses a standard set of mapping programs, ArcInfo and ArcView, to 
generate maps for neighborhood policing purposes. These maps are used in the 
Neighborhood Policing Unit to pinpoint interventions. In addition, maps are available 
on the departments website and can be accessed by citizens. Crime analysis has extensive 
mapping capabilities and produces a large number of diverse maps. For example, maps that 
locate homicide events by type of weapon and victim-offender relationship are displayed 
by Crime Analysis and used for neighborhood crime presentations and officer analysis. 

Problem-Solving Information Systems 

The department has been a leader in attempting to integrate problem-solving 
approaches into departmental activities. The department uses POP Track, a program 
that allows officers to enter data from problem-solving projects so that they and others 
can retrieve information such as the nature and location of the problem, steps in 
the SARA model that were employed, and the outcome of the intervention. As a result, 



officers with similar problems, or with problems in similar locations, will know what 
has been done before and what effect the responses have had. 

External Information Systems 

The San Diego Data Processing Corporation (SDDPC) is the nonprofit agency charged 
with ensuring technology coordination, data systems, and data collection across San 
Diego. It coordinates these efforts for groups as diverse as public works, transportation, 
and law enforcement. The police department contributes some data to this effort. 
In addition, ARJIS is the areawide criminal justice data repository, from which officers 
can retrieve data on individuals who are held in jail, awaiting trial, or on bond. 

The Communicator Notification System 

The Communicator is an innovative piece of technology being integrated into the 
department in the fall of 1998. The Communicator, a product of Dialogic 
Communications, is an automated notification system used to send public safety messages 
to selected residences and businesses in a specific geographic area. The system 
interfaces with computerized mapping to help in identifying areas to which notifications 
will be sent. 

The Communicator is a dynamic system that allows users to determine and define 
groups to whom scenarios can be sent via phone or fax. Static systems do not allow 
users to define subgroups for inclusion in different calling scenarios. In addition, the 
Communicator provides upgrades on a regular basis. The Communicator will work 
on a number of different levels and replace labor-intensive tasks that can be automated. 
In a sense, the Communicator is a relational database that can be queried to 
produce subgroups to receive messages or scenarios. The Communicator can sort 
by location, job status, security level, task, rank, etc. In a city with many volunteer 
groups, such as San Diego (RSVP, the Reserve Senior Volunteer Patrol officers, block 
captains, business people, citizens academy graduates, etc.), it appears that this will 
be a useful piece of technology. It is also very useful for emergencies. Notification of 
disasters, lost children, and even events like prowlers in a neighborhood are all seen 
as potential applications. 

The mapping capability of the system is considerable. The system has a donut capability 
that allows users to define a different message for the inside ring of the donut 
than for the outside ring. This means that the message for a water main leak or a fire 
could be tailored to the residents proximity to the event. Residents closest to the disaster 
would be given a call to evacuate, while those further away would be advised to 
stay in their homes and tune to the media or other public information sources for further 
information. The standard system comes with a phone book, user defined databases, and a 
standard ArcInfo map of city streets. San Diego is having all of its own 
mapping systems entered, including beat levels, city land use, and health districts. A 
large number of tasks that support community and problem-oriented policing can be 
completed with Communicator. There also are means to link the Communicator to 
POP Track. 



3.4 Relationships and Experience with Vendors 

The San Diego Police Department has chosen not to purchase an off-the-shelf product, but 
rather to treat technology as an ongoing development project. The department 
is responsible for substantial development activities, such as developing software and 
configuring hardware to meet local needs. This approach involves some risk; however, there 
is no existing package that meets the departments needs. As the manager of 
the Technology Unit stressed, there are two choices for the police department regarding 
software and hardware development for the records management system. The first 
is to purchase an off-the-shelf RMS that will not meet the needs of the department. The 
second choice is to take the risk associated with developing software and configuring 
hardware from scratch. There was consensus that the latter was the police departments 
only choice. 

A representative of the citys Information Technology and Communications Division 
(ITC) has been especially concerned about the risks associated with the police 
departments decisions about how to proceed. ITC had an $11 million system that 
failed in the ARJIS project. However, the police department has never had a technology 
project fail and has confidence in their staff. The experience with Sierra, the vendor 
for the RMS, is instructive in this regard. The Request for Proposals (RFP) from 
the San Diego Police Department that led to the selection of Sierra was extensive and, 
according to members of the Sierra Group, the best they had ever seen. The relationship 
between Sierra and the police department was a partnership because the department had a 
clear idea of its needs, had the technical capability to articulate those 
needs in a specific manner, and sought a vendor that would work with the department 
rather than dictate to it. The RFP for the RMS was written internally by one of the 
department programmers and software experts. 

4 Analysis Methods Used 

4.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods 

Crime Analysis 

On a structural level, the chief has expressed some concern about the utility of crime 
analysis in its present form. He wants more analysis of data  analysis that will lead 
officers more directly to intervention strategies and tactics. The chief has argued that 
the presentation of data can provoke further questions, but questions require more 
analysis to produce problem-solving interventions. The Sergeants Tactical Analysis 
Team report (STAT report) is viewed as a good example of this. The report includes 
top calls for service by division and by address. Crime Analysis and police leadership 
view this report as important and useful, but there is widespread recognition that the 
report is sorely underutilized. Indeed, it is recognized that many sergeants do not pay 
much attention to the STAT report. As a consequence, the chief is searching for ways 
to engage officers with the data. 

Another initiative the police department is pursuing is to locate analysts in the division 
stations rather than in headquarters. The advantage of this structure is that it should 



allow analysts to conduct more crime analysis for and with officers. Of course, there 
will be a loss in the learning that occurs among members of Crime Analysis, and the 
unit will lose some of the cohesive features of its organization. The trade-off, it is 
hoped, is that it will produce results that are more useful for officers in problem solving. 
This change reflects the recognition that more problem solving can be done with 
the data that is collected. Two additional elements are needed, however, to ensure that 
result: (1) a system of rewards for officers performing POP; and (2) problem-solving training 
using data and analysis. It is unclear who would provide such training. 

A strong example of professional-era policing analysis is the Crime Analysis Units 
participation in a group convened by the owner of a chain of warehouse club shopping 
stores, storage facilities, and office supply stores. The owner identified, as a 
target for action, a mid-city neighborhood of approximately 100,000 residents where much of 
the violent crime in San Diego occurs. The owner offered the federal government a 
$500,000 match if they would put up an equal amount to invest in the neighborhood. 
The owner became frustrated with the pace of the government and decided to put up 
all of the money himself. The Crime Analysis Unit Manager has been meeting with the 
owner and his advisers, police department representatives, neighborhood representatives, 
and other advisers from such as PERF. The goal of the meetings to date have 
been to define possible interventions using Crime Analysis data. 

The role of Crime Analysis in this effort is to design analytic packages that allow for 
problem solving of a broad nature. The goal of the project, and of the Crime Analysis 
unit, goes beyond simply responding to crime or calls for service. The goal is to provide 
road maps that will lead to broad-based problem-solving strategies and interventions. Thus, 
it is the job of the Crime Analysis Unit to design data systems and 
analysis presentations that represent the broad nature of problems. Information such 
as health, land use, commercial decline, and street use will be collected. This can 
help the planning group to suggest, design, and implement effective solutions. The 
project is pushing the Crime Analysis Unit in a new direction. 

The Crime Analysis Unit is integrally involved in the planning process for this project. 
They are not only using typical police data, but are integrating data from SANDGIS (a 
citywide GIS management group) and the San Diego Organizing Project, a broad-
based group of community, civic, and business leaders. The meetings are following a 
two-stage process: (1) a thought process (planning) to suggest the appropriate questions 
to ask regarding direction, data needs, and data products, and to define the 
nature of the problem and suggest a series of steps; and (2) an interpretative process 
(implementation) that takes the materials and processes from stage one and translates them 
into action. The police will be integrally involved in this effort, and the chief 
has assigned it a high priority. The strong expectation within the police department is 
that this effort will lead to innovative policing strategies and tactics, as well as to the 
formation of coalitions between the police and business, civic, city agency, and neighborhood 
groups that do not exist at present in the envisioned form. 



4.2 Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods 

Community Analysis 

The department has available standard demographic, census-like data, as well as the 
data available from ARJIS, SDDPC, and SANDGIS. It does not appear that overlays with 
crime and demographic data are fully utilized within the current system and operation. This 
is an area to explore for the future. The ability of analysts and officers to 
analyze data sets correlated with crime and call-for-service data is a strong argument 
for expanding this practice. The project discussed in the previous section will be an 
interesting endeavor and should use some of these analysis methods, including health, 
city planning, and land use data, to develop a better understanding of why this neighborhood 
has higher crime rates and related problems than others. 

Problem Analysis 

As noted previously, problem analysis is largely done using POP Track software and 
through the work of crime analysts. Crime analysts have become increasingly involved 
in problem analysis, primarily because of their computer and analysis skills. If there 
is an area where problem-solving policing in San Diego appears to lag, it is in the 
analysis and assessment phases of the SARA model. This may be the most difficult 
aspect for which to train officers and ensure their completion of the tasks. 

5 Use of Information 

The ISTEP conceptual framework identifies seven information domains that are critical to the 
successful implementation of community policing. The seven are community interface, inter-
organizational linkages, work-group facilitation, environmental 
scanning, problem orientation, area accountability, and strategic management. In 
each of these domains, information technology can, if properly applied, greatly 
enhance the effectiveness of community policing. 

Each of the five police departments that ISTEP staff have visited excels in one or more 
of the seven domains. The following discussion details San Diegos participation in the 
seven information domains. 

5.1 Community Interface 

Community policing requires extensive collection and sharing of information. San 
Diego has made that information available to officers and more recently to the community through 
their website. The department has a home page that provides monthly pin maps showing selected 
crimes. Daily maps will be available shortly. E-mails 
from citizens on a standardized form to request services are received and forwarded 
to Crime Analysis. Officers will soon be able to receive e-mail directly from citizens. 



Captains will also receive e-mail. Every area station will have a home page as well. The 
department has technologies to help officers prepare for their meetings with the community 
boards and groups. Community service centers also have LAN access and computers so citizens 
can access city services. A grant with the San Diego Organizing 
Project will provide computers and information to community groups so they will 
have the ability to download information to help them in managing projects. 

5.2 Inter-Organizational Linkages 

The interest in non-crime data has emerged only recently. Health issues are increasingly seen 
as important. The chief and assistant chiefs met with the health department 
recently to discuss health service delivery, customer relations, and other matters. 

Mapping of land use and car theft correlation patterns and parolee and robbery correlation 
patterns are two additional examples of inter-organizational linkages of information. In 
addition, meetings between parole officers and detectives occur on a regular basis. These 
are more useful than maps alone, because of the interactive nature 
of information exchanged. Parole information is available on ARJIS as well as through 
the parole leads system. The city attorney and States attorney are on the same network as 
the police department. 

At this point, the level of use of police department data by other agencies is difficult 
to determine. For the most part, the police department is more of a consumer than a 
provider of information for other city departments. If other city departments need 
information that is not available on the departments home page, however, they can 
call and ask for it specifically. 

5.3 Work-Group Facilitation 

The department has a team approach that requires joint action and shared responsibility 
among officers. With a 4/10 work schedule (4 days/week, 10 hours/day), the 
overlap is critical for information sharing. There is the sense that roll call may not be 
used very effectively for this purpose. Beat books also exist for the purpose of information 
sharing. The cruiser is probably the best platform for communicating this 
information, particularly as all officers receive laptops and have their information 
updated upon log-on. 

Detectives are now going to roll calls to take advantage of available information. Many 
detective functions already have been decentralized in San Diego and this trend will 
likely continue. As a result of this new strategy, work-group facilitation will be more 
effective and focused. It is clear that technology creates new needs for management 
and intra-organizational relationships. 

5.4 Environmental Scanning 

Environmental scanning in San Diego involves a management function closely related 
to community interface, including meeting with other police and non-police professionals and 
summarizing and providing related aggregate data for management-level 



personnel. It also includes scanning the profession and being active in professional 
organizations. Bringing researchers into the department, attending conferences, and 
hosting the annual POP conference are also strong examples of scanning. 

Information about changes in land use as well as the beat officers need for information are 
additional examples of scanning. A tool for sorting information would be useful for most 
management personnel. Information overload already exists, and management is searching for 
a way to sort through the large volume of available data, both 
to catalog it and to determine what is useful and of acceptable quality. 

Environmental scanning is used extensively in crime prevention through environmental design 
(CPTED) in San Diego to complement the departments problem-solving 
efforts. These efforts include individual problem solving by officers as well 
as broader initiatives that involve a division, beat, or cross-agency cooperation. The SANDGIS, 
SDDPC, and ARJIC data are used in part to accomplish this, but Crime Analysis is the 
primary engine that drives this effort. The Sol Price project should involve CPTED 
extensively in identifying why crime is occurring in this specific neighborhood. 

5.5 Problem Orientation 

Although the problem-solving focus of neighborhood policing in San Diego is clearly 
evident, the POP Track database is underutilized. A large number of paper POP files 
were opened but not used or not completed. There is uncertainty about whether training 
or officer rewards will change officer behavior and orientation toward using the 
POP database. 

Clearly, performing assessment is the weakest of the four SARA components in San 
Diego. There is a large amount of scanning information, but little consistency in 
assessment. The assessments are not very sophisticated, perhaps indicating the need 
for organizational development or training in this area. The crime analyst will complete 
the project, including assessment, if the officer initiates the queries for more 
data and pushes for the next step. However, there is too little closure of POP files or 
cases. There is a move to address this weakness by decentralizing crime analysis and 
moving crime analysts permanently to patrol division stations. This move will allow 
crime analysts to help officers through the entire SARA process. 

5.6 Area Accountability 

Area accountability is largely accomplished through beat responsibility. As officers are 
responsible for beats, captains are responsible for areas. The strategic plan is to be 
the mechanism to produce this change. Geographic information systems will be a key 
component in accomplishing this. It is critical, however, that officers buy into the 
value of such information beyond its use at community meetings and political events 
such as the city council. 



5.7 Strategic Management 

Senior staff have access to data and technology to assist in making management and 
organizational decisions. Interestingly, the assistant chiefs did not get computers until 
February of 1998. The late addition of technology for management suggests that it may 
not be viewed as a high priority by senior staff or that management is late in embracing 
the use of technology. 

A computerized patrol assignment plan is being updated to reflect community-policing principles. 
Senior staff members argue that the issues are not any different for 
command personnel; they simply aggregate differently for most management issues 
than for patrol issues. Community policing has forced some rethinking of staffing levels 
and caused police to think strategically as an organization. Stated schematically, 
community policing has prompted strategic planning, which in turn has led to greater 
accountability and individual responsibility, particularly for captains. The extent to 
which these concerns have penetrated higher levels of the organization remains an 
open question. 

5.8 Other Uses 

Use by Officers, Detectives, Management 

To date, officers have not been allowed to take computers home from work. However, 
the recent COPS MORE grant will enable them to do so. The department hopes that 
this practice will lead to more computer use by officers for job-related purposes. The 
emphasis on problem solving by line officers means that line officers will get laptops 
and training first. Management is last in line for equipment and training. While all of 
the assistant chiefs have computers on their desks, several professed to have little 
acumen with them. Management will have to struggle to keep up with line-level staff in the 
use of technology. 

Use by Others 

The availability of crime data in a variety of forms means that citizens with sufficient 
motivation and skill may push the department in the future. The department maintains on 
its website an extensive amount of specific location and monthly data regarding crime. It 
would not be unreasonable to expect that some citizen groups would use 
crime and arrest data to argue for a redistribution of city resources, including law 
enforcement. This issue bears watching in the future, particularly the departments 
response to outside suggestions for improvement or change in problem identification 
and problem-solving steps. 

6 Summary 

6.1 Overall Assessment of Information Technology 

The San Diego Police Department has a variety of key pieces in place to make information 
technology successful in supporting community-oriented policing. First, there 



is strong support for community- and problem-oriented policing within the city. This 
support spans the terms of more than one chief and is well understood throughout the 
ranks. Second, the department has a strong cadre of insiders who understand hardware 
and software in addition to the needs of officers on the street. The AFR project 
is probably the best example of this. Third, the department has decided to make the 
transition from paper to technology through full-scale paperless automation. Fourth, 
the department is located in a city that has a strong commitment to technology and 
access to data for decision making. And last, the department has a strong reputation 
in the community and in the profession as an innovator. The downside to this is the 
extent to which an organization of 2,000-plus employees shares a vision of technology 
and how it should be used. It is unclear at this time the extent to which officers 
share the commitment to problem solving and technology that exists at top command 
ranks. 

San Diego Police Departments Best Practices 

There are several best practices from the San Diego Police Department. The most 
important of these is in the area of training. The Northeast area was involved in a pilot 
laptop training project 18 months ago. Ninety-nine percent of their reports are now 
submitted via the AFR, and Northeast officers appear to have accepted this practice. 
Officers complained when their computers were pulled back because they did not 
want to be without them. Training in the remaining districts is nearly completed. 

Training takes place at the academy over two days, 10 hours per day, in two shifts per 
day. This schedule is followed to accommodate both day and evening officer assignments. 
A team of five officers does the training, and the classroom holds 20 students, 
each of whom has a terminal. The classes are set up in four rows of five seats, with 
one teacher assigned to each row. The entire class moves at the pace of the slowest 
student. By the end of the training, each student has submitted an arrest report and 
has completed a minimum of four real-world exercises. It should be noted that the 
involvement of sworn officers in software development and training greatly enhances 
the viability of the training and future implementation of that training. 

Another area of best practices is community interface. The San Diego Police 
Department makes a substantial effort to involve the community in problem solving, 
and does so through a number of innovative means that involve information technology. 
The website is a good example of this. It allows citizens to obtain recent crime 
information in a location-specific context. The use of community service centers to 
provide access to these data is also important. 

The SANDGIS is a best practice worthy of emulating in other jurisdictions. The ability 
to merge and call on a variety of social, physical, and behavioral indicators in a 
geocoded format enhances work-group facilitation and commitment to problem solving. 
By enhancing the collection of data and mapping in a coordinated way, SANDGIS 
enables a number of innovative, cross-department efforts to understand and address 
problems. 



Chapter 4

Police Department

Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project 

ISTEP 

Case Study: Hartford, Connecticut 

April 1999 

Prepared for 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 
Program/Policy Support and Evaluation Division 
1100 Vermont Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20530 

Project Director 
Terence Dunworth, Ph.D. 

Prepared by 
Thomas Rich 
Hartford Site Leader 
Shawn Ward 

Abt Associates Inc. 
55 Wheeler Street 
Cambridge, MA 02138 


Contents 

Hartford Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 

1 Purpose and Scope of Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 

2 Police Department Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 
2.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends . . . . . . . . . . 69 
2.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 

3 Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 
3.1 Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . 72 
3.2 Historical Development of Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 
3.3 Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing . . . . . . . . 73 
    Computer Aided Dispatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 
    Records Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 
3.4 Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing . . . . . . . 75 
    Geographic Information Systems (GIS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 
    External Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 
    Other Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 
3.5 Relationships and Experience with Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 
3.6 Future Acquisition and Development Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 
    Mobile Computing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 
    COMPSTAT Information System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 
    Database Redesign and Y2K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 

4 Analysis Methods Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 
4.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 
    Crime Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 
4.2 Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 

5 Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 
5.1 Community Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 
    Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 
    Information Needs Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 
    System Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 
    System Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85 
5.2 Inter-Organizational Linkages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87 
5.3 Work-Group Facilitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87 
5.4 Environmental Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 
5.5 Problem Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88 
5.6 Area Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88 
5.7 Strategic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 

6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89 



Hartford Highlights 

Community policing has been a part of the Hartford Police Departments (HPD) overall 
strategy since 1988, when the Community Service Officer (CSO) Unit was formed. 
CSOs meet regularly with residents and business people to discuss crime problems, 
work with blockwatch and other citizen groups, and facilitate communication 
between residents and city government. Over the past four years, community policing 
has been advanced in a number of ways. The department has aggressively sought 
out partnerships with other agencies such as schools, youth organizations, and other 
criminal justice agencies. They have increased their neighborhood focus and further 
decentralized the department around three Police Service Areas (PSAs). They have 
also instituted weekly COMPSTAT (computerized statistics) meetings, which aim to 
both increase accountability among area supervisors and foster improved communications 
between commanders in the three PSAs. Finally, in conjunction with Hartfords 
new Community Court, there has been a renewed emphasis on quality of life issues 
and problem-solving within the police department. 

The key unit within HPD responsible for information technology  including system 
operation, maintenance, and development  is the Systems Services Division, which is 
currently staffed with six civilians. Unlike the vast majority of medium to large sized 
police departments in the country, the Hartford Police Department has not purchased 
their main information systems  computer-aided dispatch, case incident reporting, 
and booking  from outside vendors. Initial versions of these systems were developed 
by Systems Services Division personnel over a ten year period from the late 1970s to 
the late 1980s. Many HPD staff view the departments non-reliance on outside vendors 
as a major advantage, as Systems Services Division staff have been able to customize 
their systems and add new features as desired. 

The police department has substantial experience with two technologies particularly 
important for community policing  geographic information systems (GIS) and external 
information systems. They have had a GIS capability since the early 1990s, when 
the department participated in the National Institute of Justices Drug Market Analysis 
Program. Today, computerized maps are an important information support tool for 
Hartfords COMPSTAT process. In particular, a project funded by an Advancing 
Community Policing grant from the COPS Office is underway to develop an interactive 
map-based query tool that will be used during the COMPSTAT meetings. 

Perhaps the most unique information technology-related feature of the department is 
their method of sharing information with community-based crime prevention organizations. 
With funding from the National Institute of Justice, systems and procedures 
were developed that provide Hartford community organizations with access to over 
two years of incident-level crime, arrest, and call-for-service data. The organizations 
can view and analyze this information using custom crime mapping and analysis software, 
which is installed in 15 community organization offices throughout the city. 



1 Purpose and Scope of Report 

This case study is one of several produced for the Information Systems Technology 
Enhancement Project (ISTEP), a project funded by the Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services (COPS). The aim of ISTEP is to increase the use of information and 
information technology in police departments, particularly regarding the implementation 
of community policing. The case studies document the current state of information 
technology and the use of information in five police departments: Tempe, 
Arizona; San Diego, California; Hartford, Connecticut; Reno, Nevada; and Charlotte-
Mecklenburg, North Carolina. These case studies are based on a limited review of the 
status of information technology in the departments. A separate cross-site report 
synthesizes the findings of the individual case studies. A report on the projects 
conceptual framework presents the overall ISTEP approach and discusses how community 
policing demands different types of information systems, analysis methods, and uses 
of information than those required under the traditional model of policing. 

For this Hartford case study, ISTEP staff conducted interviews with the police chief, 
information technology supervisors and staff, and other command staff and officers 
throughout the department. ISTEP staff also reviewed internal police department 
documentation and published reports related to information technology. 

The organization of this case study document follows the overall conceptual framework 
for the ISTEP project. Accordingly, after providing background information on 
the police department in Section 2, particularly with respect to implementation of 
community policing, the case study describes current and planned information systems 
(Section 3), analysis methods (Section 4), and uses of information (Section 5). 
Section 6 summarizes our findings. 

2 Police Department Background 

2.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends 

The city of Hartford, located midway between New York and Boston, is the urban hub 
of Connecticuts Capital Region. Although it serves as the regions major employment, 
service, government, and cultural center, Hartford covers only 18.2 square miles and 
has a population of roughly 140,000, making it one of the countrys smallest urban 
areas. Approximately 250,000 to 300,000 people, about twice the population of 
Hartford, enter the city for some portion of the day for employment, entertainment, or 
other reasons. Destinations include the headquarters of a number of large insurance 
companies, including Aetna and Travelers, which are located in Hartford. 

The city of Hartford contrasts sharply with the surrounding towns, which are primarily 
suburban communities with middle- to upper-income populations. Although 
Connecticut has the countrys highest State per capita income, Hartford has for 
a number of years been one of the nations poorest cities in terms of the percentage 
of residents living below poverty level. By 1998, however, city leaders saw signs that the 
citys long economic decline was ending, fueled in part by the planned move of the 
New England Patriots football team from Massachusetts to Hartford. 



Hartford is divided into 17 neighborhoods, all of which have well-established identities 
in the city (i.e., a typical resident will know in which neighborhood she or he 
lives). Reports and statistics produced by the police department and other city agencies 
are typically organized by neighborhood. Most neighborhoods have had for a 
number of years one or more grassroots community organizations that focus either 
on community organizing or on providing services to neighborhood residents. 

The Hartford Police Department (HPD) is commanded by a police chief who reports 
directly to the city manager. Two assistant chiefs command, respectively, Operations 
and Operations Support. There are three deputy chiefs, with each having overall 
responsibility for one of the three Police Service Areas (PSAs) in the city. Geographic 
responsibility, as opposed to shift responsibility, was instituted in the early 1990s. 
Each of the three PSAs has a distinct identity: the South PSA is largely Hispanic, the 
North PSA is largely African-American, and the Central PSA encompasses the downtown 
business district with a high population during business hours and a low population 
during nonbusiness hours. Overall, the department has approximately 475 
sworn officers, down from approximately 500 in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

Throughout the 1990s, Hartford participated in a number of U.S. Department of 
Justice-funded programs, beginning, in 1990, with the Drug Market Analysis Program 
funded by the National Institute of Justice. In 1995, Hartford became a Weed and Seed 
site, focusing its efforts on the Stowe Village public housing development in the North 
PSA. Also in 1995, Hartford became one of 12 cities awarded funding from the Bureau 
of Justice Assistance under the Comprehensive Communities Program. The HPD has 
also received significant funding from the COPS Office, including funding for the 
Universal Hiring Program and COPS AHEAD. 

In terms of crime, Hartford, like many urban cities in the country, experienced a 
significant decrease in serious crime in the 1990s. For example, from 1987 until 1992, 
the city had between 20,000 and 22,000 Part I crimes per year. Since then, the number 
has decreased significantly each year and, by 1997, the city had only slightly more 
than 12,000 Part I crimes. Hartfords Part I crime rate, however, is still nearly twice 
the national average. 

All Part I and II crime has decreased recently, although only at about half the rate of 
Part I crimes alone: from 1993 to 1997, the number of Part I and II crimes decreased 
by 19 percent, compared with a 36 percent drop in Part I crime over that time period. 

2.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background 

Calls to implement community policing have been heard in Hartford since the mid to 
late 1980s, when a massive increase in drug use and the appearance for the first time 
of open-air drug markets completely changed the drug picture in Hartford. In 
response to this problem, a Mayors Commission on Crime was formed in 1987. The 
Commissions recommendations emphasized that the police, the community, and 
other city agencies must work together to fight drugs and crime. 



In 1988, formation of a new community service officer (CSO) unit in the department 
was one of the first steps toward implementing community policing. CSOs would not 
routinely respond to citizen calls for service, but instead would meet regularly with 
residents and business people to discuss crime problems, work with blockwatch and 
other citizen groups, conduct public education programs on crime prevention, and 
facilitate communication between residents and city government. The intent was that 
one CSO would be assigned to each of the 17 Hartford neighborhoods. Currently, 
there are 14 CSOs. Based on discussions with neighborhood residents and organizations, 
the CSO program appears to be quite popular with community residents. 

In 1990, with funding support from the National Institute of Justices Drug Market 
Analysis Program, Hartford implemented its first attempt at neighborhood revitalization 
that involved a community policing approach. The basic premise of this program 
was that street-level drug sales were a key factor in the declining quality of life in 
urban neighborhoods, and that the best approach to reversing this decay was the combined 
efforts of the police, the community, and city agencies. More specifically, the 
program employed a reclamation and stabilization approach. Thus, the police would 
reclaim a target area by employing a variety of high visibility and anti-drug tactics over 
a several month period. Once an area was reclaimed, the stabilization phase of the 
program would attempt to maintain the area in its reclaimed state over the long term 
through a partnership involving the community, the city, and the police. The program 
was implemented in four target areas from 1990 to 1992. Unfortunately, the effort, 
dubbed COMPASS, became largely a police-only project and had mixed short-term 
results. The COMPASS model, however, was later refined and successfully implemented in the 
Stowe Village public housing development under the citys Weed and Seed 
program. In addition, COMPASS introduced the HPD to geographic information systems (GIS) 
and crime mapping technology. 

Following the end of COMPASS in 1992, the HPD introduced area accountability by 
dividing the city into three police service areas. Day-to-day responsibility for a PSA was 
given to a deputy chief. Soon after, the HPD received funding from the COPS Office to 
increase the number of officers devoted to community policing, and special community 
policing units were formed in each of the PSAs. Substations for each PSA were also 
built. 

In 1995 the city attempted to expand community policing in the HPD with the help of 
a $2 million Comprehensive Communities Program (CCP) grant from the Bureau of 
Justice Assistance. In its CCP proposal, the city acknowledged that Hartford does not 
yet have full department-wide community policing, with true community policing 
basically limited to the CSO unit. In an attempt to involve the community more in community 
policing, problem-solving committees were formed in each neighborhood. 
The city also hired an outside consultant to provide problem-solving training to the 
neighborhood problem-solving committees and to the HPD. 

Since then, HPD officials point to four trends that underscore the departments commitment 
to community policing. First, the HPD has aggressively sought out partnerships with other 
agencies, such as schools, youth organizations, and other criminal 



justice agencies. For example, the HPD was recently awarded a School-Based 
Partnership grant from the COPS Office. Second, the HPD has increased its neighborhood 
focus and further decentralized the department around its three PSAs: detectives 
and other specialized units are now assigned to a specific PSA; crime statistics are 
tracked on a neighborhood basis; and dispatching has been revamped to provide 
more of a neighborhood focus. Third, the HPD has instituted weekly COMPSTAT 
(computerized statistics) meetings, which are modeled after the New York City Police 
Departments process. The meetings not only attempt to hold supervisors accountable 
for crime conditions in their areas, but also foster improved communications 
between commanders in the three PSAs. Finally, within the HPD there is a renewed 
emphasis on quality of life issues and problem solving. Arresting officers now refer 
many cases to the citys new Community Court. In addition, sergeants are required to 
submit weekly memos to the PSA commander and the Assistant Chief of Operations 
that outline problems identified in their areas and steps to be taken to address the 
problems. 

3 Information Systems 

3.1 Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility 

The key unit within the HPD responsible for information technology (IT), including 
system operation, maintenance, and development, is the Systems Services Division. 
Organizationally, Systems Services is directly under the Assistant Chief for Operations 
Support. 

Beginning in the early 1970s, an HPD sworn officer headed the Systems Services 
Division. This officer oversaw development of all the HPD computer systems and was 
the key person in the department on technology issues. When he retired in 1995, his 
responsibilities were divided between the senior HPD civilian programmer, who 
would have responsibility for the computer systems, and a sergeant, who would have 
responsibility for the radio systems. 

In addition to the senior civilian programmer, there are two other civilian programmers 
in Systems Services, as well as a civilian hardware specialist who configures new 
hardware and troubleshoots hardware and network connectivity problems in the 
department. All three of the programmers have been at the HPD for approximately 20 
years. 

For assistance in developing their 1998 COPS MORE funding request, the HPD (at the 
urging of the city managers office) turned to an outside consultant, who conducted a 
series of group IT meetings with police and other city staff. The proposal requested 
$1.7 million for a comprehensive geographic information system and for major 
enhancements to the HPDs computer-aided dispatch, records, and booking systems. 

3.2 Historical Development of Information Systems 

Initial versions of the major information systems in the HPD were developed in-house 
by HPD Systems Services personnel over a 10-year period from the late 1970s to the 



late 1980s. Some modules were written for a now-retired Burroughs mainframe and 
subsequently ported to an IBM AS/400 mainframe, which is the HPDs current hardware 
platform for these systems. Other modules were written directly on the AS/400. 
Three HPD civilian programmers, who are still in the Systems Services Unit, developed 
these systems over this period, with each programmer taking primary responsibility 
for one of the three main systems  computer-aided dispatch, case incident reporting, 
and booking. 

Since their initial development, the systems have been enhanced and modified in a 
number of ways. Currently, an effort is under way to restructure the system databases 
and make the systems year 2000 compliant. 

Thus, unlike the vast majority of medium- to large-size police departments in the 
country, the HPD has not purchased its main information systems from outside vendors. 
According to department personnel, the decision to develop these systems inhouse was 
based on the Systems Services commanders belief that he could build a 
system that was better than any vendor system. Today, many HPD staff interviewed for 
this project appear to view their nonreliance on outside vendors for the HPDs systems 
as a major advantage. Systems Services staff have been able to customize their systems 
and add new features as desired. On the other hand, the HPD is dependent on the 
three Systems Services programmers to maintain and enhance their major systems. 
For all practical purposes, they are the only persons who can perform these tasks on 
a timely basis. Some HPD commanders expressed concern over the dependence on 
the three programmers, while others felt that having civilian staff who are intimately 
familiar with the information systems was a huge advantage. 

At the same time, the police department has operated and continues to operate their 
information systems without major assistance from the citys Information Services (IS) 
Department. Information Services either operates or maintains information systems 
for most other city agencies. On the other hand, IS purchases all computer equipment 
for the HPD. Thus, with the exception of purchases under State or Federal grants made 
directly to the HPD, the HPD cannot purchase their own equipment. This arrangement 
has been in effect since the mid-1990s. 

Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing 

Computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and a variety of records applications run on one of 
two HPD AS/400 mainframe computers. All of the applications are written in COBOL. 

Computer-Aided Dispatch 

The HPD dispatch center, located in the main HPD headquarters building, performs 
call-taking and dispatch functions for the HPD, as well as for Hartfords fire department 
and ambulance services. According to the HPD, approximately 350,000 dispatches of emergency 
resources are made annually. There are five call-taking workstations and six dispatch 
workstations in the dispatch center. While only two of the five 
call-taking positions are usually staffed at any given time, all 
six dispatch positions are typically staffed  two for fire dispatching, 
one for emergency medical services (EMS) 



dispatching, two for police dispatching, and one for info channel requests. The person staffing 
the info channel position handles requests for information (e.g., warrant 
searches and name searches) from field units. There is also a supervisor position, 
from which all call-taking and dispatch operations can be monitored. 

The HPDs computer-aided dispatch system  called HARTBEAT  has been used since 
1988. As noted above, it was developed in-house, with the majority of the programming performed 
by the Systems Services senior programmer. 

The CAD functions include all the features one would expect from a full-featured CAD 
system. For example, ANI/ALI modules automatically display on the call-takers screen 
the phone number and address associated with incoming calls. A call-management 
function handles calls awaiting dispatch. The system provides dispatchers with a recommended 
unit to dispatch, based on configurable dispatch algorithms. According to 
dispatch personnel, the algorithms were updated within the past two years to give a 
higher priority to the police unit assigned to the area from which the call originated, 
with the hope that the units could develop more of an area identity  an important 
community policing objective. Specifically, the dispatch algorithm now suggests holding a 
low-priority call for service for as long as 45 minutes if the beat car is not available. 

Dispatchers provide a basic level of information to police units that are dispatched to 
a call for service, including the address, type of call, and any other information provided 
by the caller. In addition, the dispatcher will relay any responder alerts associated with 
that address. These alerts, indicating some special condition at the address (e.g., a dangerous 
person lives at the address), can be entered by any dispatcher and will appear automatically 
on the dispatchers screen when a future dispatch is made 
to that address. In addition, the CAD system automatically notifies the dispatcher if the 
address is one that has generated a large number of calls for service during the past 
year. Other information  such as whether persons with warrants live at the address 
or information about the most recent call for service at that address  must be 
retrieved by the dispatcher using a separate terminal to the in-house records system. 
Finally, while most patrol cars have laptop computers installed, dispatch information 
is not transmitted via the laptops; as discussed in Section 3.6, the laptops currently 
can only query National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and State-level vehicle and 
person files. 

Dispatch personnel report that the system appears to be extremely reliable. One dispatch 
supervisor indicated that he knew of no instance in which the system completely 
crashed and call-takers and dispatchers had to resort to using the backup card system. 

Records Applications 

The HPD has a variety of police records applications. Most important is the case-incident 
reporting system (CIRS), which maintains information recorded on crime and 
other incident reports completed by officers. Currently, officers complete incident 
reports and submit copies to HPD records clerks, who enter a subset of the informa



tion on the forms into CIRS. (As noted later in this section, in the future officers will 
enter their own reports using laptops.) Among the data elements not entered is the 
case narrative, a weakness in the current system noted by several officers and supervisors 
interviewed for this report. Approximately 65,000 records are entered in CIRS 
each year. As recently as two years ago, there was typically a two- to three-week backlog 
of incident reports to enter in CIRS. However, the HPD has managed to reduce that 
backlog to two to three days. 

An adult booking system is used in the detention facility at police headquarters to help 
detention personnel establish the identity of new prisoners, enter identification 
information about the prisoner, enter arrest charges and related information, record bond 
and other release information, and prepare paperwork for the prisoners appearance 
in court. Approximately 20,000 arrests are processed annually. The HPD recently purchased 
a live scan system for fingerprinting, but the system only takes the fingerprints 
and produces the fingerprint card. Eventually, the HPD hopes to upgrade this system 
so that fingerprint images can be stored and automatically transmitted to State and 
Federal automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS). Booking officers use a 
separate terminal to the HPDs warrant system and the NCIC system to determine if the 
prisoner has outstanding warrants. Detention staff noted that their inability to identify 
prisoners based on fingerprints is not a serious problem, since other techniques 
based on the prisoners name, nickname, scars, marks, and tattoos provide sufficient 
information to establish the prisoners true identity in nearly all cases. 

Other records applications in use at the HPD include systems for wants and warrants 
(in which approximately 6,000 entries are made annually), accidents, field interviews, 
parking tickets, vehicle towing, and nicknames. 

Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing 

The HPD has substantial experience with geographic information systems and external 
information systems, as discussed below. 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 

Involvement with GIS stems from Hartfords participation in the National Institute of 
Justices (NIJs) Drug Market Analysis Program. In 1992, the HPDs research partner, 
ENFORTH Corporation of Cambridge, Massachusetts, developed a map-based DMAP 
tool, which was a customized MapInfo application. The key user of the system was 
the HPDs Crime Suppression Unit, which at the time was the key police resource for 
the enforcement component of the DMAP program, called COMPASS. The tool allowed 
users to map a number of different types of police records, including the location of 
drug arrests, citizen complaints regarding drug activity, drug overdoses, and Part I 
crimes. Although this system fell into disuse within two or three years (in part because 
of staff turnover), the system introduced the HPD to crime-mapping technologies and 
led to the creation of a number of mapping-related enhancements to the HPDs main 
records systems (e.g., including geographic coordinates in the street segment file and 
the ability to assign latitude and longitudes to all calls for service, crimes, and arrests). 



Since then, one of the HPDs three civilian programmers has continued to use 
MapInfo on a regular basis. He has also learned MapInfos application development 
language, MapBasic. In the mid-1990s, the programmer wrote a MapBasic application that 
automates production of a series of weekly crime maps for distribution to 
the HPD command staff. The maps show the locations of various Part I crimes in each 
of the three Police Service Areas. More recently, these maps have been incorporated 
into the HPDs weekly COMPSTAT information packets. 

In some respects, the HPD is well-positioned to further expand its use of GIS, in large 
part because of excellent systems and procedures for geocoding their records. First, 
all data entry systems have address verification procedures, which helps minimize the 
number of non-geocodable addresses. The systems also automatically associate an 
address with its neighborhood, census tract, and block, thus facilitating aggregate-
type analyses. Most importantly, Systems Services staff have developed geocoding routines 
(which involved storing the geographic coordinates of the start and end point of 
each street segment in their geobase) in their AS/400 mainframe applications to 
assign latitude and longitudes to calls for service, crime, arrests, field interviews, and 
other police records. Thus, when records are downloaded to a PC for analysis, the 
records are already geocoded. HPD programmers are also experienced at downloading raw data 
to personal computers (PCs) for import into mapping programs. 

External Information Systems 

The HPD is currently participating in an NIJ-funded project that provides community 
organizations with unprecedented access to computerized police information. While 
all police departments share crime information with the public, in most instances 
what is provided is aggregate information, such as the number of crimes of different 
types that occurred in various sections of the city (e.g., neighborhoods). Some 
departments provide incident-level crime information, either over the Internet, in 
hard-copy format, or on a diskette. The HPD goes one step further by providing to the 
community both incident-level information (including calls for service, reported 
crime, and arrest data) and easy-to-use software that can produce different types of 
reports and maps from the data. Details of this system  dubbed the Neighborhood 
Problem Solving System, or NPS  are discussed in Section 5. 

In addition to the NPS system, the HPDs Vice and Narcotics Division operates a confidential 
drug tip line, which residents can call to anonymously report drug activity. 
The tip line was instituted in the early 1990s as part of the HPDs NIJ-funded DMAP 
program. 

Other Systems 

While not ordinarily considered information systems that support community policing, 
properly configured and well-maintained basic office automation software, coupled with 
comprehensive and ongoing training, can save an officer or commander a 
significant amount of time, potentially increasing the amount of time available for 
community policing. A number of staff interviewed for this project commented on 
problems related to office automation software, including outdated software, the 



shortage of PCs and printers, and the lack of training provided to staff. Some staff have 
resorted to purchasing their own computer equipment. In general, the quality of PC 
equipment throughout the HPD appears to vary widely, with only a minority of staff 
having up-to-date equipment. As noted previously, with the exception of grant monies 
from the State or Federal government, the HPD cannot directly purchase their own 
equipment. The Citys Information Services (IS) Department procures computer 
equipment for the HPD. Thus, IS has the difficult job of prioritizing equipment purchases 
across various city agencies in a budgetary environment in which, no doubt, 
the demand for equipment far outstrips ISs equipment budget. 

3.5 Relationships and Experience with Vendors 

Because the HPDs main information systems have all been developed in-house, the 
HPD has significantly less experience with IT vendors than most medium- and large-
size police departments. There have been instances over the past 10 years, however, 
when outside vendors developed IT systems for the HPD. 

The HPD has used different resource-allocation software packages to help with patrol 
scheduling, beat design, and deployment strategies. In 1990, the HPD purchased the 
Hypercube software package from ENFORTH Corporation of Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, and used that package for three to four years. The Patrol/PLAN 
resource allocation package was used as recently as 1997. More recently, Abt 
Associates, also of Cambridge, developed the Neighborhood Problem Solving (NPS) 
system for use by community crime-prevention organizations in Hartford. The system 
enables users to create a variety of reports and maps based on call-for-service, crime, 
and arrest information. In addition, the HPD hired a vendor for their mobile computing project 
(see Section 3.6). 

Reliance on outside IT vendors may increase in the future, especially if Systems 
Services programmer staffing levels are not increased. Systems Services supervisors 
would like to create an additional position, especially for a developer with Windows 
experience, since none of the current programmers have extensive Windows development experience. 

3.6 Future Acquisition and Development Plans 

This section highlights a few of the HPDs planned system development efforts. 

Mobile Computing Project 

Since 1998, the HPD Systems Services Division has overseen a mobile computing project, 
the goal of which is to equip HPD patrol cars with laptops that enable officers to 
do direct entry of police reports and to access a variety of information sources. An 
outside vendor was hired to do the software development work for this project. 
Systems Services Division staff will develop software interfaces, as necessary, between 
the mobile applications and HPD data systems. 



The first phase of the four-phase project is nearing completion. Many, but not all, of 
the patrol cars have laptops, and training in the use of the laptops has been provided 
to staff. Thus far, the main features of the software installed on the laptops include 
NCIC and State-level person, vehicle, and gun queries, and the ability to retrieve digital 
mugshots. Patrol officers interviewed have reacted favorably to the laptops and 
appear to heavily use the vehicle query function. The response time to queries also 
appeared to be excellent. Maintenance of the systems is a concern, however, and a 
number of laptops have needed to be repaired because of liquids spilled on the keyboard 
and other reasons. 

Future software modules in the system include incident report writing, development 
of a regional crime database (with 39 neighboring cities and towns), interfaces to the 
HPDs CAD and records systems, and mapping. 

COMPSTAT Information System 

In 1998, the HPD started weekly COMPSTAT meetings, which were modeled after the 
New York City Police Departments highly publicized COMPSTAT process. One project 
currently slated for development in 1999 is a prototype on-line information system to 
support these COMPSTAT meetings. Funding from a COPS Office Advancing 
Community Policing grant will support this work. The overall goal of the effort is to 
develop an information system that can be used during the COMPSTAT meetings to 
display police information on computerized maps. This system will supplement the 
current COMPSTAT handouts, which include a vast array of statistical and map-based 
information, by adding an interactive query element to the meetings. 

As currently envisioned, the system, which will be usable by HPD staff with minimal 
computer training, will have a number of features. The most basic feature of the system 
will be the ability to display police data sets on a computerized street map. The 
data sets will include citizen-initiated calls for service, reported crimes, field 
interviews, and arrests. The system will also be able to display non-police data on a map. 
Users will have the ability to add layers such as neighborhood boundaries, public 
housing projects, schools, buffer zones (e.g., 1,500 feet) around schools, and other 
landmarks to the map display. Users will be able to control the display of police and 
non-police data sets on the map by turning on and turning off each layer. Users 
will also be able to easily focus the map (zoom) on various map features, such as 
specified neighborhoods, landmarks, and addresses. For example, a user will be able 
to ask that the map display area encompass only an area within 100 feet of a specified 
address. Users will be able to specify the desired date and time range of the data 
to be mapped. Pre-specified date ranges such as Last 28 Days and Last 7 Days and 
pre-specified time ranges such as 8 AM to 4 PM will be provided. Finally, users will 
be able to select map icons (e.g., an icon representing an arrest) and display in tabular 
form the information associated with that icon (e.g., the date, time, and address 
of the arrest). 

This system will operate in the HPDs new COMPSTAT conference room, which will 
include systems for projecting computer output onto wall-mounted screens. If the 
prototype system produces the expected results, the HPD hopes to obtain additional 



funding to extend the accessibility of the system to other HPD staff, beyond those 
attending the COMPSTAT meetings. 

Database Redesign and Y2K 

Systems Services Division programmers are currently working on modifications to the 
three major police information systems  computer-aided dispatch, case-incident 
reporting, and booking  that involve a redesign of the systems underlying databases. 
As part of this effort, the programmers will modify the systems, as necessary, so that 
they are year 2000 compliant. The primary weakness that these enhancements are 
attempting to overcome is that each of the major systems  including CAD, case-incident 
reporting, and booking  exists in a separate database. Thus, a name or address 
search of all the HPDs information systems requires individual searches in each of the 
major systems. When the redesign is completed, all the major systems will be linked, 
so that a single name or address query will search all the major information systems. 

4 Analysis Methods Used 

4.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods 

As noted in the previous section, the HPD has invested considerable resources in 
developing, operating, and maintaining their CAD and records systems. This section 
summarizes the extent to which computerized information is accessible to HPD staff. 
The discussion of access to information provides a useful context for a review of the 
analysis methods being used in the department. 

HPD staff generally use one of four methods for accessing computerized information. 
The first method is terminal access to the HPDs AS/400 mainframes via the HPDs 
token ring network. Terminals are scattered throughout the headquarters building 
and are at a number of remote sites, including the PSA substations and the local FBI 
headquarters. At these terminals, staff can access the HPD master menu. From the 
choices on the master menu, screens can be displayed to allow queries against a 
number of different applications, including the criminal history system, the case-incident 
reporting system, the CAD system, wants and warrants, and field interviews. The 
search capabilities for these applications vary from searching just one or two fields 
(e.g., a name can be entered and queried) to searching any field in the database (e.g., 
the field interview system allows one to search any one or more fields). Common 
queries include retrieving criminal history records on a specified offender and 
retrieving information related to a specified crime or incident. The Crime Analysis Unit has 
a separate query menu, as discussed later in this section. 

This terminal-based system is relatively easy to use and the query response time is 
good. The system could be improved in a number of ways, however. For example, the 
number of terminals is limited; there are only two for the entire patrol division  one 
for the patrol commanders and one for the patrol officers. Another problem with the 
current system configuration is that some terminals did not have printers attached to 
them. Also, a number of staff commented that they wished that the case-incident narratives 
were automated. Finally, a number of officers and supervisors noted that a sig



nificant amount of training is necessary to enable staff to effectively use the terminals; 
for new recruits, this could be accomplished by including training in the use of this 
system at the HPD training academy. 

A second method of access is relatively new but will be increasingly important over 
the coming years: access to computerized information from laptops in the police 
cruisers. As noted in Section 3, currently the laptops can query NCIC and Connecticut 
State criminal justice systems and retrieve digital mugshots. 

Third, the output of some canned reports are routinely distributed to HPD staff. The 
most important of these reports is the weekly COMPSTAT report, which is distributed 
to attendees at the weekly COMPSTAT meeting, as well as to other HPD commanders. 
The reports are approximately 100 pages in length and consist of a variety of weekly, 
monthly, and yearly counts, pin maps, and lists. The HPD command staff view the 
COMPSTAT process as critical to their goal of increasing command staff accountability. 

Finally, staff make requests for special reports. Requests appear to be made frequently 
by the senior command staff (e.g., for reports for discussion at a city council or 
community meeting), by investigative staff (e.g., for a list of active warrants in a 
particular neighborhood), by HPD staff preparing grant applications, and by the media. 
Requests for special reports go through the Crime Analysis Unit. If Crime Analysis staff 
are not able to fulfill the request themselves, the request is passed on to one of the 
programmers in Systems Services. Because these programmers designed and programmed the 
systems, they can respond to a wide variety of requests in a timely manner. For example, 
the programmers were able to tailor the COMPSTAT reports to specifications provided 
by the command staff. The response time to requests for information appears, in general, 
to be good, considering that the requests go through the 
channels described above. In fact, many command staff interviewed expressed complete 
satisfaction with respect to their information requests. Nevertheless, more 
complicated requests and requests from the media or the community must be prioritized 
against the programmers system development and maintenance tasks. In addition, it 
appeared that some HPD staff were somewhat hesitant to request special reports, in 
part because they perceived that it was a burden on the Crime Analysis and Systems 
Services staff. 

Crime Analysis 

The HPDs Crime Analysis Unit consists of a sergeant and three officers. No civilian 
staff are in the unit. The crime analysis staff, who work at the main headquarters 
building, have all been assigned to this unit within the past two years. The analysts 
recently attended a conference of the International Crime Analysts Association to learn 
more about crime analysis and how other departments structure this unit. 

Compared to other HPD staff, crime analysis staff have an expanded set of menu 
options for querying and running reports based on data residing on the AS/400s. Most 
of these menu options run canned reports that crime analysis staff use to prepare 
internal and external HPD reports, including Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), month



ly Part I crime statistics, and public-housing-development crime reports. In addition, 
menu items exist for reports required by different Federal grants (e.g., arrest totals in 
the Stowe Village public housing development for the Weed and Seed project). Some 
reports are downloaded into a PC-based spreadsheet, where crime analysis staff reformat 
the data and compute various totals. In addition, crime analysis staff periodically 
prepare Crime Analysis Bulletins. 

Crime analysis staff do not have access to raw police data. As a result, many requests 
for information from HPD staff that are funneled through the Crime Analysis Unit are 
in turn forwarded to the programmers in Systems Services. The ability to slice and 
dice raw data is required for more sophisticated types of crime analysis. For 
Hartford, providing crime analysis staff with raw data would require not only systems 
development work, but also technical training for crime analysis staff on how to 
manipulate raw data. 

4.2 Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods 

The types of analysis relevant to community policing  community analysis, problem 
analysis, program evaluation, and policy analysis  have been undertaken to a limited 
degree at the HPD. In most cases, they have been performed in conjunction with a 
Federal grant program that explicitly calls for this type of analysis. For example, Abt 
Associates recently completed an evaluation of Hartfords Weed and Seed program. 
The evaluation report included the results of neighborhood resident surveys and 
analyses of computerized police department data. 

An initiative just beginning in the North PSA funded by the COPS School-Based 
Partnership program will expand community policing-based analysis methods at the 
HPD. Under this program, a problem-solving approach will be utilized to analyze 
crime problems at a school in the North PSA, to develop and implement solutions to 
the problem, and then to assess the impact of the actions taken. The specific problem 
under investigation is the safety of elementary school children while on their way to 
and from school. A recent Weed and Seed survey identified this problem as one of the 
most serious confronting school children. A partnership with a nearby middle school 
will be formed as part of this effort. 

5 Use of Information 

The ISTEP conceptual model identifies seven information domains that are critical to 
the successful implementation of community policing. The seven domains are community 
interface, inter-organizational linkages, work-group facilitation, environmental 
scanning, problem orientation, area accountability, and strategic management. In 
each of these domains, information technology can, if properly applied, greatly 
enhance the effectiveness of community policing. 

Each of the five police departments that ISTEP staff have visited excels in one or more 
of the seven domains and, by design, the case study reports emphasize those particular 
domains. The HPD, as noted in Section 3, has a unique technology-based approach 
to sharing information with the community that presents a possible model for other 



departments with respect to the community-interface information domain. Section 5.1 
provides an overview of this approach, while Section 5.2 discusses the other six information domains. 

5.1 Community Interface 

Origin 

The origin of Hartfords community interface is linked to the citys Comprehensive 
Communities Program (CCP). In 1994, Hartford became one of 12 cities to receive a 
CCP grant from the U.S. Justice Departments Bureau of Justice Assistance. According 
to Hartfords CCP proposal, the project sought to mobilize the community, to expand 
community-oriented policing by involving the entire department, and to develop community-
oriented government. A key component of Hartfords strategy was the formation of problem-
solving committees in each of the citys 17 neighborhoods. In many 
neighborhoods, the problem-solving committees consisted of residents who were 
already active in the existing neighborhood organization. In other neighborhoods, 
problem-solving committees represented entirely new structures in the neighborhood. 
The committees were charged with identifying and prioritizing neighborhood 
problems and, with the help of city agencies, implementing solutions to the problems. 
Large neighborhood-level meetings of residents and other stakeholders were held to 
select members of the problem-solving committees, many of whom were active participants 
in community organizations that existed prior to CCP. 

CCP provided assistance to the problem-solving committees in a number of ways, two 
of which are particularly relevant to this report. First, the problem-solving committees 
were eligible to receive personal computers, including standard business productivity 
software and a laser printer. Many problem-solving committees immediately took 
advantage of this offer; others took over two years to acquire their computer. Second, 
CCP provided funds for an outside consultant to conduct problem-solving training 
courses for the problem-solving committees. The courses focused on recognizing 
problems, analyzing problems, developing strategies, implementing strategies, and 
assessing results. This same consultant provided problem-solving training to the HPD. 

Information Needs Assessment 

In conjunction with the problem-solving training, representatives of the problem-solving 
committees met with CCP, HPD, and Abt Associates staff to determine what types 
of information would be most useful for helping them do problem solving. A brainstorming 
session produced a long list of information that the problem-solving committee representatives 
felt would be useful. The list contained three general types of 
information needs: 

 On-line discussion group information. Representatives expressed a 
desire for a mechanism that allows problem-solving committees to discuss neighborhood 
problems and solutions to those problems. 



 Text information. Problem-solving committee representatives wanted 
access to a host of basic information sources, including: 
 Neighborhood resources 
 Telephone list of city agencies 
 City Council meetings and agendas 
 List of blockwatches 
 Apartment/property owner associations 
 City budget 
 City ordinances/codes 
 Problem-solving committee problems and solutions 
 City services directory 
 City policies 
 Zoning board agenda 
 School services 
 Parks and recreation services 
 Economic development activities 
 Church resources 
 Adult education information 
 Health Department services 
 Library information 
 Community group activities 




 Database information. Problem-solving committee representatives indicated they wanted 
access to information stored in databases that could 
be tied to specific addresses. The list included: 
 Reported crimes 
 Arrest reports 
 Police calls for service 
 Anti-blight list 
 Demographic information 
 Property ownership information/tax records/foreclosures 
 Housing court records 
 Licensing and Inspection records 
 Standing complaints 






To meet the first and second types of information needs, an Internet-based CCP network 
was established. Trinity College in Hartford provided e-mail accounts for the 
problem-solving committees and other CCP officials, provided space on their server 
for a CCP Web home page, and set up a CCP e-mail distribution list, or LISTSERV. The 
City also made Internet software available to the problem-solving committees. 

With respect to information stored in databases, a subsequent meeting was held with 
representatives of the HPD, the problem-solving committees, CCP staff, Abt Associates 
staff, and representatives of the various city agencies to determine whether the desired 



information was automated and, if so, whether the data were complete, accurate, and 
timely. Unfortunately, it was determined that, with the exception of police calls for 
service, crime, and arrest data, other information was either not automated or out of 
date by several months, although projects were under way to improve the quality of 
the data. By contrast, police calls for service and arrest records were entered in real-
time (i.e., while the call-taker talked to the person calling 911 and while the offender 
was going through the arrest booking process), and reported crime information 
was typically automated about one week after the police officer submitted his or her 
completed crime report. 

At about this time, the National Institute of Justice released a solicitation seeking 
proposals designed to support community policing technology. Specifically, NIJ sought to 
fund efforts designed to improve police-citizen cooperation and communication and 
increase police and citizen ability to solve community problems in an innovative manner. 
Abt Associates, with the support of the HPD and the Hartford CCP project, subsequently 
applied for funding to develop a Neighborhood Problem Solving (NPS) System 
that community organizations could use to help them with their problem solving. In 
light of the findings of information needs assessment, the proposal called for developing 
a system that would provide the problem-solving committees with access to 
police calls for service, crimes, and arrests. The proposal was eventually funded and 
work started in mid-1997. 

System Development 

Development of the systems functionality began with a survey of the problem-solving 
committees to determine what type of police information would be most useful, and 
what would be the most useful formats for presenting this information. Based on written 
survey responses and follow-up telephone conversations with respondents, it was 
clear that the respondents felt that the three types of computerized police data  calls 
for service, crimes, and arrests  were all potentially useful for problem solving. In 
addition, respondents expressed a desire to have five basic types of reports in the system: 
a detail list that shows in tabular form information about each event (i.e., calls 
for service, crimes, or arrests); a top 10 list that shows the 10 most common types 
of events; an event trend list that compares the number of different types of events in 
two different time periods (e.g., year-to-date 1998 vs. year-to-date 1997); a time trend 
graph that shows the number of events by day, week, or month; and a map that shows 
the geographic location of events, with the size of the icon proportional to the number of 
events at that location. 

In order to take advantage of the latest software development tools, Abt Associates 
staff decided to develop the Neighborhood Problem Solving System for the Windows 
95 and NT operating systems. In terms of system software, an approach that emphasizes 
the use of pre-existing software components was employed. The specific tools 
that were used included Microsoft Visual FoxPro, Blue Marble Geographics GeoView 
LT OCX, and Microsoft Graph. 

In terms of the overall design of the user interface, two main options were considered. 
The first fill-out-the-form approach involves presenting the user with a form, pre



sumably on a single computer screen, that the user fills out according to the desired 
report. This approach was used in the initial version of the Chicago Police 
Departments ICAM system, a system used by Chicago police officers to produce maps 
and crime reports. The second approach  the wizard approach  involves a series 
of screens, each of which presents the user with a small number of options. The user 
goes from screen to screen selecting choices and then generates the desired report. 
Many commercial software programs use this approach for installing their software 
and for completing complex tasks. After discussions with users and with Abt 
Associates computer training staff, the wizard approach was selected. In retrospect, 
this approach worked well. Each time the system was demonstrated to potential users, 
they immediately felt that they could easily run the software. 

One important difference between an analysis tool developed for internal police use 
and one developed for use by community groups involves the issue of what data to 
make available to the users. While much of the information a police department collects 
and maintains is public information and, technically, available to the public, 
police departments routinely withhold certain information from public view, such as 
information about ongoing investigations, juveniles, and victims. In addition, one 
frequently used method of partially withholding crime information is to publish the block 
where crimes occurred, rather than to the exact street address. HPD staff, in considering
 what information they would allow the problem-solving committees to access, 
also considered the difference between providing information in hard-copy format 
and providing it in an electronic database that can be easily queried and aggregated. 
The HPD decided that no identifying information on arrestees, suspects, or victims 
would be included in the system. The only person-specific information allowed would 
be the arrestees age, race, and sex. The reason that identifying information was not 
provided on arrestees is that, in many of these cases, the charges will eventually be 
dismissed and, hence, the HPD did not want an arrest-based electronic database with 
identifying information to contain inaccurate criminal history information. Also, the 
specificity of the location information would vary, with the street number and street 
name provided for arrests, but only the block and street name provided for calls for 
service and crimes. On the other hand, geographic coordinates of the street number 
and street name are available for all three data types. 

System Implementation 

Programming of the NPS system began in November 1997 and a beta-test version was 
available for installation in Hartford in February 1998. This version was installed and 
tested by staff at the Blue Hills Civic Association in Hartford. Blue Hills staff made a 
number of recommendations and identified a few bugs. An additional round of software 
modifications were subsequently made, and the final version of the software was 
released in June 1998. 

When the system was installed, Abt Associates staff provided users with hands-on 
training, a user manual, and the most recent 25 months of citizen-initiated calls for 
service, reported crimes, and arrests for their geographic area of concern. These 
areas range in size from a few city blocks to about two square miles. Data updates are 
provided every two weeks. When the updates are delivered, the data are approximately 



10 days to 2 weeks old (e.g., a delivery of data on February 1st will contain all calls 
for service, crimes, and arrests through approximately January 20th). 

The NPS software has been installed on 18 computers located throughout the city of 
Hartford, 15 of which are located either at community organization headquarters or 
at community policing substations (i.e., offices located outside of police headquarters 
that are used primarily by police community service officers). While technically the 
computers in these locations housing the NPS software are available for public use, 
the targeted users in this project have been staff and members of community organizations, 
rather than the general public. Having a targeted set of users distinguishes 
this project from one that installs an NPS-like system at public kiosks for the express 
purpose of providing information to the general public. 

At each installation site, there are one or more targeted users  persons who have 
been trained in the use of the system, who receive and process the data updates, and 
whose use of and reaction to the system will be monitored over time. Typically, these 
targeted users show other persons at their organization how to use the system. In 
some cases, the targeted user is a full-time staff member of a community organization. 
Some organizations, for example, have full-time staff that are community organizers 
assigned to specific neighborhoods. In other organizations, the target users are members 
of the neighborhood problem-solving committee who have other full-time jobs. 

The configuration in the Blue Hills neighborhood is unique. In that neighborhood, the 
NPS system is installed on the computer at the Blue Hills Civic Association, the main 
grassroots community organization in Blue Hills. This computer supports the work of 
the Civic Association. The NPS software is also installed at a local college, where 
students provide support to a group of eight Blue Hills blockwatch captains. The students 
use the NPS system to prepare a four-page handout that depicts crime conditions in 
all of Blue Hills and in six subareas of Blue Hills. Each blockwatch captain receives 
the handout every two weeks. 

Across the problem-solving committees, the system has been used in a variety of ways 
and for a variety of purposes, with the following results: 

 The overall reaction to the NPS system has been favorable. Users have 
praised the systems ease of use and believe that the system provides 
valuable information to community groups. 
 The frequency of use of the NPS system varies widely across the users. 
Some organizations appear to use the system regularly, on a weekly or 
biweekly basis. Others use the system more sporadically, in response to 
the needs of special projects. Others, while they express a high degree 
of interest in the system, appear to use the system infrequently, if at all. 
This variation in use was expected and in many ways mirrors the frequency of 
use of mapping software in police departments. 




 Of the five report types available to users (i.e., the detail list, the top 10 
list, the event trend list, the time trend graph, and the pin map), the pin 
map appears to be the most widely used report type. 
 Of the three data types available to users (i.e., calls for service, crimes, 
and arrests), there does not appear to be a preferred data type across 
the various organizations. Some organizations appear to be most interested 
in calls for service; others appear to be most interested in arrests. 
 The reports that users produce from the NPS system have been used in 
a variety of settings, including internal community-group planning 
meetings, neighborhood-wide meetings, meetings with police officials, 
and blockwatch meetings. 
 Those reports appear to serve a variety of purposes, including finding 
out information about crimes on a specific street, locating properties 
that have multiple arrests associated with them, encouraging residents 
to report more crime to the police, informing residents about specific 
crime problems, and determining what action the police have taken in 
response to information provided by community groups on hot spots. 


5.2 Inter-Organizational Linkages 

The HPD has worked closely with other government agencies on a number of projects,
 many of them funded through the U.S. Department of Justice. The best example 
is the citys Weed and Seed project, which started in January 1995 in the Stowe Village 
public housing development. The HPD is the grantee on this project. The HPD teamed 
with other agencies and organizations to implement a number of youth, social service, 
and employment programs in Stowe Village. A particularly successful partnership 
was established with the State Department of Social Services. DSS opened an office in 
Stowe Village in 1996 and has since worked with HPD and Hartford Housing Authority 
staff to help secure employment for a number of Stowe Village residents. The HPD has 
also worked closely with the Board of Education, in particular the administration of 
the elementary school that is adjacent to Stowe Village. This relationship will expand 
under a School-Based Partnership grant that the HPD recently received from the COPS 
Office, as noted in Section 2. 

5.3 Work-Group Facilitation 

In the HPD, work-group facilitation has occurred primarily at the command level, 
through the COMPSTAT process, rather than at the officer level. As noted earlier, all 
senior level commanders attend weekly COMPSTAT meetings to review crime statistics, 
existing problems, and ongoing problem-solving efforts in each of the three Police 
Service Areas. Less formal attempts are also under way to increase communications 
between other units. 



5.4 Environmental Scanning 

Recent attempts at environmental scanning have involved conducting residential surveys. 
Examples include the surveys of youths living in Stowe Village, conducted for the 
Weed and Seed project. The initial survey, conducted in 1996, identified the most 
desired after-school and summertime activities. The results of this survey helped 
prioritize which programs to fund under Weed and Seed during the subsequent year. The 
youth survey conducted in 1997 asked youths to rate the seriousness of a number of 
different problems. Harassment and threats received while walking to and from 
school rated as the most serious problem for students at the school adjacent to Stowe 
Village. As a result, this particular problem has become the focus of the HPDs School-
Based Partnership project. 

5.5 Problem Orientation 

As discussed in Section 2.2, the HPD believes that it has developed a problem-focused 
orientation over the past three to four years through the use of the COMPSTAT 
process, through increased decentralization, and through new procedures that 
require weekly descriptions of problems and solutions in assigned areas. Within the 
field police force, a problem orientation exists most forcefully within the Community 
Service Officer (CSO) unit. CSOs assigned to neighborhoods work with residents and 
community groups in the neighborhood to identify problems and craft solutions to 
those problems. Recently, CSOs and neighborhood groups have utilized the 
Neighborhood Problem Solving System, described in Section 5.1, to help identify and 
prioritize problems. One technological approach to problem identification is a feature 
in the HPDs CAD system that identifies the locations in the city that generate the most 
calls for service. As noted in Section 3, the CAD system automatically notifies dispatchers 
when a call is generated from one of these locations. 

5.6 Area Accountability 

As noted earlier, each of the three HPD deputy chiefs has 24-hour-per-day operational 
responsibility for one of the Police Service Areas in the city. Detectives and other 
specialized units are now assigned to a specific PSA. Accountability for these areas is 
enforced through the COMPSTAT process. Also, as noted, the HPDs data systems are 
structured so that area-specific reports can be easily created by the Systems Services 
programmers. 

5.7 Strategic Management 

The departments overall goals, as well as a review of the previous years performance, 
are outlined in the HPDs Annual Report and its Community Policing Plan. As noted, 
the current emphasis in the department at the senior command level is on the COMPSTAT 
process, and on using that process to enforce accountability among the command staff. 
Another important related initiative is a new quality assurance audit program designed 
to ensure that citizens are satisfied with the level of service they receive 
from patrol officers responding to calls for service. Patrol commanders must conduct 



audits of two randomly selected calls for service per tour. The HPD developed a 
questionnaire that commanders administer via telephone to persons requesting a police 
response. 

Summary 

This case study has been based on a limited review of the HPDs information systems 
and on how personnel throughout the department use the information in these systems. 
Based on this review, a number of recommendations can be made that can guide 
future development work and funding requests. 

The first recommendation concerns the main HPD information systems, which are 
housed on the departments AS/400 mainframes and include the CAD system, the case-
incident reporting system, and the booking system. Unlike most mid-size police 
departments, the HPD developed its own systems, rather than purchasing them from 
a vendor. The systems appear to be extremely reliable and, given that the original 
system developers are still on staff at the HPD, there are few, if any, technical obstacles 
to modifying and enhancing these systems. When they were developed in the 1980s, 
the systems were no doubt considered state-of-the-art. However, considering the 
lifetime of a typical police information system, the HPDs main data systems are old. While 
we do not recommend replacing or phasing out these systems, the HPD must take 
steps to preserve its significant investment in these systems. An obvious first step, and 
one that is already under way, is making these systems year 2000 compliant. A second 
step is to develop a plan to recruit, hire, and train additional computer programmers 
in the event that one or more of the current Systems Services programmers are no 
longer available. For all practical purposes, the current programmers are the only 
ones who can make major changes to the system or make minor changes in a timely 
manner. 

Aside from maintaining the existing major information systems, the most urgent need 
is to increase the accessibility  and hopefully, as a result, the utilization  of 
information in the HPDs data systems. Specific recommendations for achieving this are as 
follows: 

 Expand query capabilities on AS/400 terminals. There are terminals 
scattered throughout HPD headquarters and at the police substations 
that provide authorized staff with limited access to the main data systems. 
The HPD should place a high priority on expanding the query 
capabilities on these terminals. At a minimum, there should be field-
based query capabilities  that is, the ability to search on any field or 
combination of fields on the screen  for all applications, most importantly 
the case incident reporting system, wants and warrants, and 
booking. Field-based querying is currently only available for the field 
interview application. The number and type of canned reports could 
also be increased. Expanding this base level of query capability will 
encourage all staff  from patrol officers to the senior command staff  
to increase their use of the information in these systems. 



 Provide the Crime Analysis Unit with the ability to analyze raw data. The 
Crime Analysis Unit currently does not have access to raw CAD and 
records data that could be manipulated with PC database or statistical 
software. Providing this type of access could be accomplished by performing 
a daily download of a multi-year data set (for trend analysis) 
or a two to three month data set (for operational or investigative purposes) 
from the AS/400 to a database (e.g., Microsoft Access) on a CAU 
PC. Given proper technical training and software tools, CAU staff could 
use the raw data to perform more sophisticated analyses, which could 
potentially impact resource deployment, ongoing investigations, crime 
prevention activities, and other operational decisions made by HPD 
commanders. 
 Develop the COMPSTAT information system and consider expanding 
access to the system. Weekly COMPSTAT meetings are the HPDs primary 
mechanism for strategic planning and for ensuring command staff 
accountability. With a grant from the COPS office, the HPD is planning 
to fund development of a prototype map-based information system to 
support these meetings and supplement the 100-page COMPSTAT meeting packet. 
If HPD commanders react favorably to this new system, the 
HPD should consider making this system accessible to staff throughout 
the department on their desktop PCs. 
 Ensure that the mobile computing project is fully funded. The HPD has 
embarked on an ambitious multi-year mobile computing project. Once 
the project is completed, patrol officers and other field units will have 
access to a vast array of computerized information from their patrol 
cars. It is critical that this project be fully funded. 


For each of the systems, it is essential that funding be secured not only for equipment 
and development efforts, but also for adequate training and maintenance of hardware 
and software. Equally important is developing clear expectations for the sworn staff as 
to how the information access through these systems should be used. 

A final recommendation concerns basic office automation capabilities at the HPD. 
Major improvements are needed in PC hardware, office automation software (especially 
word processing), and communications software (including e-mail and networking). For
 example, properly configured word processing software (e.g., with 
templates for all HPD forms and memos) and a timely and relevant computer training 
program would reduce time spent on paperwork and enable staff to commit more 
time to community policing. An e-mail system would ensure delivery of important 
messages (resulting in greater accountability for new orders), encourage communications 
between units within the HPD, and allow greater communication with the 
community and other city agencies, all of which are critical for effective community 
policing. 



Chapter 5

Police Department

Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project 

ISTEP 

Case Study: Reno, Nevada 
April 1999 

Prepared for 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 
Program/Policy Support and Evaluation Division 
1100 Vermont Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20530 

Project Director 
Terence Dunworth, Ph.D. 

Prepared by 
Tim Bynum, Ph.D. 
Reno Site Leader 
Vince Webb, Ph.D. 
Gary Cordner, Ph.D. 
Shawn Ward 

Abt Associates Inc. 
55 Wheeler Street 
Cambridge, MA 02138 


Contents 

Reno Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95 

1 Purpose and Scope of Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97 

2 Police Department Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 
2.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 
2.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 
2.3 Community-Oriented Policing Training and Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99 

3 Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 
3.1 Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 
3.2 State of Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102 
3.3 Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing . . . . . . . . . . .103 
3.4 Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing . . . . . . . . . .104 
    Geographic Information Systems (GIS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104 
    Problem-Solving Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 
    External Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104 
3.5 Relationships and Experience with Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 
3.6 Future Acquisition and Development Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106 

4 Analysis Methods Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 
4.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 
    Crime Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107 
4.2 Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 

5 Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 
5.1 Community Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 
5.2 Inter-Organizational Linkages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 
5.3 Work-Group Facilitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 
5.4 Environmental Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111 
5.5 Problem Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 
5.6 Area Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 
5.7 Strategic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112 
5.8 Future Plans Related to the Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112 

6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 
6.1 Overall Assessment of Information Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112 
6.2 Reno Police Departments Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 



Reno Highlights 

The Reno, Nevada Police Department is committed to community and problem-oriented 
policing. The department has implemented a department-wide philosophy 
using patrol teams. Management invests heavily in problem-solving training for all 
officers including a mandatory 12 hours of academy training for new recruits. They 
have also developed a performance assessment and promotional system based on 
problem-solving accomplishments. 

Technologically, the department supports their problem-solving approach by using 
POP Track, a software program designed to help officers track problems from initial 
identification through completion. POP Track enables Reno officers to work through 
the SARA model by recording information relative to each of the SARA steps. Also, 
officers have recently helped redesign their roll call room into a smart briefing room. 
This innovation will make roll calls more conducive to discussion and information 
exchange by including a computer with mapping software and a state of the art projection system. 

The Reno Police Department has admittedly struggled with computer-aided dispatch 
(CAD) and records technology performance during the last 15 years. However, the 
department has not succumbed to the information system difficulties and are well on 
their way to redesigning and planning new systems that will allow them to operate 
more effectively. Coupled with aggressive strategic planning, senior staff have made a 
commitment to take the department in a new direction. Information systems will no 
longer drive the department, but its problem-solving philosophy will drive information 
systems. They have backed up this commitment by initiating a planning process 
to develop new information systems including a records management system (RMS), 
CAD, crime analysis system, and jail management system (JMS). 

As part of the technical portion of this strategic planning process, the department 
hired an outside consultant to serve as a liaison between the department and system 
vendors. This consultant has been successful in helping the department develop a 
request for proposals (RFP) for a new RMS and CAD. The department is now separating 
the RFP into two portions  design and implementation. The strategy will 
enable them to hold vendors accountable for on-time performance and quality of 
design. Also during this planning process, the department gathered significant input 
from end users, making specifications on necessary system outputs easily identifiable. 

Through careful system development, officers and supervisors will be able to extract 
and analyze police data. In addition, integration with other local agencies will be the 
key to providing and gathering non-police data for more effective inter-organizational 
problem-solving. These plans demonstrate Renos emphasis on making information 
system decisions a part of their policing and management strategy. 



1 Purpose and Scope of Report 

This case study is one of several produced for the Information Systems Technology 
Enhancement Project (ISTEP), a project funded by the Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services (COPS). The aim of ISTEP is to increase the use of information and 
information technology in police departments, particularly regarding the implementation 
of community policing. The case studies document the current state of information 
technology and the use of information in five police departments: Tempe, 
Arizona; San Diego, California; Hartford, Connecticut; Reno, Nevada; and Charlotte-
Mecklenburg, North Carolina. These case studies are based on a limited review of the 
status of information technology in the departments. A separate cross-site report 
synthesizes the findings of the individual case studies. A report on the projects 
conceptual framework presents the overall ISTEP approach and discusses how community 
policing demands different types of information systems, analysis methods, and uses 
of information than those required under the professional-era model of policing. 

The Reno, Nevada, ISTEP case study is based on two site visits to the Reno Police 
Department. The ISTEP team conducted the first site visit on September 14-15, 1998, 
and conducted the second visit on November 30-December 1, 1998. During the site 
visits, interviews were conducted with the chief, the deputy chief in charge of the 
Planning, Training, and Research Division and directly responsible for the information 
system acquisition project, and the deputy chief in charge of the Community Affairs 
Division. Also interviewed were the departments crime analyst, training director, 
information services coordinator, mobile computer terminal (MCT) coordinator, a 
sergeant in the Training Division, and the Citys Information Services Director. Group 
interviews were conducted with shift sergeants and the bike team. In addition, two 
ride-alongs were conducted and a problem-solving team meeting was observed. The 
site visits also included a demonstration of the recently acquired POP Track software 
for tracking problem-solving efforts in the department. The focus of these interviews 
and observations was to obtain an understanding of the current state of information 
technology and information use in the department, the community policing/problemsolving 
efforts, and how these operations are informed by current and anticipated 
information systems. Department reports and materials on problem solving and 
information technology were obtained during these visits. 

The organization of this case study document follows the overall conceptual framework 
for the ISTEP project. Accordingly, after providing background information on 
the police department in Section 2, particularly with respect to implementation of 
community policing, the case study describes current and planned information systems 
(Section 3), analysis methods (Section 4), and uses of information (Section 5). 
Section 6 summarizes our findings. 

2 Police Department Background 

2.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends 

Reno is a growing community with a population approaching 180,000. The communitys 
gaming and tourist industry attracts 50,000-60,000 tourists daily, and Renos 



large hotel facilities report an average occupancy rate of more than 90 percent. These 
characteristics present many unique law enforcement challenges for the Reno Police 
Department. 

The Reno Police Department (RPD) has approximately 500 employees including 330 
sworn officers, 128 of whom are assigned to the patrol division. The police department 
is organized into three districts, North, South, and Central. The North and South 
Districts are relatively large and include a mix of residential, industrial, and 
commercial properties. The Central District is geographically compact and includes 
Renos principal hotel/casino district. A Deputy Chief commands each of these districts. 
There is a sergeant responsible for each district for each shift. All personnel 
operate out of headquarters, located in the Central District, although there are 
decentralized meeting facilities in the North and South Districts. 

A unique aspect of Renos patrol configuration resulted from a special tax levy for the 
downtown area. This tax provides an additional $840,000 to the department to provide 
increased police presence in this area dominated by casinos, hotels, and other 
businesses. This area is a 10- by 15-block area that is patrolled by 14 officers assigned 
to a bike team. The team works under the direction of a sergeant and operates out of 
the Central District. This unit was created with the goal of improving police visibility 
in the area. Although technically the unit is not responsible for answering calls, it does 
respond when it is feasible and officers are available. An active problem-solving 
approach dominates this teams patrol strategy. 

In 1996 (the most recent year for which data are available from annual reports), 
there were 132,252 dispatched calls for service (362 per day on average). This represents 
a 25-percent increase since 1991. There were 10,881 Part I offenses reported in 1996, 
a 10-percent decrease since 1991; however, there was an increase in 
felony arrests of 23 percent during this same period (3,168 to 3,905). Larceny was 
the most frequently reported offense in 1996 (7,330), followed by burglary (1,676), 
vehicle larceny (725), robbery (507), assault (489), rape (114), arson (29), and 
homicide (13). Most of these offenses experienced moderate (7 to 9 percent) 
decreases since 1991, although rape decreased by 21 percent and robbery increased 
by 37 percent. Overall, these serious offenses declined by 7 percent over this period. 
Vehicle larceny in Reno, unlike many communities, was unchanged during this five-
year period (Reno Police Department Annual Report, 1996-1997). 

2.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background 

The Reno Police Department has a strong commitment to community policing. 
Policing in Reno is based on a problem-solving strategy adapted from a similar 
approach taken by the San Diego Police Department. This strategy was first implemented 
in 1987, largely in response to deteriorating relationships with the community. At that 
time the department had experienced a significant reduction in resources 
and personnel, but they were also experiencing an increase in calls for service of 8 to 
10 percent per year. Reno was also growing in square miles through annexation. A 
community survey administered in May 1987 indicated that only 49 percent of residents 
surveyed felt that the police department was doing a good job as an overall 
rating, and only 32 percent felt that the department had a good image. 



In response to this situation, the department implemented its approach to community 
policing. From the beginning, significantly, Reno adopted a generalist approach 
emphasizing problem solving rather than the more popular and traditional specialized 
approach emphasizing community relations. There was never a specialized unit created 
to do community policing; rather, all officers were responsible for adopting 
this approach. Although choosing this approach has probably resulted in a slower 
implementation of these strategies, the department avoided the schism that many 
police agencies have experienced over what constituted real police work. This has 
been a significant advantage for this department in implementing problem solving 
throughout the ranks. Although the department has had a problem-solving orientation 
for more than 10 years, it has only recently strongly emphasized this strategy. 

As noted above, the department has a geographic focus on three districts throughout 
its organization. A team of officers is assigned for each shift that is responsible 
for all patrol operations. A sergeant directs the team and is responsible for making 
assignments. It is up to each sergeant to create time for officers to engage in problem 
solving. Problems are typically identified through officers initiative and residents 
comments and complaints. A potential impediment to stability in geographic assignment 
of officers is the bid structure that allows officers and sergeants to change shifts and 
districts every six months. It was reported that, as in many other departments, there 
is considerable movement of personnel due to this bid structure. 

The sergeant is responsible for attending community meetings; patrol officers also 
attend these meetings but, due to shift schedules, there is some variation in who goes 
to the meetings. (This arrangement, again, reflects the commitment that all officers 
are to engage in these types of activities.) While all officers are involved in problem 
solving, it was noted that there is difficulty in communicating problem-solving activities 
across shifts. 

Since the late 1980s, the city has had local neighborhood organizations known as 
neighborhood advisory groups (NAGs). These organizations met periodically with 
representatives of various city agencies including the police department. Recently, 
however, the city manager decided to disband this structure in favor of district-wide 
meetings. Although there is substantial opportunity for resident input to problem-solving 
activities, it appears that the police department initiates most such activity and 
solicits citizen participation. Problem-solving activities tend to involve community 
assistance and participation rather than initiation. 

Community-Oriented Policing Training and Assessment 

The Reno Police Department maintains a vigorous approach to training. Initial training in 
problem solving was conducted for all officers and supervisors by the Police 
Executive Research Forum (PERF) in 1987. Since then all officers have received additional 
basic and advanced problem-solving training. As noted previously, the departments approach 
to problem solving was modeled after that developed by San Diego. 
Representatives from Reno went to San Diego and received training and observed 
problem solving in action. These individuals then became the trainers for Reno. 



Mission and value statements were created for the department that reflected the orientation 
of Your Police, Our Community. 

Several recent initiatives reflect the importance of problem solving in this department. 
In addition to routine, ongoing problem-solving training, enhanced training (12 
hours) on problem solving is provided in the academy. More importantly, the department 
is in the midst of a major restructuring of the academy. The academy is operated by High 
Sierra Community College. A basic principle of this revision is that problem solving should 
be integrated into all aspects of training and not be simply a standalone module. Thus, 
problem-solving approaches and techniques will be integrated 
into more traditional academy topics. 

In addition, the Field Training Officer (FTO) program has been lengthened from 16 
to 26 weeks, and selected FTOs are officers who best reflect problem solving in their 
work. It was noted by one administrator that this selection criterion is a principal 
policy that can be used to address the organizational culture change that is necessary to 
fully implement this approach. In addition, the behavioral anchors for satisfactory 
performance have been revised to reflect a problem-solving orientation. The department 
also received a $300,000 COPS grant to design the next generation FTO program, which may 
potentially have broader, national-level implications. 

Another important principle of training for the Reno Police Department is that the 
most effective training involves peer instruction. There are no trainers assigned to 
the training division; instead, most individuals conducting training come from the 
patrol ranks. There are common lesson plans to ensure consistent content of training, but 
it is delivered by a variety of officers and supervisors. The second major initiative is 
consistent with this philosophy. The department is currently implementing a 
problem-solving mentor training program. A contingent of officers recently went to 
San Diego and received problem-solving training on the mentoring concept. The principle 
behind this approach is that there will be a resource person available to assist 
other officers in problem-solving activities. Reno will be conducting two mentor training 
sessions over the next two months. Two individuals from each team will receive 
this training. Therefore, there should be an individual available for each team across 
all shifts who has participated in this training. This training will emphasize a hands-
on approach and will consist of participants initiating a problem-solving project 
within the context of the class. Team sergeants are responsible for nominating those 
officers to receive this instruction. There has been a very high demand for these training 
slots. A similar approach was used in training 26 individuals on crime prevention 
through environmental design (CPTED) so that there would be a CPTED expert available for each team. 

Part of the reason for the demand for this training may be that the department has 
revised its performance assessment and promotion procedures to reflect a problem-
solving orientation. It was reported by the administration as well as patrol officers that 
it was understood that no one would advance in the department or receive perks 
(off-site travel for training or conference attendance) who does not actively engage in 
problem solving. As an example of this and the departments commitment to problem 



solving, Reno sent 15 people to this years POP conference who were high achievers 
in this regard. 

The promotion system includes a revised assessment center that includes considerable 
material on problem solving. In addition, officers have to conduct a mock community 
meeting as part of this process. Officers interviewed reflected a great deal of 
enthusiasm about their participation in these activities and generally felt that these 
strategies were making a difference in public safety, the relationship with the community, 
and their own job satisfaction. 

The exceptional commitment of the department to problem solving is also reflected in 
its vesting considerable responsibility in officers for the ownership of their projects. 
Patrol officers routinely give public presentations, even to the city council and the 
special tax district board, on the description and outcomes of problem-solving projects. 

In summary, the Reno Police Department has a strong commitment to a community-
oriented strategy through a problem-solving approach. While many agencies express 
a similar commitment to such an approach, Reno has made a number of operational 
and organizational changes to support these efforts. Although considerable progress 
has been made in the transition of this agency to a community-oriented approach, a 
number of concerns remain problematic, including the identification of problems, 
coordination of problem-solving activities across shifts, and the depth of problem 
solving in the organization. As discussed below, however, perhaps the greatest impediment 
to problem-solving efforts in the police department is the lack of information 
that is needed for these activities. It is clear that the provision of information 
for problem solving has not kept pace with the structural and operational changes that have 
been made by the department. However, exciting plans are being implemented that 
promise to address this critical deficiency. 

3 Information Systems 

3.1 Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility 

Historically in Reno, the police department and other city agencies were responsible 
for the acquisition and maintenance of their own information systems and information 
technology. Although this structure had advantages for agency autonomy, it led to 
an extremely diverse information structure and, from the viewpoint of the city, one that 
was unworkable. Two years ago the city decided to adopt a more centralized structure 
and establish a city Information Services Division that would control information systems 
in all city agencies. A similar approach has been implemented in Tempe, Arizona. 

In 1997, the city contracted with Deloitte and Touche for a review of their information 
systems and to produce a Systems Information Strategic Plan. This report indicated 
that the distributed information systems were not working as they should and that 
greater coordination was needed. From this review it was apparent that multiple 
directions were being taken across, as well as within, the various city agencies. For 
example, 19 different word processing programs were being used in these agencies. 



New minimum standards were set for equipment. Personal computers are required to 
have a Pentium processor and 2-3 gigabyte (GB) hard drive. All software must run on 
an Oracle platform and be compatible with a Windows 95 environment. 
The strategic plan called for a more consolidated effort and for adopting a philosophy in 
which data are treated as a strategic resource. Through this plan, information 
systems were to be integrated across departments and a structure was to be created 
to manage the implementation of technology. 

Prior to the centralization of information services, each agency had its own in-house 
expert who typically had been with the agency for some time and had an aptitude for 
computers. Few had a background in applications programming or systems engineering. The 
implementation of this new plan called for these individuals to remain 
in their respective agencies but report to the city Information Services Division. 

3.2 State of Information Systems 

The Reno Police Department is attempting to make the transition from an organization 
driven by technology to an organization that is driving technology. The department 
is in the final stages of a five-year information technology plan to replace their 
computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system and to implement an information system (IS) 
that integrates their CAD, records management system (RMS), crime analysis (CA), 
and jail management systems (JMS). The goal is to have a system that enables the 
seamless transfer of data at the incident level. They plan to enter the implementation 
phase in January 1999. Since the planning process was implemented, the courts have 
acquired their own system, so the possibility of complete integration throughout the 
criminal justice system is problematic. The Technical Support Division commander is 
heading up the departments IS planning and implementation effort, and the approach 
will produce a very functional system since its design is being driven largely by end 
users. A department-wide computer committee plays a significant role in shaping the 
creation of the information systems. 

The police department acquired its current records management system, known as 
PLIMS (Police Law Enforcement Information Management System), in 1986. It was 
acknowledged by all staff interviewed that some egregious errors were made in the 
acquisition of this system. Some felt that this system was obtained to meet records 
management and not operational needs. All agreed that this system just doesnt work. 
The consensus was that this system never lived up to the expectations created by the 
vendor, and a number of components never worked at all. A common complaint, as 
with the users of many systems of the same vintage, was that a lot of information is 
entered into the system, but police cannot get anything out of it. One individual 
described the entry of data from field interviews (FIs) into the system as throwing 
them into a black hole. Others felt that there was a problem in entering data into the 
system. There is a lag of about four weeks in entering data into the system. 

The system was designed and implemented in a piecemeal fashion. This approach was 
largely driven by available funding, but also by the lack of knowledge in the department 
about what they wanted and needed. It was common to have $100,000 contracts 



with the vendor for fixes to the system. Across all interviewed, there was common 
criticism of the vendor of this system, and it was generally agreed that the department 
was victimized by the vendor. Senior staff also acknowledged that they were victimized 
by their own naivete in this field. This experience has produced a common resolve to 
do things right in the acquisition of their new system and not repeat the mistakes of 
the past. 

The situation relative to the existing computer system has evolved into a crisis. The 
current system is out of space and memory. Further, the vendor has not upgraded the 
operating system in some time, as it is presently functioning on an operating system 
that is six versions behind the most current one. In addition, the current system is not 
year 2000 (Y2K) compliant. A transitional system has been ordered and will be 
installed in the near future to bridge computer operations to the installation of the new 
computer system. 

From the perspective of the city Information Systems Manager, this situation developed 
largely because the computer systems were built in a piecemeal manner without a 
coordinated consideration of what is really needed. Problems or needs would be 
ignored until they reached a critical point. He attributed this to the use of 
nontechnical people to put together a technical solution. 

Recognizing the condition of its data system, the Reno Police Department has included 
significant sections on information technology in its one- and five-year strategic 
plans. In 1994-95 the department started to develop a Request for Proposals (RFP) 
along with a five-year information technology plan to replace the existing system. 

Other technology developments in the department include the replacement of 
Motorola mobile data terminals (MDTs) with 65 ruggedized Panasonic laptops 
equipped with CD ROMS, and the possible acquisition of a proprietary automated 
report-writing tool estimated to cost $150,000. Department personnel indicated that 
the MDTs had been inoperative for nearly a year due to an equipment problem in dispatch. 
Historically, the MDTs provided limited information to officers in cruisers such 
as wants and warrants, National Crime Information Center (NCIC), and auto theft 
information. At the present time, officers have little information on a call for service 
beyond what the radio dispatcher gives them. Therefore, communications with dispatch tends 
to be very conversational in nature, with limited use of MDTs to provide 
call information. The new Panasonic mobile computer terminals (MCTs) will provide 
in-car access to the report-writing tool, to information contained on the departments 
LAN  such as standard operating procedures, city ordinances, and Internet-based 
information  and to NCIC and State of Nevada motor vehicle databases. 

Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing 

In Reno, individual information systems and software packages have been implemented 
using off-the-shelf products to support professional-era policing. As noted, 



the CAD and RMS technology that Reno acquired in 1986 has never fulfilled its promised 
performance. Individualized efforts require entry of incident report data, and the 
RMS is limited to very specific uses. 
Overall, the flow of information, at least that generated by crime analysis and 
manipulation of the RMS, is multidirectional. Information flows down to line officers and 
supervisors and outward to the community. Although no specific mention was made 
of providing command staff with information, it is likely that information flows 
upward on both a regular (i.e., annual survey, annual department report) and an ad 
hoc basis (i.e., special requests). 

3.4 Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 

Senior commanders and line officers understand the benefits of computerized mapping and 
geographic information systems. The departments GIS technology, however, 
is quite limited. Crime analysis produces some maps using MapInfo. The computer 
used to produce the maps is dated and has limited capacity and speed, which makes 
the production of maps a slow process. Furthermore, the data used in crime analysis 
is taken from hard copies of records data and then manually reentered into a database 
maintained by the crime analysis unit. At the present time it is not possible to 
transfer data directly from the CAD/RMS system to the crime analysis database. This 
time consuming and inefficient process limits the potential applications and utilization 
of GIS for problem solving. 

Problem-Solving Information Systems 

The department has recently implemented the POP Track software system for monitoring 
problem-solving projects and the progress made in these initiatives. Officers in 
conjunction with sergeants determine how a problem is defined and thus entered into 
the system. Officers and supervisors are then responsible for entering events and 
activities into the system so that information on specific responses and outcomes will 
be available. 

The software is designed to take officers through the four-step SARA model (scanning, 
analysis, response, and assessment) in managing specific POP projects. The software 
takes problem solvers through an individual project form that identifies problem 
location, problem type, and officers or supervisors assigned to the project. This form 
also allows officers to enter narrative comments about the project. The SARA form 
takes officers through each phase of the process and allows them to enter information 
using check boxes and narrative comments for a particular problem. Projects 
can be updated or closed by supervisors and are of particular value in tracking POP 
over time. 

External Information Systems 

A particularly important low-tech mechanism for obtaining information on community 
perceptions of police performance is a community survey that is done by the 
department in conjunction with the Department of Criminal Justice at the University 



of Nevada (Reno). This survey was initiated in 1987. At that time, the department was 
experiencing a deteriorating relationship with the community; and as it implemented 
steps to address this problem, the department desired an ongoing method to assess 
this relationship. The survey also seeks to ascertain the communitys perceptions 
about specific problems and concerns that may be of importance for police operations. 
For several years this survey was conducted every six months, and it is now 
administered annually. The survey is conducted by telephone and explores traditional 
topics, such as assessment of police performance, perceptions of safety, and identification
of problems and concerns. In addition, specific questions on substantive problems are 
periodically included. For example, the most recent survey had several items 
measuring the exposure to domestic violence. A sample size of 400-500 is included in 
each wave of the survey and respondents are randomly selected proportional to telephone 
prefix. Trained volunteers conduct the survey, and the departments crime analyst conducts 
the analysis with assistance from faculty at the University of Nevada. 
These measures serve to keep the cost of each wave of the survey at about $2,000. 

Relationships and Experience with Vendors 

Reno has considerable experience working with information technology vendors. In 
fact, their negative experience in the acquisition and operation of their current PLIMS 
system has given them resolve not to repeat the mistakes of the past. They felt that the 
system they acquired in 1986 never lived up to the promises of the vendor. There was 
considerable misunderstanding and miscommunication in this process, and there was 
a general feeling of being at the mercy of the vendor throughout the life of this system. 

Based on this experience, the department knew, as it approached the replacement of 
the CAD and RMS systems, that it needed to be more proactive in this process. The 
department needed to determine its own needs and assure that the new contract 
would meet these needs. Given the lack of technical knowledge in the department (at 
the time the city Information Services Division did not exist), it was determined that 
in order to avoid the debacle that occurred previously, a consultant would be hired to 
manage the vendor, facilitate the design process, and act as a translator between the 
department and the vendor. The initial consulting team hired to perform these tasks 
was not as skilled as the department desired. While having this assistance was important, 
the lack of experience of this group hampered progress and, in the view of some, 
significantly increased the time to implementation. 

About two years ago, a new consultant, Emmack Cronan Group Inc., was contracted 
to perform these tasks. At this point, substantial progress began to be made. This 
consultant had considerable experience in the criminal justice field and had worked 
previously with the contracted systems vendor (Tiburon). There was a strong consensus 
that this was one of the most important developments in the acquisition of a system 
that met the needs of the department. The consultant was able to help the department 
determine its needs and then determine if what the vendor proposed would really 
meet those needs. 

Compared to its previous experiences, the departments experience with Tiburon has 
been much more positive. This does not mean it has been without problems and 



issues, however. One important resolve of the department, again based upon previous 
experiences, was to break the tasks down into two contracts, one to support system 
design, and the other for system implementation. It was noted that vendors are quite 
resistant to this structure, preferring all tasks to be under one contract. This approach 
was viewed as important both as a cost containment measure and to provide incentives 
for the vendor to conclude the design phase as soon as possible. 

3.6 Future Acquisition and Development Plans 

These are exciting times for the Reno Police Department. Over the next several years 
a new CAD and RMS system will be implemented and integrated with vehicle laptops 
to form a state-of-the-art system that will support the departments problem-solving 
approach to policing. This will mark the culmination of a lengthy planning, design, 
and implementation process. The acquisition of this technology has been guided by a 
committee chaired by the Planning, Training, and Research Division commander. The 
committee developed the RFP that laid out the detailed specifications of what the new 
system was to do, the data elements to be included, and report capabilities. In 
September 1995 the draft RFP was completed. Only two vendors responded to the 
RFP, Intergraph and Tiburon, as most indicated that this was too big a task for them 
to undertake. The Emmack Cronan Group was contracted in 1996 and significant 
progress was made after that point. 

It is important and instructive to note the process used to develop the system capabilities 
that were specified in the RFP. For the most part, the system was designed by 
the end users. Work groups were established in the department for various modules 
of the system according to various police operations. These groups were tasked with 
creating the ideal system through identifying specific information needs for problem 
solving, investigations, crime reporting, and other aspects of police operations within 
each major operational segment of the department. Several individuals noted that 
it was ironic that they probably benefited from the fact that their existing system was 
inadequate. This allowed them to start over and design a system that they really wanted 
rather than modify one that would likely not fill their needs even after these alterations were made. 

Committee meetings with the consultant were held once a month for a 2-3 day period, 
and there would typically be another meeting of the work group or committee 
during the month. The process to develop the proposed system took much longer 
than anyone anticipated  at least two years  since all those involved already had full-
time responsibilities that did not go away because they were involved in this system 
redesign effort. 

The allocation for this task was $4.5 million and $400,000 was budgeted for the 
phase-one system design. As noted above, the work group designed an ideal system. 
It is unlikely that such a system can be obtained with the existing funds. Recently the 
vendor submitted a cost estimate for these changes from their standard system. The 
city of Reno will negotiate the actual cost of these changes with the assistance of the 
consultant. In addition, the department will set priorities on the various aspects of the 



system and determine the components and capabilities of the initial implementation. 
It is anticipated that these modifications will happen soon. As noted previously, this 
system includes CAD, RMS, and jail management components. By agreement with the 
county, the jail management system will be the first system implemented. This agreed 
order will cause some delays in implementing the law enforcement component. The 
city Information Services Division manager indicated that he anticipated that the 
police component would not be operational until the middle of next year; however, 
others felt that it might be implemented sooner. 

The new system will have specific components for crime analysis and mapping. Given 
that the design of the system was based upon how it could support problem solving, 
it is anticipated that many crime analysis and mapping functions can be routinized to 
the point where patrol officers with sufficient training can conduct analysis to support 
their problem-solving projects. In addition, the system will be National Incident Based 
Reporting System (NIBRS) compliant. 

It is further anticipated that much of this analysis may be conducted from the new lap-
tops that are currently being installed in patrol vehicles. The ruggedized laptops 
(Panasonic) have been acquired and are currently being installed. The department is 
exploring the acquisition of a mounting device with an articulated arm to facilitate 
positioning the computer for use in the vehicle. The department is also in the process 
of acquiring a report-writing tool that has been funded through a COPS MORE grant. 
It is anticipated that this will be operational in the next 12 months. 

4 Analysis Methods Used 

4.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods 

Crime Analysis 

The department has one crime analyst who provides periodic, routine analytical 
reports and responds to special requests regarding specific topics. The crime analyst 
produces a weekly crime report that is transmitted to lieutenants. This report includes 
citywide crime totals by type, specific reporting-area crime totals, and incident-report 
records information on each of these crimes. In addition, a semiannual report on 
crime trends in each of the departments 26 reporting areas is produced and disseminated 
throughout the department and the community. 

Information for the departments annual report is also prepared by Crime Analysis. 
The crime analyst completes special request analyses for officers, detectives, command staff, 
community members and organizations, and for other city agencies. It was 
estimated that about one-third to one-half of all officers request crime analysis information 
to assist problem-solving efforts. The crime analysis unit also tracks property in pawnshops 
and compares pawn serial numbers with National Crime Information 
Center (NCIC) data in an attempt to identify stolen property. In addition, the unit plays 
a role in maintaining gang intelligence and a gang-tracking database that is on the 
departments LAN. 



The difficulty in retrieving data from the existing data system makes the crime analysis 
process quite difficult and cumbersome. There is also a considerable lag in data 
entry. Reports produced tend to be for routine historic periods; thus information is 
less available for operational purposes. In many instances, data are obtained from the 
RMS or CAD system and reentered into a specialized database using an off-the-shelf 
program, FoxPro. Some limited mapping of calls for service and crime data is done 
using MapInfo in this manner. However, the department has recently converted the 
mapping program from MapInfo to ArcInfo and, increasingly, can use other data sets 
(police and non-police) for analysis. 

4.2 Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods 

The limitations of the existing data system present considerable difficulties and 
obstacles in conducting analysis for problem solving. In fact, several individuals 
commented that this was one of the principal (if not the major) hindrances in their 
problem-solving efforts. Officers are eager to conduct the analysis required by the SARA 
process but are often unable to do so because of the limitations of the data system. 
Similarly, there is no repeat-call analysis capability, which many departments have 
used effectively in their problem-solving strategy. One of the principal analysis 
methods for community policing is the annual community survey that was previously 
discussed. In addition, officers routinely conduct surveys of smaller populations for 
input and analysis related to problem-solving efforts. 

On a positive note, the new computer system was designed with analysis in mind. Data 
elements to be used directly for problem solving were included in the system 
redesign. It is anticipated that officers will be able to query the system to address 
questions for problem analysis and will be able to produce maps of the locations of 
reported crimes and calls for service. 

5 Use of Information 

The ISTEP conceptual framework identifies seven information domains that are critical 
to the successful implementation of community policing. The seven domains are 
community interface, inter-organizational linkages, work-group facilitation, 
environmental scanning, problem orientation, area accountability, and strategic management. 
In each of these domains, information technology can, if properly applied, greatly 
enhance the effectiveness of community policing. 

Each of the five police departments that ISTEP staff have visited excels in one or more 
of the seven domains. The following discussion details Renos participation in the 
seven information domains. 

5.1 Community Interface 

At present, Reno has not utilized technology extensively to enhance the community 
interface aspect of community-oriented policing. Perhaps the most significant current 
effort is a pager-based broadcast system that the department uses to immediately noti



fy the media and other interested parties (e.g., casino security) of news items and 
related events. While text pagers were previously supplied by the department to access 
this system, it now requires users to pay a fee for participation. 

The department provides each employee with an e-mail address. At this point, however, 
it appears that e-mail is used extensively for internal communication but is not 
used significantly externally for communication with the public. The use of e-mail 
externally is likely hampered by the fact that the department does not consistently 
provide business cards to patrol officers. Since there is no permanent assignment of 
officers to geographic areas, there may be less demand for such access than would 
otherwise be the case. 

The department currently has a basic Web page. There are plans, however, to make it 
more informative and interactive so that it can enhance community interface. The city 
of Reno also has plans to implement information kiosks that would include access to 
police information. Recently, the department began a weekly public television program. 
The program covers a variety of topics using guest speakers and also allows 
residents to phone in during the show with questions and comments. 

Although the department employs limited information technology to enhance community 
interface, it does have several significant ways in which community input and 
feedback about police operations are obtained. Principal among these mechanisms is 
the regular community survey discussed previously. This annual survey provides 
important information about the communitys perception of the police department 
and assessment of its performance. In addition, it provides citizens perceptions of the 
most pressing problem in the city and in their neighborhood. The department also 
regularly participates in neighborhood meetings, generates bilingual public service 
announcements, operates a community feedback telephone line, and has cell phones 
for commanders. 

Inter-Organizational Linkages 

The Reno Police Department is in an advantageous position to establish on-line linkages 
with other local law enforcement agencies and the jail, prosecutor, and the 
courts. Such linkages are facilitated by the fact that the police department serves as 
the call-taking and dispatching agency for other agencies in the county. However, the 
antiquated nature of the CAD system and the limited amount of data that can be 
gleaned from it without extensive difficulty presently limit the potential of this linkage. 
When the new CAD and RMS systems come on line, this hurdle should be overcome. 
In addition, through the implementation of this new system, the police and the sheriffs 
department will be using the same forms and information system. Further, the jail 
management system will be part of the same RMS and the police department will have 
access to jail information. The courts have expressed some reluctance to participate, 
but are expected to eventually come on board. 

On-line linkages with other city agencies have historically been limited due to the 
decentralized approach to information systems that has been taken in Reno. Until 
recently, each city agency had considerable autonomy with regard to its information 



system. With the establishment of the citys Information Services Department with 
authority over information technology development in city agencies, it is likely that 
there will be considerable inter-organizational linkages and information sharing in 
the future. 

Two low-tech examples of information sharing through inter-organizational linkages 
are prevalent in Reno. One is the creation of the Problem Analysis Advisory Committee 
(PAAC), which is composed of representatives of various city agencies, to assist officers 
in their problem-solving efforts. The second consists of increasing police involvement in 
city planning activities at an earlier stage in the process. This makes it possible for 
the RPD to have more input into residential and commercial development 
plans for the city. This is an important issue in a city like Reno that continues to 
experience rapid growth. An understanding of CPTED concepts and how crime prevention 
is improved by smart development and planning has significantly improved this interaction. 

5.3 Work-Group Facilitation 

Work-group facilitation has not been prevalent in Reno to date, largely because cross-
shift or multi-unit work groups have not been a major feature of Renos approach to 
community policing. However, the department has sought methods for improving 
coordination among same-shift patrol teams, information sharing among shifts, and 
avoidance of redundant or overlapping problem-solving efforts. One effort in this 
regard is the implementation of the POP Track system to improve oversight and 
documentation of problem-solving projects. It is anticipated that through this system 
successful problem-solving approaches can be documented and communicated to other 
officers who are addressing similar problems. 

A major effort that facilitates work-group communication is the recently completed 
smart briefing room. The traditional briefing (roll call) room was totally reengineered 
to make it more conducive to discussion and information exchange. Seating 
has been configured to encourage a more participative atmosphere. A problem-solving board 
for each district has been created to facilitate communication within and 
across shifts about current problem-solving efforts. Maps and other problem-solving 
information will be displayed. In addition, the room is equipped with a state-of-theart 
projection system for presentations and training. The redesign of this room, 
including the selection and acquisition of equipment and furnishings, was conducted 
entirely by patrol officers. 

The police department has also revised its executive-level staff meetings so that they 
focus more upon substantive problems in the community and efforts being implemented to 
deal with them, instead of focusing solely on internal administrative problems. This 
expanded focus helps to coordinate efforts being undertaken by officers 
and units in different parts of the agency. Officers are often invited to conduct 
presentations about their projects. In addition, this orientation provides a forum for 
officers to showcase their problem-solving efforts and demonstrates to them the importance 
placed on these activities by the command staff. The department has not gone 



so far as to implement a COMPSTAT approach like that used in New York City, but it 
seems to be attempting to gain the advantages of this type of approach. 

5.4 Environmental Scanning 

Environmental scanning is a growing activity that resonates in the Reno Police 
Department since Reno is a rapidly growing community. The department gets information 
from city demographers and participates in the city planning process with 
respect to specific residential and commercial development proposals. The police 
department also participates in the citys strategic planning process, which requires 
the preparation of annual one- and five-year plans. 

On a more short-term and tactical basis, the department engages in several types of 
activities that have some connection to environmental scanning. These include close 
coordination with Renos many special events, close liaison with gaming establishments, 
regular interaction with State and Federal gaming regulators, and participation 
in a multi-agency task force focused on technology-related crime. 

5.5 Problem Orientation 

The department has implemented POP Track, as discussed previously, to help support 
and coordinate problem-solving efforts. More importantly, the principal focus of the 
departments whole effort to restructure its CAD/RMS system will provide the kind of 
information that officers need in order to identify and analyze problems. It is clear that 
the departments current information and analysis systems have weaknesses that hamper 
officers problem-solving efforts. As already noted, CAD data currently are quite 
meager and difficult to obtain; thus CAD analysis is limited, as is analysis of RMS data 
and mapping. Scanning is mostly based on personal observations, analysis in support 
of problem solving is typically unsystematic, and assessment is often lacking due to the 
unavailability of data. Given this situation, it is perhaps remarkable (and a testament 
to training and other efforts) that some very interesting and innovative problem solving 
takes place in the department. 

It is anticipated that individual officers will significantly increase their use of 
data and analysis once the new CAD/RMS system is implemented. There was every indication on 
site that this was not just wishful thinking. It was clear that many officers are 
chomping at the bit to have data and analysis to support their problem-solving efforts. 
However, as in most agencies shifting to a problem-solving approach, there remain a 
number of officers and supervisors who are not totally on board. In addition, the 
department has not made a substantial investment in crime analysis/problem solving 
(it only has one crime analyst); thus officers cannot expect a great deal of staff 
support. The new system is expected to have a substantial crime analysis component, and 
officers themselves will be able to query the system for routine analysis issues. 
However, it remains to be seen if officers can and will, to any significant extent, adopt 
this additional responsibility in problem solving. 



5.6 Area Accountability 

The department is divided into three geographic districts with a deputy chief responsible 
for each area. In addition, there is a plan to follow this format with a similar 
assignment for lieutenants, shifting them from watch commanders to area commanders. 
This is a new development and there is little experience in the department with 
area accountability. As is no surprise, the current CAD system is of little help in 
meeting the information needs of area commanders. The department does not employ 
area-based work teams (e.g., beat teams) across shifts yet, nor are detectives assigned 
by areas. By and large the department is organized more on a temporal basis than on 
a geographic basis. 

5.7 Strategic Management 

The department maintains a strong strategic planning orientation with an ongoing 
planning process that produces one- and five-year plans, updated annually. With the 
appointment of a new chief about a year ago, the police department began reexamining 
some of its basic management systems and sought to realign them more closely 
with community policing. A particular interest of the chief is the need for training, 
especially field training, to correspond with the organizations community-policing 
strategy. The department has taken steps to implement an aggressive training agenda. 
Also, there is an effort to focus staff meetings more on substantive problems in the 
community rather than on more traditional internal administrative matters. 

Two additional information-related efforts that support strategic management are the 
annual community surveys that ascertain the publics priorities and perceptions, and 
periodic focus groups of officers to obtain information about their perceptions and 
suggestions for changes in the department. 

5.8 Future Plans Related to the Use of Information 

The Reno Police Department has a very strong orientation to problem solving both in 
its philosophy, operational strategy, and personnel practices. To date, however, it has 
not had an adequate information system to support this approach. The anticipated 
new computer system was designed with problem-solving needs in mind and has the 
potential to significantly enhance problem-solving efforts. It will be interesting and 
important to monitor the degree to which this occurs after implementation. Based on 
the commitment and strategic planning evident at the command down to officer level, 
the new system will be utilized heavily for problem solving. 

6 Summary 

6.1 Overall Assessment of Information Technology 

The information technology status of the Reno Police Department is typical of many 
law enforcement agencies. When acquiring the current information system 12 years 
ago, the department lacked sufficient knowledge and experience to specify their needs 
in such a manner as to obtain a system that would work for them. Thus the vendor 



controlled this process. As a result, the system that was obtained focused more on 
record keeping than providing useful information for strategic and operational purposes. 
This system was inadequate for meeting the information needs of traditional 
policing, not to mention the additional analysis needs for problem solving. The 
department has made a considerable transition toward fully implementing problem 
solving, but it lacks the information infrastructure to adequately support these efforts. 

This negative experience has informed the design and acquisition of a new CAD and 
RMS system. This new system was designed by the end users through a comprehensive 
process based upon work groups that were facilitated by a competent consultant. 
Although this process was likely not as detailed or comprehensive as that followed by 
the Charlotte/Mecklenburg department, it followed a similar pattern and had a similar 
commitment to producing information that is useful for both strategic and operational 
uses in a problem-solving context. 

The Reno Police Department has implemented problem solving throughout the 
department to a great extent and certainly is in a national leadership position 
regarding this approach to policing. The new information technology system has 
considerable potential to significantly enhance these efforts and assist the 
organization in completing this transition. 

Reno Police Departments Best Practices 

Three areas can be identified as best practices from the Reno experience from which 
other departments can benefit. The first is the use of a qualified consultant to 
facilitate their design and acquisition of the new information system. Reno learned a 
painful but valuable lesson from the acquisition of its last system, in which it was 
victimized by its own lack of knowledge and by vendors not really interested in meeting 
the departments needs. In the current process a consultant with considerable experience 
in law enforcement data systems and a working knowledge of a wide range of 
vendors was contracted to facilitate and manage this process. By all accounts, these 
services were invaluable and a major key in acquiring a system that will meet their 
needs. 

Second, the planning and design process for the new system was guided by end users. 
This will ensure that the potential for meeting the information needs for problem 
solving, investigations, and other operational functions will be maximized. Although Reno 
did not have much exposure to work-group facilitation, the use of end-user groups to 
facilitate this planning process was paramount. 

Third, the departments routine use of citizen surveys for feedback about their performance 
and the identification of problems is unique. While many departments have 
used surveys from time to time, Reno has routinized this process to provide annual 
data. Although it would be helpful to increase the sample size to allow generalizations 
about specific neighborhoods, this survey has proved to be an important source of 
information. 



Chapter 6

Police Department

Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project 

ISTEP 

Case Study: CharlotteMecklenburg, 
North Carolina 
April 1999 

Prepared for 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 
Program/Policy Support and Evaluation Division 
1100 Vermont Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20530 

Project Director 
Terence Dunworth, Ph.D. 

Prepared by 
Jack Greene, Ph.D. 
Charlotte Site Leader 
Tim Bynum, Ph.D. 
Shawn Ward 

Abt Associates Inc. 
55 Wheeler Street 
Cambridge, MA 02138 


Contents 

CharlotteMecklenburg Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 

1 Purpose and Scope of Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 

2 Police Department Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 
2.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 
2.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 
2.3 Extent of Departmental Efforts in Community Policing . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 
    Solicitation of Citizen Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126 
    Geographic Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 
    Emphasis on Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 
    Emphasis on Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 
    Problem-Solving Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129 
    Adoption of Community-Oriented Policing Management Styles . . . . . . . . . .130 
2.4 Community-Oriented Policing Training and Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . .130 
    Beat Officer Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130 
    Supervisory Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 

3 Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131 
3.1 Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 
3.2 Historical Review of Department Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . .138 
3.3 Information Systems Currently Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 
3.4 Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing . . . . . . . . . . 140 
    Operations Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 
    Command and Control Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140 
    Management Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 
3.5 Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing . . . . . . . . . 141 
    Geographic Information Systems (GIS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 
    Problem-Solving Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141 
    External Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 
3.6 Relationships and Experience with Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142 

4 Analysis Methods Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143 
4.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143 
    Crime Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 
    Operations Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143 
    Intelligence Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144 
    Administrative Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144 
4.2 Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 
    Community Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 
    Problem Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 
    Future Initiatives Related to Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 



5 Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 
5.1 Community Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145 
5.2 Inter-Organizational Linkages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146 
5.3 Work-Group Facilitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146 
5.4 Environmental Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 
5.5 Problem Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 
5.6 Area Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 
5.7 Strategic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 
5.8 Future Plans Related to Information Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 

6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148 
6.1 Overall Assessment of Information Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 
6.2 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Departments Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . 148 



Charlotte-Mecklenburg Highlights 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is a countywide police agency serving 
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, one of the fastest growing counties in the United 
States. Prior to 1993, both the county and the city of Charlotte had independent police 
agencies. On October 1, 1993 the two police agencies were merged, and for the past 
five years the integration of both forces has been ongoing. 

During the merge, command staff restructured administration and operations around 
what the department has defined community-problem oriented policing (CPOP). 
The Community Safety Plan, a document that outlined the general model for reform 
within the department, was developed to set the overall direction of this new 
organization and the implementation of CPOP. Today, the department is one of the most 
respected community policing agencies in the country. 

Charlotte-Mecklenburg has impressive technology emerging to support CPOP. The 
Knowledge-Based Community Oriented Policing System, or KB-COPS, will be among 
other things, an information system that stores problems and their resolutions, as well 
as a system to prompt police officers in the field as to how they might pursue future 
responses. The Future Alert and Contact Network (FALCON) allows officers to link 
multiple databases, identify a set of events or conditions that would trigger information, 
and then act on the information provided. Once a designated condition or 
event has occurred, the FALCON system will automatically notify the officer 
of the situation either by e-mail or by pager. The department sees such a system as making the 
problem identification and resolution function, which is at the heart of any community 
policing effort, more proactive. 

These unique information systems were not created by accident. Considerable vision 
and intense planning was involved in the departments development of top-notch technology. 
The Master Information System Plan, published in 1996, set the stage for technology development. 
This plan was developed with the assistance of a technology consultant from a local 
university with expertise in public sector information resource 
management. To develop the plan, the department conducted an in-depth information 
needs assessment of end users. To carry out the plan, however, the department assembled a 
strong team of experienced and dedicated technical and management personnel to turn the vision into a reality. 

The department has also keenly managed the high risks associated with public sector 
information system acquisition and implementation. They developed an aggressive 
technology contract strategy and hired an attorney to draft and review all city 
technology contracts. This strategy has sought to decrease ambiguity in vendor contracts 
and place the city in a position to demand the contract detail and specifications 
necessary to make technology projects successful. 



Purpose and Scope of Report 

This case study is one of several produced for the Information Systems Technology 
Enhancement Project (ISTEP), a project funded by the Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services. The aim of ISTEP is to increase the use of information and information 
technology in police departments, particularly regarding the implementation 
of community policing. The case studies document the current state of information 
technology and the use of information in five police departments: Tempe Arizona; San 
Diego, California; Hartford, Connecticut; Reno, Nevada; and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, 
North Carolina. These case studies are based on a limited review of the status of 
information technology in the departments. A separate cross-site report synthesizes the 
findings of the individual case studies. A report on the projects conceptual framework 
presents the overall ISTEP approach and discusses how community policing demands 
different types of information systems, analysis methods, and uses of information than 
those required under the professional-era model of policing. 

This case study is based on information collected through interviews with key organizational 
personnel, a review of planning and technology documents and other information supplied by 
the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, and ride-alongs 
with police personnel in several patrol areas throughout Charlotte. Additional information 
about the department and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region was obtained 
from the Internet and the Web sites of both the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police 
Department and city/county government. 

This report is based, in part, on three site visits to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police 
Department conducted by members of the ISTEP team. The first visit occurred on 
March 2-3, 1998, and focused primarily on interviews with the chief of the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Police Department and a technology consultant to the police department 
working on the design and implementation of a technology plan for the department. 
These interviews focused on understanding technology development and gaining a 
better understanding of the organization and administration of the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Police Department. The technology consultant is responsible for the 
design of the technology plan the department is pursuing, and the chief is the central 
figure in the reengineering of the police department and its adoption of a form of 
community- and problem-oriented policing (CPOP). 

The second site visit to Charlotte took place July 13-15, 1998, when additional information 
about the departments pursuit of its technology plan was acquired and field 
work was conducted to better understand Charlottes version of community-oriented 
policing. During this visit the research team spent time in the field in the David 
Patrol Division, a patrol area that abuts the downtown portion of the City of Charlotte. 

The third and final visit to Charlotte occurred October 19-21, 1998, when most of the 
effort focused on understanding field operations and the decentralized form of management 
and operations the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has been 
attempting to adopt. Follow-up information on technology development and some of 
the training associated with technology was also pursued during this site visit. In par



ticular, this visit included an interview with persons in the citys Information 
Technology Services (ITS) to explore the linkage between the police departments 
pursuit of technology and the efforts of the city and county to support and promote 
integrated technology use. During this visit, time was also spent with a major, who 
oversees technology development and links these efforts to the line operations of the 
department. 

The organization of this case study document follows the overall conceptual framework 
for the ISTEP project. Accordingly, after providing background information on 
the police department in Section 2, particularly with respect to implementation of 
community policing, the case study describes current and planned information systems 
(Section 3), analysis methods (Section 4), and uses of information (Section 5). 
Section 6 summarizes our findings. 

2 Police Department Background 

2.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is a countywide police agency serving 
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, one of the fastest growing counties in the United 
States. In 1980 the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area had an estimated population of 
approximately 720,000 persons. By 1998 the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill 
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) had an estimated population in excess of 1.3 million 
people. Located near the border separating North and South Carolina, Charlotte 
and Mecklenburg County are in the center of the countrys sixth largest urban region, 
with nearly 6 million people living within a 100-mile radius of Charlotte. In 1998 
Mecklenburg County had 245,200 households with a median household income of 
$41,461. The past 10 years of economic growth in this area has been accompanied 
by a $3.7 billion growth associated with new businesses. Charlotte is fast becoming a 
major regional banking center, with Bank of America (Nations Bank) and First Union 
Corporation being among the largest employers in the region. In addition, US Airways 
and several regional and national health care providers have anchored in Charlotte. 
In 1997 the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area had an unemployment rate of 2.6 percent, 
well below that of the State and the nation. 

Prior to 1993, the county and the city of Charlotte each had an independent police 
agency. The county operated primarily in the rural parts of Mecklenburg County, while 
the city police department operated as a larger, urban-focused police agency. On 
October 1, 1993, the two police agencies merged, and for the past five years the 
integration of the two forces has been ongoing. At the same time, the police department 
has been restructuring administration and operations around community- and problem-oriented 
policing concepts. Because the two previous police agencies (county 
and city) had developed different cultures and styles, there has been a considerable 
struggle to fit these two agencies together. 

In 1994 a new chief of police was selected and appointed Chief of Police over the 
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, and since that time he has been involved 
in integrating and upgrading the two forces into one police department. Currently, 



there are approximately 1,300 police officers in this agency, and an increase to about 
1,500 sworn personnel has been authorized. Prior to the new chiefs arrival, the 
department was described as very traditional, with a somewhat small-town focus. This 
is consistent with the county and citys experience with growth. As previously indicated, 
about 20 years ago the Charlotte area was a small town in central North Carolina. 
Several banks and their attendant service industries have relocated to Charlotte and 
growth in the area has been significant. This is both a problem and a boon for the 
police department. On the downside, the area has grown so rapidly that simply keeping 
up with the growth is a major task. On the upside, the growth has been accompanied by 
increasing revenue and support for local agencies, especially the police 
department. The chief has managed to link local spending for police services with a 
wide array of external funding, including considerable funding from the Office of 
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and the National Institute of Justice 
(NIJ). These funding streams have converged to help support both technological 
development and the expansion of community- and problem-oriented policing in 
Charlotte. 

Since 1994 the department has witnessed a significant amount of change, including, 
but not limited to, the building of a new central police facility, the redistricting 
of service areas and districts to better align them with natural communities, and 
the introduction of a form of community policing that stresses decentralized decision making 
and accountability and the empowerment of local commanders and police officers 
to solve and address local community crime and disorder problems. Also occurring 
during this time was the planning, design, and implementation of a rather complex 
technology plan. Many of those interviewed were genuinely excited by all of the 
changes they have seen in the period between 1994 and the present, while at the same 
time many suggested that this chief never sleeps. 

The county is divided into four service areas (Adam, Baker, Charlie, and David). Each 
service area is subdivided into three smaller districts. Districts are then subdivided 
into response areas. A deputy chief heads each service area, while a captain heads 
each district. The departments rank structure has only five levels of management and 
does not include the rank of lieutenant. In addition to the four deputy chiefs assigned 
to the departments four service areas, there is a deputy chief assigned to the 
Investigations Division and a deputy chief assigned to administration, overseeing such 
functions as budgeting, training, and support services. 

Since coming to Charlotte, the chief has emphasized a decentralized style of management, 
giving considerable autonomy to each service area and district. Wrapped in the 
cloak of community- and problem-oriented policing, the department seeks to build 
partnerships, open communications, and address a wide range of crime, order, and 
quality-of-life issues in neighborhoods. 

The organizational structure and process of decentralized decision making within the 
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, while interesting, is also a significant 
complicating factor in the implementation of both CPOP and the technology envisioned by 
the department. All interviewed have extremely high expectations for the technology 



once it is fully operational. In many respects they expect the technology to help routinize 
departmental functioning, while at the same time enabling a wide array of information to be 
brought to bear on tactical decision making and operations. 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department received 707,542 E-911 calls for service in 1998. 
The department responded to 517,375 calls by dispatching an officer to 
the scene or by taking a telephone report. The remaining calls were transferred to 
Fire or Medic. Between 1997 and 1998 the city and county experienced a decline in 
most Part 1 violent crimes. Overall, violent crime declined by 8.5 percent between 
1997 and 1998, with reported rapes down 6.5 percent, robberies falling by 17.4 percent, 
and aggravated assaults declining by 5.1 percent. Property crime in Charlotte-
Mecklenburg County increased by 1.2 percent between 1997 and 1998, although in 
1998 arson, auto theft, and residential burglary were below those reported in 1997. 

2.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background 

The department has been going through a significant transformation process that 
began in 1993 and continues to the present. The various levels of change within the 
department are, or should be, producing a need for better and more timely information at 
both the administrative and operational levels. More importantly, the changes 
within the department are seen as furthering the adoption of CPOP, the particular mix 
of community- and problem-oriented policing being implemented in Charlotte. This 
style of policing has several distinct elements in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police 
Department. 

Decentralization of the department has resulted in area commanders (deputy chiefs, 
majors, and captains) being tasked with improving the quality of life and safety of the 
residents and businesses in those respective areas. The department is attempting to 
shift to a results-oriented system of productivity review: the chief continues to stress 
that area commanders should be responsive to community needs, including crime, 
while at the same time being creative in solving local problems. Some interviewed are 
concerned that the decentralization of the department effectively creates four (five, 
including the central headquarters) police departments in Charlotte. This is in fact the 
case, where police service areas and indeed districts appear to be in competition with 
one another as to the style of policing they will adopt. In the long term these distinctions 
will be important across the organization. Basically, they center on whether 
community policing will be a generalist or specialist function within the respective 
service areas and districts. Initially, community coordinators were created in all of the 
service areas and districts to start the process of focusing on CPOP within the department. 
Certain service areas, such as the David Service Area, would like to continue the specialist 
model, while others, like the Charlie Service Area, focus on broadening 
responsibility for CPOP throughout the patrol force. In fact, much of the technology 
that is being implemented in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is likely 
to require more line officer involvement in CPOP efforts. 

Many interviewed anticipate that the technology will help in coordinating and integrating 
activities and initiatives across the four service areas and twelve districts. One 



of the initial applications planned for the department is e-mail capability, to better 
link command personnel with central headquarters as well as with one another. The 
department does have biweekly meetings of command personnel to review plans, 
make necessary adjustments, and to discuss crime and problem-solving activities. In 
one interview it was indicated that the command staff is slowly coming around to a 
process of accountability and responsibility for being on top of local problems and 
issues. Most thought that information technology, including a new records management 
system (RMS), would greatly assist this process. At the two command meetings 
attended, however, it was clear that there is considerable variation in command officer 
understanding of and facility with CPOP activities. Moreover, it was clear in several 
interviews that there is still considerable internal discussion about the direction of 
the department and its adoption of CPOP strategies. Part of the struggle, no doubt, has 
been associated with the integration of two rather dissimilar police agencies that 
began in 1993 and continues today. Vestiges of both of the older policing systems 
continue to slow or otherwise alter the adoption of the proposed CPOP strategies in the 
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. 

At the operational level, the department has created processes to increase police 
officer and field demands for better information. In Charlotte, police officers are 
permanently assigned to their response areas, and the stability of these assignments 
was stated to be quite high. All of the departments police officers and field managers (i.e., 
sergeants), as well as communications personnel (i.e., dispatchers and telecommunications 
specialists) have also received CPOP training (described below) following 
the four-step SARA model (scanning, analysis, response, and assessment). Field forces 
are now tasked with identifying problems and then resolving them. This typically takes 
the form of police officers identifying problems, and then asking their sergeants for 
the necessary time (off the radio) to resolve the problem. This problem-solving 
process has itself gone through several transformations within the department. There 
is also an effort afoot in the department to support CPOP interventions and decision 
making with information systems that are smart in that they provide information on 
how problems might be addressed, triggering decision making by officers and administrators. 
KB-COPS (Knowledge-Based Community-Oriented Policing System) is, 
among other things, an information system that will store problems and their 
resolutions, as well as prompt police officers in the field as to how they might 
pursue problem analysis and resolution. FALCON (Future Alert and Contact Network) 
allows officers to link multiple databases, identify a set of events or conditions 
that would trigger information, and then act on the information provided. Once a 
designated condition or event has occurred, the FALCON system will automatically notify 
the officer of the situation either by e-mail or pager. The department sees such a 
system as making the problem identification and resolution function, which is at the 
heart of any community policing effort, more proactive. The sooner that an officer can identify a crime 
pattern, links between cases, or a neighborhood disorder problem that may be the 
root cause of crime, the more likely that it can be solved before it has significant 
negative impact on a neighborhood. 

Some of this experimentation with using technology to assist decision making is also 
occurring within selected service areas. For example, in the Adam Service Area a com



puter program building a problem-solving database has been created. There is considerable 
excitement in that service area that such a database will be useful to all of 
the departments line personnel once the radio and telecommunications/data systems 
are fully operational. Currently, community coordinators in the Adam Area work on 
problem solving and log the results of these efforts into this system. Over time, it is 
anticipated that the results of such input will point to methods for problem resolution 
that are specific to particular types of crime and disorder problems. 

As previously indicated, CPOP was initially a specialist function within districts. 
Community coordinators were identified as the point of contact between the department 
and the community in each district. These persons typically had little responsibility 
for radio assignments, freeing their time for community policing activities. The 
specialization of CPOP has drawn fire in the department, separating out radio 
response officers from these community coordinators. In some of the districts, captains 
have eliminated these positions in favor of a more generalized approach to CPOP. 
In other districts this has yet to happen. The implementation of CPOP across districts 
is currently uneven, and often linked to the personality, experience, and buy-in of 
the district captain. Furthermore, it was indicated that the level of CPOP within districts 
also often varied by shifts, with some shifts (typically the day shift) more closely 
associated with CPOP and the night and evening shifts perhaps less attached to these ideas. 
Nonetheless, the training of all personnel in problem solving and the migration of this 
style of policing throughout the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department have created 
demands for useful and timely information. 

2.3 Extent of Departmental Efforts in Community Policing 

Solicitation of Citizen Input 

The Charlotte city government and Mecklenburg county government appear to 
emphasize citizen involvement and obtaining feedback on government services. They 
have a website and enumerate several ways for citizens to get involved with government 
functions and specific departments. This orientation obviously affects the police 
department and its operations as well. 

Within service areas there is considerable citizen involvement and attachment. The 
community coordinators are expected to service community concerns either directly 
or through some coordination of line officer activities in the affected districts. Service 
areas and districts also handle considerable walk-in traffic, wherein local residents 
and businesses contact community coordinators directly. Invariably this process also 
involves attendance at community meetings, as well as surveying residents and businesses 
concerning crime and disorder problems. Crime information for each service 
area and district is made available via the Internet, and the department has gone to 
considerable lengths to get information out to its many constituents. 

To better understand community attitudes and expectations of the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Police Department, a telephone survey of a random sample of 858 



households was conducted between April and May of 1995. This information provided a good 
assessment of community expectations about the police as well as the level 
of satisfaction the community had with the amount and scope of police services being 
provided. This information was collected as part of the Community Safety Plan, a document 
that outlined the general model for reform of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police 
Department (described below). The survey information continues to influence departmental 
decision making. Data from the survey were also analyzed for the uptown area 
of Charlotte. Here the focus was on feelings of safety. These types of activities suggest 
that the department has a program to actively encourage citizen participation and 
input into the departments activities and decisions. 

Another illustration of community involvement is Charlottes Citizens Training 
Academy that was implemented in September 1994. This mini-police academy is 
designed to familiarize the community with police work and the policies and practices 
of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Forty-nine hours of instruction are 
provided to interested citizens who attend the academy. The department also has a 
Citizens Review Board, a civic body that reviews police practices and behavior. 

Geographic Focus 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has a considerable investment in programs, 
systems, and technology emphasizing a geographic focus. Currently the 
department uses ArcView for its geographic information system (GIS) software. The 
capability of the GIS was initially limited by the current CAD system, which was said to 
have too few categories for meaningful analysis. This problem has been resolved with 
the acquisition of a new CAD system, planned for installation in mid to late 2000. 

Crime analysis is provided systematically throughout the department, although it is not 
clear how much of the information is actually used as a support for problem solving 
tactically. It should be noted that this is an organization in transition and, while many 
of the buzzwords might be in place, it remains to be seen if this technology is being 
systematically used in the field. It is clear, however, that crime analysis is used to 
assist the chief in keeping area and district commanders informed and accountable for the 
level of crime and disorder in their respective areas. Moreover, it was clear that crime 
analysis and the use of geographically based information is likely to become the centerpiece 
of patrol functioning in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in the 
years to come. The central question is not whether this is to happen, but how, and at 
what rate of implementation. Currently, crime analysts are assigned responsibility for 
area and district commands, increasing the likelihood that they will become familiar 
with local needs and capable of delivering information that will be useful locally. 

The Strategic Planning and Analysis Bureau oversees the analytic functions in the 
department and provides support in the field for GIS applications. GIS applications are 
used to support CPOP in several ways. First, they serve as automated pin mapping systems 
that identify locations of crimes, arrests, drug complaints, and a wide range of 
other problems for which citizens mobilize the police. This information is displayed 



on maps for the field forces; and citizens can download crime patterns for their police 
districts from the departments website. Second, GIS applications are used to identify 
crime hot spots by stacking calls for service and crime in particular locations. 

One interesting application of this process was conducted in the Grier Heights Project 
using police data from January and February of 1995. The Grier Heights Project established 
a model for hot spot analysis in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. 
The project integrated land use maps and calls-for-service data. This project is seen 
as a way to model problem solving throughout the city and county, and it is anticipated 
that this type of analysis will ultimately be used through laptop telecommunications 
linkages within patrol cars deployed through the city and county. 

Finally, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has formed a partnership with 
the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), the National Center for 
Geographic Information Analysis at SUNY Buffalo, and the City of Salinas Police 
Department. This partnership is meant to further test and develop GIS applications in 
a police environment, particularly in police agencies emphasizing community-oriented policing. 

Emphasis on Prevention 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, while still primarily a response-driven police 
department, has begun to shift operations and functions toward prevention 
as opposed to interdiction. The department has active crime prevention units as well 
as domestic violence units that are considerably focused on crime prevention. 
Moreover, the use of community coordinators in service areas and districts focuses 
attention on crime prevention and communication between the department and its 
communities. The department has a website that provides a substantial amount of 
information about preventing crime, and by all accounts preventing the next crime 
is a theme that the chief is attempting to drive into the organization. 

It appears that there is considerable time available for community coordinators and 
indeed, patrol officers, to engage in crime prevention activities. Moreover, it appears 
that the department encourages this, and as officers become more involved in problem 
solving, they will, of necessity, need and use more crime prevention information. 
Finally, the information systems being developed and implemented will also include 
crime prevention information. For example, it is anticipated that the KB-COPS system 
will lead the police officer through the information requirements for completing 
problem analysis and investigating criminal events. At the same time, the system will 
provide the officer with relevant crime prevention information. 

Emphasis on Partnerships 

In several interviews it was stated that much of the impetus for CPOP came from the 
former city manager, who announced that the department would indeed pursue these 
ideas. He was also instrumental in merging the two police agencies, and has created 
a climate of interaction among city agencies that can be described as focused on 
neighborhood service delivery. The commitment to CPOP has continued with the new 



city manager. It was also stated that relationships among city agencies in Charlotte 
were historically good owing to the small-town mentality of the city and the social and 
political culture that had grown up in the city over the years. These commitments, 
patterns of historic interaction, and a supporting political culture were described as 
helping to push the department down the CPOP path, while the department internally 
was also pulling the city into a community-government service delivery pattern. 
In essence, the circumstances in Charlotte seem rather supportive (internally and 
externally) of the introduction of a significant technology development plan in the 
police department as well as of the spread of community-oriented government in the 
city and county. 

At the operational level, a considerable number of local partnerships have been 
formed. In the Adam Service Area, several city and county services are actually on-site 
in what could be called a mini-city hall, or one-stop service delivery center. Paying 
water bills, speaking with streets and recreational department personnel, talking with 
case workers from social services, and interacting with the police can all occur in one 
location. This station was seen as a model for the city; others have yet to be built, 
however, in the remaining service areas. Nonetheless, it is clear that the city and county 
governments stress partnerships, most particularly the city government. During several 
interviews it was obvious that command and operational personnel are well linked 
to other agencies and have regular communication with them. 

Problem-Solving Orientation 

While there is considerable evidence that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police 
Department has made significant strides in pursuing problem solving, it is not clear 
that such efforts have, to any great extent, permeated the police department as a 
whole, most particularly the patrol function. This is not a function of lack of effort, 
but rather of the need for many systems to come together, and for there to be enough time 
for officers to reorganize themselves from traditional to problem-oriented policing. 

By all accounts, problem solving in Charlotte still is vested largely in community coordinators, 
although in some service areas, such as Charlie, an effort is afoot to generalize police 
responsibility for problem-solving to all operational personnel. As a result of training 
in CPOP, personnel are beginning to be more responsible for crime and 
disorder in their respective areas of responsibility. The crime analysis functions of the 
department are sophisticated and are now becoming more line oriented, and the technology 
supporting laptops in patrol cars is now coming on line. Laptops were 
deployed during the summer and early fall of 1998, but the telecommunications linkages and 
the support of wide and local area networks had yet to be implemented. This 
left the officers in the field capable of typing reports on their laptops and downloading 
those reports at service area or district stations; but the system available to them 
was not yet, by design, capable of more sophisticated functions. Those interviewed in 
the department thought that this period would be useful for officers to learn to use the 
laptops and to become more comfortable with them before they were required to use 
them extensively in their work. The implementation of this project is expected to be 
completed by the summer of 1999. 



Adoption of Community-Oriented Policing Management Styles 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is making the transition from traditional 
to community- and problem-oriented policing. As previously noted, the department has 
invested in many of the systems and programs associated with CPOP and has 
begun to develop a management system that reflects a decentralized and results-
oriented style of management. But the department is still struggling with its merger, its 
change of location to a new station, the growth in the area, and a wide array of internal 
changes and interventions that are associated with moving the department closer 
to CPOP. As a result, the management of the department still struggles with the content 
and process of CPOP. The chief and certainly several of the command personnel 
have bought into this program, although it is not clear how far reaching that buy-in is 
with respect to other command personnel and downward through the ranks of the 
department. 

2.4 Community-Oriented Policing Training and Assessment 

Beat Officer Training 

The department has quite an elaborate training agenda that is heavily invested in 
CPOP. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Training Academy is located on a 100-acre 
campus in southwest Charlotte. The training academy houses recruit and in-service 
training for the department. Currently, basic law enforcement training involves 675 
hours of instruction over an 18-week course of study. In addition to traditional police 
courses, the academy provides extensive training on effective communications, diversity, 
problem-oriented policing, and computer proficiency. With the introduction of 
laptops to the department, personnel are required to pass computer proficiency tests 
to assure that they know how to use the computers they are issued. 

In-service training is also required at 40 hours annually. The topics used in the 
Advanced Law Enforcement Readiness Training (ALERT) include effective communication, 
problem solving, and team building, as well as tactical and legal coursework. 
The department also offers a wide range of courses supporting its technology 
interventions. These courses include Introduction to Personal Computers, Internet Usage, 
Microsoft Windows NT, WordPerfect, Microsoft Office Suite, Outlook 98, and Offense 
Reporting Systems. Through its Technology Lab, the department teaches recruits, officers, 
and civilian personnel computer operating systems and commercial applications designed 
for the department. Much of this training is in preparation for the 
implementation of a system of portable telecommunications through the use of lap-
tops in patrol cars. In addition, the department has gone to considerable effort to 
create training manuals and have them copyrighted. The manuals are very professional 
and attest to the large amount of thought and program development going into the 
preparation of officers. 

Supervisory Training 

Supervisory training has followed a pattern similar to the other types of training in the 
department. All supervisors have received CPOP training as well as training in new 



management techniques and the use of technology. The department has spent considerable 
resources sending supervisory and management personnel to outside training 
programs and has created a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Institute to bring training 
to the Charlotte area at minimal cost. The Institute was founded in 1995 and is built 
as a regional partnership to offer nationally recognized training. 

In addition to local and regional training, the chief is well integrated into the larger 
police development and professional movement and regularly sends supervisory and 
command personnel to national programs. The department personnel are also sought 
after to participate in programs, often as instructors. 

Community- and problem-oriented policing are clearly emphasized in all of the 
departments external presentations, as well as in the internal style to which personnel 
should be directing their efforts and behavior. The department is moving along 
several paths simultaneously, including decentralizing operations, increasing internal 
analytic and communications functions, re-engineering basic systems, building intelligence 
systems to support CPOP, and increasing interaction with other agencies and 
with the community at large. These efforts place the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police 
Department in a powerful position with regard to changing the style of policing and 
its services to the area. As the department is in transition, many of these functions and 
efforts will need to be completed. 

Information Systems 

In the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, organizational leadership is primarily 
driving technology. Prior to the planning and implementation process associated 
with technology, the department had not invested a great deal in technology information 
systems or other apparatus that would facilitate the style of CPOP toward which it 
is now turning. In fact, the past systems were merely maintenance systems, largely in 
support of a very traditional style of policing. Much of what was there was home 
grown, and the applications available were not very sophisticated. These applications 
were also not integrated across the department. 

In 1994 the department published its Community Safety Plan (1994), a document that 
outlined public safety needs in the city and the county. This document indicated that 
violent crime was rising, youth crime was also becoming more complicated and significant, 
and the area had a high level of drug and alcohol abuse that was associated 
with increased crime. The Community Safety Plan outlined a course of action involving 
short-term responses to crime, including a violent crime task force, creating a 
juvenile crime unit, expanding street-level drug interdiction, and creating and 
deploying domestic violence teams. In addition, the Community Safety Plan set the stage for 
CPOP. As such, this plan was a type of blueprint that addressed immediate operational 
realignment as well as longer-term organizational reform, including information system reform. 

The central goals for the department as outlined in the Community Safety Plan were 
to: 



1. Decrease the rate of crime and increase the perception of community 
safety through neighborhood based service. 
2. Decrease the rate of violent crime. 
3. Decrease the rate of crime committed by youth. 
4. Decrease the rate of substance abuse-related crime. 
5. Decrease the rate of repeat offender crime. 
6. Ensure the most efficient utilization of public resources in combating 
crime. 
7. Develop and conduct an annual evaluation process (1994). 


These goals undergirded the subsequent planning for technology refinement in the 
department. Specifically, the Plans explanation of goal #6 included several references 
to improved technology. Three action plans included in this goal cited the need to: 

1. Conduct a police information study and develop a comprehensive 
information management system (action plan 14). 
2. Support a statewide integrated Criminal Justice Information System 
(action plan 15). 
3. Support locally the development of the Mecklenburg County integrated 
criminal justice information system. 


As part of his reform strategy, the chief enlisted the support of two faculty members 
from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte (UNCC). This university assistance was 
focused on the planning and research needs of the department and was largely 
responsible for the Community Safety Plan, thereby setting the stage for further 
refinement in planning throughout the department. 

The first faculty member was brought in to reorganize and improve the Crime Analysis 
and Planning Units. These units were eventually combined into the Research, Planning 
and Analysis Bureau. This faculty member made a significant contribution by establishing 
GIS mapping as his first initiative and is now the director of the bureau. 

The second faculty person was brought in at a later time as the information and technology 
consultant. The technology consultant, an information and technology specialist at UNCC, 
was encouraged to work with the department in assessing technology 
needs and creating a technology plan. The technology consultant has been with the 
department for more than three years. Last year she worked in the department full 
time. She is currently under contract through the end of May 2000. 

While the Community Safety Plan set the stage for reform in the department, a subsequent 
report, the Master Information System Plan published in 1996, has set the stage 
for technology development in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County. This plan was developed by 
the technology consultant as an assessment of current systems, applications, 
and needs and as a blueprint for the development of a technology trajectory in the 
department. 

The Master Information System Plan (hereafter referred to as the System Plan) served 
several functions in the department to bring technology issues to the forefront. Each 



of these functions can be seen as contributing to an ongoing and systematic internal 
discussion about the departments path to CPOP as well as technology development in 
support of that path. 

First, the expertise of this outside consultant is not likely to have been available 
within the department, since most of the staff were associated with the older department, 
had been primarily trained in older technologies, and were often swamped with maintaining 
the older systems in the department. Given the technology consultants expertise, for the 
first time the department was able to systematically evaluate its technology, and at a 
significantly lower cost than would have been the case had an outside consulting firm been 
brought in to conduct this analysis. Moreover, as a continuation of 
the planning and strategic management of the department, the System Plan helped to 
continue the planning path already developed; at the same time, it was seen as an 
internally derived assessment of the departments needs, capabilities, and desires 
regarding technology development. This sense of ownership, of course, improved the 
chances of the report being accepted and acted upon internally. 

Second, given the methodology used by the technology consultant in conducting the 
assessment of users (she used focus groups, key person interviews, and survey 
instruments), the department was able to begin to draw users into the discussion of 
technology. As a result, two ongoing ad hoc groups, the Records Management 
Committee and the Laptop Committee, became systematically involved in the definition, 
design, implementation, and ultimately the assessment of the technology to be 
introduced in the department. In addition, several spin-off efforts (or, more appropriately, 
allied efforts) have also occurred as a result of this initial, assessment-ofusers process. 
For example, this effort pointed to the need to better analyze and map the business 
processes of the department. Working with the TRW consulting 
firm, a reengineering process was implemented in the department that examined all 
of the departments functions and processes. Over several months a rather large committee 
(upwards of 30 people) met, often for a full week at a time, to discuss and 
review departmental processes. This resulted in the creation of a Process Mapping 
Unit in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, which is now completing a 
publication mapping out all of the departments processes. In many regards this has 
had the effect of infusing an analytic perspective within the department, which, perhaps, 
was not there in the past. 

Third, the System Plan served as a means for the department to significantly upgrade 
its telecommunications and computing (information management and analysis) functions and to 
build a path that could be pursued within the department to achieve these 
goals. It is significant that the technology consultant designed and is now overseeing 
the implementation of the system. All too often such efforts are confronted with the 
disjuncture between those who design and build the system (typically those outside of 
the department) and those who must implement and ultimately work with the system 
on a continuing basis. The arrangement in Charlotte-Mecklenburg appears to create 
a more stable and continuous basis for systems design and implementation. 

The System Plan developed in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County is built on a four-stage 
planning model outlined in Turban, McLean, and Wetherbes Information Technology 



for Management (John Wiley, New York, 1996). The model begins with a strategic 
analysis followed by assessments of organizational information resource requirements. 
From these materials a resource allocation plan is developed and specific 
project plans are then derived. 

The result of this System Plan is the design and implementation of an eightfold strategy 
to increase and enhance technology in support of CPOP in Charlotte-Mecklenburg 
County. This eightfold strategy includes the following: 

1. Design, acquisition, and implementation of a new CAD system for the 
department. 
2. Expanded training for departmental members for the use of technology in furtherance 
of both decentralized management and tactical community- and problem-oriented policing. 
3. Acquisition and deployment of 1,200 laptops, one to each police officer in the department, 
which are seen as the platform for officer decision making and problem solving. 
4. Creation of both a LAN and a WAN system to integrate management and 
record keeping within the department. 
5. Installation of modems in patrol vehicles to accommodate the transmission of 
data/information directly from cars to the central computing 
facilities in the department, thereby eliminating the approach of downloading 
data from disks often used by other departments. 
6. Acquisition and implementation of a mobile data communication system, a significant portion 
of which will be overseen and managed as an 
out-source project. 
7. Design and field testing of application programs, including KB-COPS 
and computer-aided dispatch (CAD), in furtherance of the laptop and 
mobile communications components of the plan. 
8. Creation of a support system necessary to maintain and support the 
other components of this strategy. 


This is a very ambitious undertaking in the department, one that has affected the 
organization of information and computer services in the department, and one that is 
likely to have a significant impact on the department in the future. At present, much 
of the effort has been directed to planning and acquiring contracts with vendors. In 
the months to come, the results of these efforts are to be rolled out by the department 
and overseen by an expanding technology component within the department. 

The Community Safety Plan and the System Plan are publicly disseminated documents 
that outline technology as having a significant role in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg 
Police Department. As previously indicated, the Community Safety Plan had several 
action plans specifically focused on enhancing technology. The System Plan is completely 
focused on these activities. Moreover, the departments Mission Statement 
includes the idea that the department strives to prevent the next crime (implying an 
analytic focus), and indicates that communications and problem solving are central 
features of its organizational efforts to make Charlotte a safer place. 



Since the department has initiated its efforts with outside (UNCC) support, it is clear 
that it does not believe that it has the internal capability at present to rely too 
heavily on internal resources alone. As mentioned previously, personnel in the Computer 
Technology Services (CTS) unit have programming and some systems design experience 
(see Section 3.1, about staffing), and the department is seeking to build its inhouse capability. 

Where the department has been willing to take risks is in having an internal technology 
consultant provide to the departments leadership (mostly the chief) a wider view 
of technology development and of the external marketplace that might assist the 
department in its quest for an improved information and communications system. The 
risks that the department has taken here are indeed interesting and at times run 
contrary to where others have gone. Two examples are highly relevant. 

The first illustration of the departments risk-taking capacity is related to its laptop 
computer program. Initially, as in many departments, the thought of moving to laptops 
was accompanied by a discussion of how to make them rugged enough to survive field 
implementation. After considerable review and discussion, it was determined that the 
department would forego the process of making the computers rugged (a considerable cost 
in its own right) and opt instead for buying traditional laptop computers. The 
thinking behind this move was associated with three issues. First, it was indicated that 
the cost of making the computers rugged was itself expensive and would ultimately 
limit the growth path of technology (i.e., buying laptops that would conform to the 
rugged encasements). Second, the process of making the laptops rugged apparently 
has the negative byproduct of limiting air circulation around the laptop, and the new 
processors now available (Pentium II) produce heat that limits the life of the chip and 
can result in a faster rate of laptop failure. Third, the cost of making the laptops 
rugged would reduce considerably the number purchased; this, in turn, would 
require that laptops be assigned to cars and not to people. Such an assignment would 
result in no one being responsible for the laptop (they could blame the prior user) 
and, more importantly, the learning curve and acceptance of the new technology 
would be reduced. All of these factors led to a decision to give everyone (patrol personnel) 
a laptop, thereby increasing accountability and perhaps the sense of ownership on the part 
of police officers for their use and for the connection between problem solving and the 
data they will eventually be able to obtain from these information 
systems. 

A second illustration of the risk taking of the department in the platform it is building 
in the telecommunications area is its decision to out-source a significant portion of its 
telecommunications process. Here the following logic was applied. First, while many 
departments seek to control telecommunications systems (particularly data transmission), 
they do so at considerable cost, while at the same time locking themselves into 
a system (and system maintenance costs) that greatly restricts their ability to grow 
along with developments in the telecommunications industry. Instead of pursuing this 
path, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department decided to out-source its 
telecommunications (data transmission only) by establishing a contract with Bell 
Atlantic Mobile for the creation and maintenance of the telecommunications/data 
transmission system. The department will maintain control over the voice telecom



munications system. This will result in the placement of a mobile data transmission/receipt 
modem in each vehicle and the oversight of this system by Bell Atlantic Mobile. It is 
anticipated that such an arrangement will create a more responsive and more flexible 
telecommunications system in the long term. Moreover, since the 
expense for this effort will be a recurring line item in the departments budget, it is 
anticipated that the department will have created the capacity for continual upgrading 
of the system as telecommunications technology changes in the future. 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is in the process of routinizing its 
training for all departmental personnel when it comes to the new system. The general 
model the department is using is to train a cadre of persons who would then be 
sent into the service areas and districts to work locally training police and managerial 
personnel. This will need follow-up to fill in the blanks. What is important is that 
training is a system that the department has included in its implementation plan. 

Laptop support has been out-sourced, and the department is in the process of having 
a vendor establish a repair, swapping, and troubleshooting office in the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Police Department headquarters building. This laptop service center 
will be the prime point of contact in support of the laptop program, primarily the 
hardware aspects of that program. Support for the data transmission component of 
the telecommunications system will come from Bell Atlantic Mobile, while the CAD 
911 telecommunication supports will be internal, connected with the radio telecommunications 
functions within the department. 

The department has also created KB-COPS, which will link the departments RMS with 
crime analysis and mapping systems, while at the same time developing support for 
CPOP activities. CTS will oversee the maintenance of this system. 

The vision for the departments technology plan is far reaching. In addition to the 
hardware systems that are planned or in the process of being acquired, the department has 
developed a significant internal analytic effort to better understand its business 
processes, reengineer them, and connect these reengineered processes with a 
more fully elaborated information and decisional system. The KB-COPS envisioned for 
the department includes a new CAD system capable of providing quicker and more 
accurate information on people, vehicles, and places, as well as being the repository 
(linked with RMS) for offense reports, field interview information, arrest information, 
case investigations, and property and evidence information. 

Much of the hardware and software design for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police 
Department originated through the System Plan. The System Plan engaged the department in 
a rather thorough discussion of its information needs and current capabilities, while 
identifying a trajectory for technology development for the years to come. 
The System Plan involved all of the stakeholders in the process, identified barriers to 
obtaining needed information, and established the data elements necessary to create 
a system capable of supporting CPOP in Charlotte. 

The process vision and subsequent groundwork and infrastructure developed by the 
department to implement the major information technology (IT) changes has been 



significant. The technology consultant worked vigorously with end users in focus 
groups to identify information needs to support CPOP. Significant funding to support 
these information needs came from the city, reinforcing local commitment. The chief 
emphasized a team commitment to carry out new policies and projects, not relying on 
one or two senior-level staff to complete them. 

It should be noted that IT projects frequently fail because of the amount of risk and 
planning required to make them successful. The department chose to manage their 
risk through careful development of Requests for Proposals (RFP) and vendor contracts 
by using city attorneys to draft these documents. Another important component 
in the success of this process is the extensive training provided to end users. The 
department dedicated staff to develop and provide five phases of training for 1,400 
users. 

The process has touched many of the components of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg 
Police Department and is seen as well connected to internal leadership and decision 
making. 

Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility 

The technology unit in the department was minimally staffed four years ago, primarily 
with computer programmers and systems engineers, and was located as a support 
service within the administrative units of the department. Today, the unit enjoys 
higher visibility, working closely with the administrative aide to the deputy chief over the 
Administration and Support Division. The technology consultant plays a large role in 
the unit and works very closely with the administrative aide. 

CTS is the central unit overseeing technology development and implementation in the 
department. This unit is essentially responsible for systems design and maintenance, 
as well as for the development of applications. In addition to this unit, the 
Communications Bureau oversees the radio and 911 response, but is actively linked 
to the computer unit. A planning and research function that houses crime analysis, 
while not directly attached to the computer unit, is also an active player in this 
process. The CTS team has a diversity of skills and expertise, which has been crucial 
to the units success. 

A final organizational design has yet to emerge. Much of this effort is being coordinated 
through the computer unit; as functions become self-sufficient, there is every 
reason to believe that they will be made autonomous, consistent with the departments 
decentralization and empowerment emphasis. 

Before 1994, the department had not developed very sophisticated technology in support 
of its objectives, and planning was weak; therefore, there was not much to overcome in 
the transition to newer systems. That is to say, because of the relatively low 
investment in technical systems in the department prior to 1994, the plan is simply to 
sweep out the old technology and replace it. Given the disruption that the merger likely 
produced, there was not, at least among the people we interviewed, anyone who 
appeared wedded to past systems of operations. This is a significantly positive situa



tion for the department, as it can change things without the problems of overcoming 
significant resistance from those who feel a need to cling to previous systems. 

Prior to this effort, there were five to six people in the department charged with systems 
design and maintenance. Each was trained in mainframe applications, and there 
was little, if any, use of personal computer (PC) technology. While these people have 
been retained in the transition to a client-server environment, the expansion of 
staffing has been focused on PC systems engineers and applications programmers 
who can work flexibly in such an environment. CTS uses a matrix structure emphasizing 
project teams. This strategy is used to respond to the rapid technological 
changes in the department. 

Most of the personnel in the CTS are civilians trained as applications or systems engineers. 
There are approximately 20 people in this unit, and it is anticipated that the 
unit will grow to about 30 people. Entry criteria require these people to be technically 
trained, and the department is now investing resources in skills updating and continuous 
training for these personnel. 

Much of the current effort of CTS is in tracking vendors and purchase orders from the 
city and subsequently trouble shooting the vendors design and/or implementation 
problems. In addition, there are several programmers and engineers who are now 
integrating a significant amount of new equipment that constituted the new technology 
environment in the department. 

Perhaps one of the biggest problems confronting this process in Charlotte is the 
continuation of these efforts after the technology consultant returns to the university. 
She indicated that this is her third year with the department and that she is predisposed 
to return to the university, as it has now created a College of Information Technology 
that she will have a role in developing. The department has, however, hired a new CTS 
manager who has a masters degree in computer information systems and is working 
toward a Ph.D. in strategic management. The department is confident that the new 
managers transition will be smooth. 

3.2 Historical Review of Department Information Systems 

This description of the information system in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police 
Department is outlined in terms of both the historic system (taken from the System 
Plan) and recommendations to upgrade that system. The majority of the database systems 
in the department resided on the city/county IBM 3090 mainframe system. The 
city and county shared the system, each running its own partition. CICS/MVS was used 
to oversee communications between terminal users and databases. City police functions 
used COBOL as the primary language for programming, with DATACOM DB as 
the database platform. The county used COBOL and VSAM, and in some cases DB2. 
The police department (Charlotte) also had its own mainframe (ES 9000), used primarily for dispatch. 

The department has about 60 terminals linked to the mainframe and they were used 
only for word processing applications. These terminals are being phased out by July 



1999 and replaced with PCs. Additional mainframe terminals used to access the CAD 
system and other files not yet moved to the client-server environment are being 
replaced by terminal emulation capability on the PCs. 

The department used a Motorola Radio Network for data transmission to the mobile 
data terminals (MDTs). The department had approximately 275 MDTs, allowing officers 
to communicate with dispatchers and to access DCI and department of motor 
vehicles (DMV) databases. The MDTs also allowed officers to access warrant databases 
and to communicate between cars. 

In terms of software, stand-alone versions of WordPerfect 6.1 and Microsoft Office 
were available on the 225 or so microcomputers scattered throughout the department. 
The department had limited connection with the city LAN and with e-mail services. 
The GIS was built around ArcInfo, which is PC based, and provided access to the 
city/county corporate GIS databases on Sun Solaris (UNIX) workstations and servers. 
Internal systems in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department included accident 
reporting, animal control, automated fingerprinting, case management, citations and 
warning tickets, and some crime analysis programming. In addition, a CAD and 911 
system was operational. Several other applications are listed and evaluated in the 
System Plan. All of these systems are in the process of being upgraded, discarded, or 
redesigned in accordance with the System Plans recommendations. 

Information Systems Currently Used 

The department is building its new system around several components, including an 
Enterprise 4000 that is a Unix server, Sun Solaris 2.6 PDB Cluster with 1 gigabyte (GB) 
memory and 75 GB drive, linked to Compaq Proliant 6000 1 GB RAM system, and to 
100 megabyte (MB) ATM over Sonet. These systems will be linked via Ethernet to 
Pentium MMX PCs. Radio telecommunication will link radio and data transfer to cars 
equipped with Digital P 166 80 MB RAM, and 2.1 GB laptops. Fiber optic communications 
will also link area and district stations with from 10 to 100 MB capacities for 
local analysis and downloading. Much of the building of this architecture is already 
under way. Interestingly, the department was able to piggyback its fiber optic cable 
installation with ongoing work in the banking system, thereby defraying considerable 
costs and speeding up the installation of the fiber optics. 

Currently, information has difficulty flowing throughout the organization. Many of the 
persons interviewed suggested that both the strength and the weakness of the 
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department organizational structure lies in its decentralization. 
That is to say, given the depth of decentralization in the department, information 
communication has become difficult. At the managerial level, it was suggested, there 
is a problem in getting notifications of organizational changes and the like, 
as well as in communications with the central office. It is anticipated in the organization 
that these problems will dissipate once the internal e-mail system is implemented. 

As indicated, the decentralized and at times idiosyncratic nature of command decision 
making accounts for problems in communications and information use. However, it 



is anticipated that the technology will provide for some consistency in commands owing 
to the format and display of the reporting systems and the relative ease of communicating via e-mail. 

End users have had considerable input into the design of information collection as well 
as the entire technological platform planned for Charlotte. They have been surveyed, 
have participated in focus groups, and are members of internal committees overseeing 
both design and implementation issues. 

3.4 Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing 

Operations Information Systems 

At the operational level, the historic MDT system still provided enough information for 
operational decision making, although in one ride-along it was suggested that the 
turnaround time for MDT response to a query was often long. Again, however, it is 
anticipated that once the lap-tops are deployed many of these problems will go away. 
As the laptops were just being introduced during our last visit, their impact and use 
is as yet undetermined. Of the officers interviewed, some said they used them but were 
quick to admit that many of the laptops did not leave the car or get used by other 
officers. As on-line reporting becomes mandated this circumstance should change. 

Most of the technology applications are now being coordinated through the computer unit. 
In the past, applications have grown up in isolation from one another as they were likely 
developed locally and in a stand-alone fashion. At present the emphasis in technology 
development and systems applications is focused on the patrol functions of the department. 
In one interview it was suggested that the detectives were crying for help but that the 
organization had made a decision to focus on patrol first, and, given the complexity of 
this system and of its implementation, the detectives and other units in the organization would 
have to wait. 

Command and Control Systems 

At present these command and control systems are fledgling in the department. The introduction 
of a new RMS was seen as a way to improve the information necessary for command and control. 
At the same time, the department has been examining differing uses of the CAD system to 
improve its fit into the RMS. Typically, the RMS is fit to the CAD, and as pointed out in 
several discussions, this tends to severely limit the use of data from the CAD system in 
the RMS, and indeed in command-and-control decision making. 

Management Information Systems 

Presently the system in Charlotte, given its transition from the planning to the implementation 
stage, remains centralized despite the decentralized nature of the organization. This is likely 
to be the case for some time as the system is tested and refined. In addition to this process, 
there are several other ongoing efforts that have created overlapping committee memberships 
that include rank-and-file police officers as well as command personnel. Several of these 
committees have interests in aspects of the technology program and its implementation. 
Finally, a process mapping group has also been formed in the department to map out all business 



processes and to make recommendations where appropriate. This group is also likely to 
overlap in interest in and oversight of the technology program in Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Police Department. In short, many people are watching and assisting 
this process. 

Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 

As previously discussed, the department is heavily invested in GIS and its varied 
applications. The GIS Analysis Unit is becoming more prominent in the operational 
decision making of the department, and there are several efforts afoot to model hot spot 
and other geographic referent information. There is also a linkage to city planning 
functions such that information on land use, water bills (showing ownership of buildings), 
and social data are capable of being integrated with crime and disorder data. 
In fact, the city has gone to considerable effort to define neighborhoods and to 
identify the condition of these communities on a scale that ranges from stable to 
distressed. Such information is now being used by police commanders in the field to 
identify community needs and to design programs to address those needs. 

Problem-Solving Information Systems 

As indicated, both the KB-COPS and the FALCON systems are direct evidence of a 
sophisticated approach to building smart information systems in support of problem 
solving. Some of these systems are now being created locally to capture information 
on local problem-solving experiences. These systems will take time to refine and 
develop in Charlotte to see if they do indeed impact how the police use information to 
solve local problems. What is clear is that these systems are all pointed in the same 
general direction  to make information quickly available to those in the field so that 
they can solve community crime and disorder problems. 

External Information Systems 

Much of what has occurred in Charlotte, in terms of information systems, has 
occurred in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. It was suggested that the 
department enjoys considerable latitude in the definition of its technology needs and 
has the support of the City Manager. As previously noted, it was suggested that the 
department has always enjoyed good relationships with outside agencies in both the 
City of Charlotte and the county. This was described as part of the local political and 
social culture. 

As part of its planning process and included as an action plan in the Community Safety 
Plan of 1994, the department has been working with the city and county to create 
and/or strengthen a countywide criminal justice information system. In addition, the 
department currently has linkages with tax and water department records as well as 
with the city/county GIS. 



In funding this program, the department has been able to patch together resources 
from several sources. The department is spending upwards of $18 million on this 
effort. Resources for this effort come from the COPS MORE program, other Federal 
programs (such as an NIJ grant), and from local resources, as well as from internal 
departmental budgets. In addition, the department has established a local foundation 
to support training and other departmental initiatives in an effort to build a funding 
stream for these programs independent of the city and county. All of these activities 
require building partnerships. 

In one interview it was suggested that the city manager was a dominant force in shaping 
the departments push for CPOP and that other city department heads were directed to 
participate in these partnerships, although it was quickly added that such relationships 
were good from the start. Based on our analysis in Charlotte, this aspect of 
partnership formation and maintenance should be pursued. 

3.6 Relationships and Experience with Vendors 

The department is tied to the citys procurement process, which was not fully explored 
in these visits. What emerged, however, is something of considerable impact for police 
agencies building and/or reengineering their technical systems. 

Historically, and perhaps typically, police agencies are at the mercy of vendors in the 
acquisition and implementation of technology. In our many visits to police agencies 
throughout the country, several noted that they are currently in some form of litigation 
regarding a technical system failure. This occurs for many reasons. 

First, the departments and their city agencies often lack the real expertise to determine 
system requirements and to hold the feet of vendors to the fire of a schedule and 
time frame for effective implementation. All too often these agencies assume good 
faith on the part of vendors, which contributes to their own demise. 

Second, police agencies are often ignorant of the market issues that confront technology 
companies. The rapid growth of this industry has produced many internal 
industry problems that play themselves out in the meeting of contractual obligations. 
Most vendors do not want to be tied to contracts that are too results-oriented. Rather, 
they want time and materials contracts so that they can learn along the way. The 
rapid turnover in personnel in this industry also affects project timeliness and completion. 
As previously indicated, the technology consultant suggested that the system 
failure rate nationally for these types of technology programs (in all fields) ran into 
the 70 percent level, with an annual failure cost estimated at $80 billion plus. If this 
is anywhere near the case, then all levels of government  as well as the private marketplace 
 are struggling with the same issue of how to build a system and hold the 
contractor to the outcomes in a timely and efficient manner. 

The department has approached this problem in a unique way. First they hired the 
consultant and others from UNCC to be their internal consultants and to take a strong 
role in the process of shaping technology development as well as the RFPs flowing 
from these efforts. The city hired an attorney who is assigned to the city attorneys 
office to work solely on technology contracts. The attorney enlists the assistance of 



outside counsel on an as-needed basis. Based on this approach, the department 
believes that it has considerable leverage in getting vendors to comply. By creating this 
process, the city hopes to avoid potential litigation with vendors by preparing detailed 
contracts to prevent misunderstandings. 

4 Analysis Methods Used 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department uses several methods of information 
collection and analysis. Some of these methods and modes of analysis are related to 
the departments previous history of traditional policing. Others are now emerging as 
part of the departments move toward CPOP. Because these processes are unfolding at 
present, certain assessments are inferred from current plans rather than observed 
directly in field or administrative settings. 

4.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods 

Crime Analysis 

Crime analysis in the department is being refined on a continual basis. Over the past 
few years the department has put much time and effort into crime measurement and 
into the systems that can analyze and display crime and disorder information in a 
more systematic fashion. In addition to the electronic pin maps that are ubiquitous in 
the department, there is a serious effort to use this information as a means of defining 
problems and assessing impacts. The Grier Heights Project illustrates this 
approach. 

Moreover, in each of the areas we visited there was considerable evidence that crime 
analysis is now making its way out of the central organization into the field. What is 
not clear at present are the ways in which this information is being used to actually 
change tactics or strategies. Since much of the technology and analytic capability is 
new to the department, it may take some time for these systems to take root in field 
practice. Nonetheless, there is considerable evidence that both the discussion within 
the department and the way it presents itself to the outside world emphasizes crime 
analysis as a primary means of understanding crime and then adjusting practices to 
affect crime patterns. 

Operations Analysis 

Operations analysis in the department is not clearly specified at present. There are 
meetings to examine the current and future deployment patterns of the department 
and there is an ongoing effort to map and then reengineer basic operational systems 
within the department. What is clear is that operations analysis is in place and often 
involves people from throughout the department. The final products of this operational 
analysis are expected to help streamline operations and find ways to improve 
efficiency and effectiveness. 

The chief stresses knowing what is going on, and his administrative deputy chief has 
spent considerable time in planning out a better operational system, including ongo



ing operational analysis. What is required now is time for this system to be implemented 
and assessed thoroughly. The Safety Plan was operationally focused and pointed the 
organization toward clearer operational and strategic analysis. 

Intelligence Analysis 

Although the department operates several intelligence functions, at the time of our 
visits and in the documents we received it does not appear that these systems have yet 
been tied to the overall improvements to internal information and analytic systems. 
One exception to this comment is the FALCON system. This system affords the opportunity 
to set the conditions one is searching for and then have the computer generate 
a call to that inquiry once those conditions are reached. To the extent that this 
represents an intelligence function, the system described might be used for many information 
and intelligence gathering efforts. In addition, the department has been in the lead in 
building a regional criminal justice information system and linking these systems to the 
State criminal history information systems. Once these systems are connected, it is clear 
that this access and information might be used to support intelligence operations and analysis. 

Administrative Analysis 

The department has an ongoing program to examine administrative functions systemwide. 
Much of the development in the department to date has carefully examined 
the departments administrative processes and changed those structures to support a 
more decentralized style of policing. Moreover, the department has gone to considerable 
lengths to define new functions and roles for nearly every position in the department so 
that all efforts contribute to the CPOP style of policing that they are implementing. 
This form of administrative assessment has now crept into policymaking in 
that levels of authority and responsibility are being made congruent with the changing 
organizational structure. All of this has been formalized and created through overlapping 
committees, to help increase buy-in and to increase the likelihood of adoption of these 
new roles and functions throughout the department. 

4.2 Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods 

Community Analysis 

The department has considerable information at its disposal relative to community 
dynamics and needs. The city collects information on defined communities and then 
classifies those communities on a continuum ranging from stable to distressed. The 
city expects that city agencies will work to address, within defined categories, those 
conditions that detract from community stability. In addition, the department links 
land use information with social data to define neighborhoods and community problems. 
This information is now being linked to information on crime and disorder. 
Much of this effort is new to the police department, and it is not clear how the infor



mation is being used at the tactical level. In meetings with those in the field (commanders), 
it was clear that they knew some of the terminology, but it was not clear if 
they were using the information in any systematic fashion. 

Problem Analysis 

This area of analysis is something the department is approaching on several levels, 
some of which have already been discussed. At the strategic level, the KB-COPS and 
the FALCON programs are problem-solving approaches in the use of information and 
analysis to identify problems. Community coordinators are proactive in problem 
analysis, and in some service areas there are ongoing attempts to routinize information 
on problem solving and its effects. Much of this effort is now beginning to become 
visible in the department; but it will take some time to take hold as the mode of police 
operations in the Charlotte department. Nonetheless, this is a very well thought out 
effort and is informationally and analytically driven. 

Future Initiatives Related to Analysis Methods 

Future initiatives have yet to take shape in the department. With all the changes it has 
made, the department will likely need some time to settle down before determining 
future analytic needs. It is clear, however, that the department has a philosophy of 
continually pursuing resources and activities that emphasize new modes of analysis. The 
departments linkage with ESRI and others is a good illustration of this philosophy in 
practice. 

5 Use of Information 

The ISTEP conceptual framework identifies seven information domains that are critical 
to the successful implementation of community policing. The seven domains are 
community interface, inter-organizational linkages, work-group facilitation, 
environmental scanning, problem orientation, area accountability, and strategic management. 
In each of these domains, information technology can, if properly applied, greatly 
enhance the effectiveness of community policing. 

It should be kept in mind that much of the effort in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police 
Department up to the time of our observations involved moving a highly detailed and 
intricate plan off the drawing board and making it operational. What is presented 
below is in part based on an assessment of the likely use of information and of the 
current strengths and/or weaknesses of available types of information. It is important 
to remember that the current state of the department is rather dynamic. 

5.1 Community Interface 

As indicated, community information in Charlotte appears to be available in the form 
of both social and physical data, as well as data on all types of economic and related 
issues. The websites for both the police department and the city contain quite a bit of 



this information, and it is clear that the department and the city value having the 
information to describe the city and to use as a means of assessing communities. In the 
Grier Heights Project, this data was integrated as a descriptive analysis of community 
characteristics and crime hot spots. 
The department has also conducted surveys in the community examining how the 
community perceives crime, safety, and the police department. It is not clear that this 
information will be an ongoing data element in the departments program, although it 
is clear that the chief values community information. 

It is also not clear how this information is used in either the service areas or the 
districts. In the areas we visited, however, there was considerable discussion about the 
characteristics of the community that appeared to be informed by prior analysis. 

5.2 Inter-Organizational Linkages 

Information concerning inter-organizational linkages appears the least available of all 
the information sets that the department uses. We interviewed systems staff working in 
the city who are charged with building linkages for more facile cross-department data. 
However, these efforts are quite new and will likely take considerable time to develop. 
What is encouraging is that the discussion about cross-agency information needs is 
going on in Charlotte; and given the direction the department has taken, such discussions 
are likely to prove fruitful in the future. There are linkages between the police 
department and other justice system agencies, but most of these are typically linkages 
of the past. The department has set a goal to help build a regional crime information 
system and to better link this system with that of the State. 

5.3 Work-Group Facilitation 

We saw little evidence of work-group facilitation during our visits. Linkages among 
work groups are primarily managed in the traditional chain-of-command manner, 
even though much of the management and information systems planning has been 
team centered. The investigative function has not been included well in this process, 
at least initially. 

5.4 Environmental Scanning 

It is clear that the problem-oriented policing efforts in Charlotte have resulted in 
considerable environmental scanning; that is, the problem focus has led to more information 
about communities, crime dynamics, and how problems are getting resolved 
(assuming they are). Data sets are being created and linked that will be proactive in 
identifying early problem sets; an example is the FALCON system. 

While such information is becoming more available in Charlotte, it is not clear that it 
has permeated either the tactical management or tactical operations activities in the 
department. When such information exists, it is not clear how it is being used to create 
tactics and/or strategies to address discrete problems. The language and informa



tion are there, but the use is not yet systematic in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police 
Department. 

5.5 Problem Orientation 

Once fully operational, the KB-COPS system as well as the locally developed problem-
solving programs will be useful information systems within the department. These are 
all in the developmental stage at present and will take considerable time to become 
operational. The local programs are likely to emerge first, and in fact the department 
is encouraging service areas to develop their own approach to capturing information 
on problem solving. It is anticipated that eventually the most successful of the programs 
will migrate across the department and perhaps be linked with more centralized information 
systems such as the new RMS. 

What is perhaps most critical about Charlotte is that problem solving appears to be an 
emerging centerpiece of the practice of policing. Nearly all the information systems 
planned or in place appear to be moving toward supporting problem-solving efforts 
in the field. 

5.6 Area Accountability 

The language of area accountability is in place in Charlotte. What is not clear are the 
methods for assuring area accountability. Currently, rather traditional sources of 
information are used for that purpose, including reported crimes and arrests. In 
decentralizing the department, there is a tendency to allow the local areas to determine 
much of their own practice and procedure. This has led to some noise in the 
police department as differing perspectives on accountability are aired in command 
discussions. Nonetheless, the information systems being put into place can only 
improve access to information about how well an area or district is doing. Some of 
these changes will require the support of the emerging culture of the department, with 
an emphasis on both professional policing and responsiveness to the community. 

5.7 Strategic Management 

By all accounts, strategic management is perhaps the best developed of all the seven 
information domains in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. The department has 
invested the past five years in self-examination and in monitoring its environment and 
charting its future. The department has also published several plans outlining its needs 
and the direction it is taking into the future. Internal reengineering 
efforts have produced considerable information on how the work of the department 
is conducted, and changes in these practices are currently under way. 

5.8 Future Plans Related to Information Use 

The efforts to date have yet to be fully realized. It is unclear what path the department 
will take after it assesses how successful it was in implementing all of the organizational, 
operational, and information systems changes described in this report. 



6 Summary 

6.1 Overall Assessment of Information Technology 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is deeply involved in implementation 
of both IT development and CPOP. As a result, the site represents an ongoing story 
worthy of monitoring and continued assessment. They have an ambitious plan and 
have taken some very real risks in deciding to use technologies and/or systems that 
are not typical of police agencies (such as the outsourcing of telecommunication 
transmission to an outside vendor). They also have worked through many problems 
in making the organization adjust to technology, and technology to the organization. 

At the same time, the organization has been the subject of major systems changes, 
including those associated with service delivery. This department has been in a state 
of rapid and continual change for about four years. Thus the department may be atypical 
in terms of the trends in other departments, but it is likely to have experienced 
many, if not most, of the decisional and operational implementation problems that IT 
and COP/POP present to a fairly large organization. 

6.2 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Departments Best Practices 

This department represents many best practices with respect to both process and 
product. On the process side, the systematic planning and development efforts, coupled 
with the internal reengineering efforts, are worthy of more systematic inquiry. 
The linkage with the external university, the consultant relationship it has created 
around IT issues, and the impact of this development are important to consider as 
well. The processes that the department has adopted to ensure vendor compliance 
with departmental needs are also important to understand. 

On the product side, decisions about laptop technology, giving laptops to each patrol 
officer, the types of support systems that have been developed to link LAN, WAN, and 
field operations, and the design of a new telecommunications system are all discrete 
products that have emerged from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg site. Each of these areas 
is a matter of best practice. 

In terms of the seven information needs, the department does a good job in soliciting 
citizen input, has a reasonable approach to building an infrastructure for problem-
solving through KB-COPS and FALCON, and has some linkage with other agencies and 
their databases (e.g., the Grier Heights Project). These information areas are significant 
accomplishments for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. 



Chapter 7

Police Department

Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project 

ISTEP 

Cross-Site Report 
April 1999 

Prepared for 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 
Program/Policy Support and Evaluation Division 
1100 Vermont Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20530 

Project Director 
Terence Dunworth, Ph.D. 

Prepared by 
Jack Greene, Ph.D. 
Thomas Rich 
Shawn Ward 

Abt Associates Inc. 
55 Wheeler Street 
Cambridge, MA 02138 


Contents 

Cross-Site Report 

1 Overview  Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project (ISTEP) . . . . . .153 

2 Information Technology and COP/POP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 

3 Is Technology Driving COP/POP or Is COP/POP Driving Technology? . . . . . . . . .154 

4 Is Technology Planning Integrated with Strategic Planning? . . . . . . . . . . . 157 

5 Is the Process of Designing and Acquiring Technology Bottom Up or Top Down? .158 

6 What Is the Level of External Support for These Processes, and What 
Linkages with Other Information and Intervention Systems Are Present? . . . . . . .159 

7 What Is the Mix of In-House Versus Out-of-House Expertise Shaping 
Technology Planning and Acquisition? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 

8 Who Is Responsible for Integrating Technology with Operations? . . . . . . . . . 161 

9 How Do the New Systems and Processes Affect the Quality and Output of 
Police Work, and How Would These Changes Be Measured? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162 

10 How Does the Process of Assessment Continue? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163 

11 How Is Such Change Financially Supported? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 

12 Concluding Note: The Uneven Development of Information Domains in 
Support of COP/POP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 



Chapter 7: Cross-Site Report 

Overview  Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project (ISTEP) 

The Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project, funded by the Office of 
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), is focused on increasing the utilization of 
information and information technology in police departments in support of 
community-oriented policing (COP) and problem-oriented policing (POP). 

In the initial stages of this project the ISTEP team developed a conceptual framework 
document. The conceptual framework provided structure for the team in completing 
phase one of the project, and now assists police departments struggling with information 
technology (IT) planning in support of community- and problem-oriented 
policing. The conceptual framework identifies seven key information domains that 
should be developed if police departments want to implement community policing 
effectively. The seven domains are: (1) community interface; (2) inter-organizational 
linkages; (3) work-group facilitation; (4) environmental scanning; (5) problem 
orientation; (6) area accountability; and (7) strategic management. 

The goal of the first phase of ISTEP was to learn about police department accomplishments 
in community policing, technology development, and the seven information domains. Phase 
one was also designed to gain an understanding of the internal 
and external processes involved in implementing information technology in support 
of community policing. Five police departments  Tempe, Arizona; San Diego, 
California; Hartford, Connecticut; Reno, Nevada; and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North 
Carolina  were selected to participate in phase one of the project. These departments 
were selected because of their successes and experience relating to information technology and 
COP/POP implementation. 

These departments provided the ISTEP team with open access to their operations and 
made command and line level staff fully available for interviews, observations, and 
questions. Several site visits were made to each city to gather information on community 
policing practices, technology planning and implementation, and assessment 
of the overall organizational structure. Members of the ISTEP team attended numerous 
meetings, participated in technology training, conducted ride-alongs, and examined 
specific hardware and software at each site. Individual case study reports were 
prepared for each of the participating departments and submitted to the COPS Office. 

This phase one cross-site report synthesizes the findings of the individual case studies. 
It does so by addressing nine specific questions, as a means of helping other 
departments involved in COP/POP to learn and understand the processes necessary 
for IT development. 

In the second phase of this project, the ISTEP team will work hands-on with a new set 
of departments that have demonstrated a strong commitment to COP/POP but are in 
the early stages of IT planning. In phase two, the ISTEP team will profile each site, 
define both police department and community needs, and work closely with the 



departments to develop an information technology design that will support community- 
and problem-oriented policing. The phase-one assessments will serve as a foundation for phase two. 

2 Information Technology and COP/POP 

Community- and problem-oriented policing represent ways of providing public safety 
that are radically different from past practice. Under such models, the police are to be 
proactive, decentralized, and problem analytic. They are to use information more 
strategically while solving tactical problems. They are to be in greater communication 
with the public at large, integrated with other service delivery systems that impact the 
same geographic area, and internally more reflective and coherent. In sum, police 
agencies operating within the anticipated norms of COP/POP are to be thinking organizations 
able to adapt strategies and responses to an ever changing environment. 

These new models of police organization and service delivery require significant revisions 
to thinking and practice regarding the police role, police decision making, and 
the range of outcomes the police are expected to affect. Among these outcomes are 
crime, disorder, fear, quality of life, and civic cohesiveness. Today police are being 
deployed in ways that attempt to preempt problems and create a visible police presence in the community. 

Technology will likely play an increasing role in the process of reengineering or 
redesigning policing systems for community- and problem-oriented policing. The role 
that technology plays in the refinement of COP and POP strategies, however, is conditioned 
by many aspects of the organization and environment (internal and external) 
in which such changes are attempted. Organizational structure, processes, and cultures 
can either facilitate or hinder the advancement of both technology and COP/POP. 
Findings from phase-one sites amplify some common issues and concerns that suggest that 
several key questions about the introduction of technology in furtherance of 
COP/POP objectives will need to be addressed if these efforts are to be successful. We 
consider nine core questions that have been gleaned from the individual site analyses. 

3 Is Technology Driving COP/POP or Is COP/POP Driving Technology? 

Policing systems often find themselves in transition, either leading or following the 
change. Community- and problem-oriented policing will require that police agencies 
act smarter in the future, in that information about problems, events, and situations 
will form the basis for designing effective police interventions. Technology alone, however, 
cannot replace a well designed and departmentally integrated COP or POP strategy. Without 
a system of COP/POP in place in a department, the acquisition of technology, in any of its 
manifestations, is a potentially empty experience. 

Community- and problem-oriented policing require several fundamental changes 
within police agencies. These changes include decentralized management and operations; greater 
interaction with a wide array of client and constituent groups; increased 



preparation of police officers in solving problems, handling conflict, and building 
consensus; and targeted analysis to identify problem concentrations and take affirmative action. 
Such changes challenge the foundations of American policing  namely, routine preventive patrol, 
rapid response, and follow-up criminal investigations. 

One problem that many police agencies have is defining an organizational framework 
for COP and POP and then building a technology infrastructure to support that framework. 
The more likely approach is that the agency defines some fledgling frame of reference for 
COP/POP and then, in an iterative fashion, builds infrastructure while 
simultaneously recasting its COP/POP focus. At times COP/POP is driving the discussion of 
technology, and at other times technology is driving the discussion of COP/POP. 
Perhaps more importantly, in order to get started along the COP/POP path, police 
agencies must often move in that direction without consensus or closure as to the 
meaning of COP/POP for that agency. 

In San Diego, COP/POP strategies were firmly in place well in advance of technology 
development. In fact, some form of COP/POP activity and programs have enjoyed the 
support of four chiefs in San Diego over a long time frame. This has created a climate 
of COP/POP in the agency and has allowed these ideas to grow. In many respects, the 
culture of the San Diego Police Department has been shaped to a great extent by its 
adoption and visible implementation of COP and POP. In San Diego some form of 
community-based policing has been in transition for the past 20 years. The department 
has had a strong commitment to neighborhood policing for many years. Police 
operations and decision making have been built around the neighborhood policing 
concept, and the design and implementation of technology in support of these 
strategies can be seen as a natural progression of the program. Over the years San Diego 
has been recognized as having one of the most coherent approaches to COP/POP, and 
the department has had considerable time to adapt to the expectations of the philosophy. 
This adaptation has included greater citizen input into police policymaking, 
problem solving using the four-step SARA approach (scanning, analysis, response, 
and assessment), increased crime analysis, and decentralized police operations. 

In contrast to San Diego, COP/POP is a relatively recent phenomenon in Charlotte-
Mecklenburg, which has only recently integrated two police agencies (city and county) 
and begun to move the agency into a community policing frame of reference. In 
Charlotte, the push-pull relationship of technology and COP/POP is more evident. The 
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has shifted focus from technology to 
COP/POP in an iterative fashion, such that one creates the demand, and later the 
reinforcement, of the other. While Charlotte is far advanced in its development of 
technology and other support mechanisms for COP/POP, it is not clear that this new style 
of policing has fully emerged in the day-to-day operations of the department. 

The Reno Police Department has had a longstanding commitment to COP/POP, having 
implemented some of its first programs over a decade ago. Most would agree, however, 
that the COP/POP orientation in Reno has become more active in recent years. 
The department has built its COP/POP program on a generalist model (that is, all 
police officers are expected to do it), with a geographic focus and local accountability 
to neighborhood advisory groups. Much of the support for these early efforts came 



from the San Diego Police Department. In respect to technology development, however, the 
Reno Police Department had until recently (within the past two years) relied 
on an information system that was essentially antiquated and detached from other city 
agencies. In fact, the Reno Police Department information system was created more 
than 15 years ago, when community policing was in its infancy, if discussed at all. As 
a result, this information system is generally believed to be unable to provide usable 
information to a COP/POP model of decentralized and targeted information needs. 
Moreover, in Reno the absence of adequate technical support hampers crime analysis, 
problem-solving information exchange, and integration with other city agencies 
working on similar or related problems in geographic areas. 

In Tempe, Arizona, there has also been a considerable investment in COP/POP. The 
department has an open style of community interaction and a geographic focus, trains 
officers in problem solving, and reinforces that training with field training and personnel 
evaluations. The department can be described as a second-generation agency 
in that many of the principles of COP and POP are subtly woven into the culture of the 
department. In Tempe, technology support is housed in the departments Support 
Services Division and is seen as a tool to enhance neighborhood policing. Currently, 
Tempe has instituted a centralized IT effort to better integrate information across 
agencies. In the Tempe Police Department, technology is indirectly tied to COP/POP. 
The information systems in the department, with the exception of crime analysis, are 
not directly COP or POP focused. 

Community policing has been a part of the Hartford Police Departments overall strategy since 
1988, when the community service officer (CSO) unit was formed. CSOs 
meet regularly with residents and business people to discuss crime problems, work 
with blockwatch and other citizen groups, and facilitate communication between residents and 
city government. Over the past four years, community policing has 
advanced in a number of ways. The Hartford Police Department has aggressively 
sought out partnerships with other agencies, such as schools, youth organizations, 
and other criminal justice agencies. The department has increased its neighborhood 
focus and further decentralized the department around three Police Service Areas 
(PSAs). It has instituted weekly COMPSTAT (computerized statistics) meetings, which 
aim to both increase accountability among area supervisors and foster improved communications 
between commanders in the three PSAs. Finally, in conjunction with 
Hartfords new Community Court, there is a renewed emphasis in the department on 
quality of life issues and problem solving. 

The Hartford Police Department did not rely on vendors for its computer and information 
systems. Instead, the department acted as its own consultant and is satisfied 
with the results obtained, although some in the department are concerned about the 
level of dependence on the current department programmers for retrieving information 
from the data systems. Hartford is one of the sites with considerable development 
in crime mapping, and much of its effort revolves around grants and other support for 
geographic information systems (GIS) applications and use, both within the department 
and as a way of sharing information with the community. In this regard, crime 
mapping is an important component of Hartfords COP and POP IT development. 



4  Is Technology Planning Integrated with Strategic Planning? 

Somewhat related to the drivers of information technology is the linkage between 
technology planning and overall strategic planning of the police department in question. 
Strategic planning involves assessing changes in the organizations external environment 
to better understand threats and opportunities posed for the organization by 
the environment. Strategic planning also involves taking stock of existing organizational 
strengths and weaknesses to better assess organizational capabilities and deficiencies. 
Comparing environmental threats and opportunities with organizational 
strengths and weaknesses helps to sharpen strategic issues confronting the organization. 
In turn, the identification of strategic issues leads the organization to develop 
strategic plans to address those issues, and later to action plans to make strategic 
emphases operational. The use of more sophisticated technologies is often stated as 
a strategy for improved linking of organizational capabilities with environmental 
opportunities. 

In many of the police departments studied, strategic planning has become a fact of 
organizational life. In Charlotte, for example, a strategic plan preceded the development 
of an information systems and technology planning process. This strategic plan 
outlined a considerable amount of internal and external research on the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Police Department, its constituents expectations regarding police service, 
and its existing capacities to meet those demands. As this department was merging the 
forces of the Charlotte City Police Department and the Mecklenburg County 
Police Department, a strategic plan  outlining the merger and, more importantly, 
how the new Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department would be organized and function  
was essential to organizational transformation. Strategic planning in Charlotte 
also spawned the departments information system planning process, which has 
defined the technological trajectory for the departments future. 

In San Diego, IT development and strategic planning are linked. Since the department 
develops much of its own systems for POP and COP and has considerable expertise in 
the IT field, there appears to be a reasonable linkage in the planning and analysis 
functions of the department. The department does struggle at times with the city 
agency responsible for information technology. These struggles generally revolve 
around risk taking. The department sees risk taking as necessary to push the envelope 
on COP and POP and the technology use to support these efforts; conversely, the 
central IT agency seeks to minimize risk and is concerned that the department may 
develop systems that will eventually fail, since this has happened in San Diego in the 
past. 

In Reno there was a similar planning process in the creation of one- and five-year 
strategic plans. The development of an information systems plan has been the responsibility 
of the citys new Information Services Division, which was created in 1997. 
With this division, the city of Reno is trying to overcome a considerable obstacle to 
integrated planning and city service provision that resulted, in part, from a highly 
fragmented information technology environment. This environment is the legacy of past 



decisions that, essentially, did not set information and systems requirements across 
city agencies. Agencies were on their own to craft whatever system they could. This 
typically led to heavy reliance on vendors for information and systems design, usually 
resulting in poor system performance. Lessons learned in Reno suggest that tying 
information systems development to strategic planning is a necessary component to 
the effective acquisition and use of technology by the police. 

In Tempe, strategic planning is becoming a more dominant organizational activity, in 
part as a result of shifts in technology development from the department to the city. 
Information from different agencies is not as well integrated into strategic decision 
making or planning as it could be. The analytic functions in Tempe appear more operationally 
focused than strategically focused. 

In Hartford, the link between COP/ POP and strategic planning is developing. IT initiatives 
are discussed in an annual community policing plan. In 1997, for example, the 
COMPSTAT process was laid out. Hartford currently has substantial experience with 
two technologies particularly important for community policing  geographic information 
systems and external information systems. Perhaps the most unique information technology-
related feature in the department is their method of sharing information with community-
based crime prevention organizations through their 
Neighborhood Problem Solving (NPS) system. There is variation in equipment and 
systems in the department, suggesting that, compared to other ISTEP sites, the department 
is in the early stages of integrating strategic and information systems planning 
with its strategies of COP and POP. 

5 Is the Process of Designing and Acquiring Technology Bottom Up or Top Down? 

In all the sites visited, the introduction of any significant technology required several 
prior reengineering efforts to better understand the flow of information and decisions 
and to recast information and communication processes in furtherance of COP/POP. 
Such efforts require the involvement of many people in the organization in all areas of 
operations. These efforts generally recognize that both top down and bottom up 
approaches have inherent limitations in the final adoption and acceptance of the technology to be used. 

The historic experience of most of the agencies studied, when it comes to technology, 
is not good. Most agencies built their information systems on the advice and counsel 
of the vendors who were selling them equipment and systems. Internal technical 
expertise for assessing needs and matching equipment and systems to those needs was 
essentially nonexistent. Most of the information needs were translated into the design 
of systems to collect and warehouse reports, not to collect and analyze information 
that could be used both strategically and tactically. Systems purchased in the past 20 
years or so preceded the information revolution and have fallen behind in their ability 
to inform any police function, most particularly one that is community and problem oriented. 
Police departments typically have received little help from their hosting 
jurisdictions on these matters. Rather, help has come either in the form of centralized 
control of this decision-making process, which removed the police (the users of these 



systems) from their development, or in the form of do-what-you-want approaches, 
which led the police to become systematically dependent on vendors for information 
and implementation. Neither of these approaches suited the needs of the police 
agency, and more often than not these approaches led to the development of some 
rather dysfunctional information systems in these agencies. 

In reaction to these historic problems, the agencies studied have developed several 
methods to help ensure that their information needs are reflected in the systems they 
develop. Most have linked their efforts with some form of technological consultant 
who can advocate for the police department and who understands technological 
trends and the ways the agency can take advantage of these trends (this topic is discussed 
in more detail below). 

In most of the sites, end users are now more regularly involved in the planning stages 
of new technology. Overlapping groups, representing rank-in-file as well as supervisory and 
managerial interests, are a common feature to this approach. In most of the 
sites this approach is seen as very effective in both highlighting information needs and 
giving people the chance to buy in to community- and problem-oriented policing. 
In these ways, such committees facilitate technology and cultural change in these 
agencies. This is an important trend in policing to the extent that it shifts the agency 
from a command-and-control and policymaking form of management to one that is 
focused on outputs and outcomes. 

What Is the Level of External Support for These Processes, and What Linkages with Other 
Information and Intervention Systems Are Present? 

Police COP/POP technology systems do not operate in a vacuum. Rather, the typical 
experience is for the policing system to be overseen by and/or coordinated with other 
city or county information systems. For COP/POP to become effective, it needs to be 
integrated with larger city or county systems that deliver services to the public. 
Linkages with schools, social welfare, recreation, fire, emergency medical response, 
and a host of other service agents within any particular jurisdiction is the ultimate goal 
of COP/POP interventions. If community-oriented policing is meant to mobilize the 
community, and problem solving is meant to address persistent community crime and 
disorder problems, then linkage with other agencies and interventions is a central 
need of police agencies shifting from traditional to COP/POP orientations. 

In most of the sites, the integration between the police department and other local or 
county agency functions is in its infancy; however, there are some interesting developments. 
In Charlotte, for example, the integration between the city and county governments has paved 
the way for greater interaction between the police and other 
agencies. In fact, Charlotte is now conducting analyses of crime patterns and is looking 
at land use and community and population characteristics as ways to explain and 
to predict crime and order problems. Charlotte has also taken the lead in linking the 
police department to other city and county criminal justice functions and in building 
greater communications in the region on matters of crime and public safety. 



In Reno this process is just now emerging. The creation of a more centralized information 
system in Reno greatly enhances the potential for linking agency information 
systems. A similar situation exists in Tempe, where historically information systems 
had been developed within the purview of individual agencies, thereby precluding systems 
integration, or at least making such integration difficult. In the last year, the city 
of Tempe has centralized information technology in the hope of integrating information
 systems and building a citywide data warehouse that could be accessed by many 
agencies. Such development will likely increase the capacity of the Tempe Police 
Department to conduct environmental scans and to link service delivery with other 
city agencies. 

In San Diego, there is an ongoing struggle for definition and control of IT between the 
department and the centralized IT agency. There are considerable linkages in databases 
that have been created by the central IT agency, and the department is beginning to use 
those resources in a more analytic way. Land use patterns are being 
mapped with crime trends in an effort to solve the underlying problems that generate 
crime in San Diego. In Tempe, the linkage between the police department and other 
agencies is tenuous, and in Hartford the linkages are programmatic rather than based 
on shared or linked information. 

7 What Is the Mix of In-House Versus Out-of-House Expertise Shaping Technology 
Planning and Acquisition? 

Building effective communications, computing, and analytic systems within police 
agencies in support of COP/POP is technically very challenging. In many agencies, 
internal personnel have learned to use technology over time by taking on informal 
technology roles or by being assigned to an oversight role and then learning as much 
and as quickly as possible. In some larger agencies technology specialists exist, as do 
other technical experts in communications and systems design and integration. 
Historically, however, this has not been the case. 

As a result of limited internal expertise, technology vendors have greatly shaped police 
department understandings of and access to technology. This, of course, makes the 
police department in question quite dependent on the vendor for assessing organizational 
needs, designing systems to meet those needs, and implementing and adjusting 
systems once acquired. 

In Charlotte, the police leadership quickly identified a departmental shortcoming in 
the area of planning and research, most particularly that associated with technology 
development. Since Charlotte is home to a large state-supported university, an 
arrangement was designed wherein local faculty provided assistance for this planning 
and development process. Such expertise was simply beyond the grasp of the police 
department at this point in time. Having a local expert greatly enhanced the departments 
ability to review its technological needs and to design a system (in the form of 
an RFP) that could be responded to by vendors. In this case, the vendors were 
responding to the departments vision and needs assessment, not to the vendors own 
needs to sell their products. Having such local technological expertise also greatly 



assists the departments communications with other IT personnel, while at the same 
time helping to hold the vendors to a contract and to their deliverables. 

In Reno, after several bad experiences with technology and little capacity within the 
department to articulate technological needs, the department hired an outside consultant. 
The first consultant, however, was not up to the job and was replaced with 
another consultant, with whom the department is satisfied. The lesson learned from 
Reno is that the choice of a consultant to serve as an agent for the department is as 
important as selection of a vendor. 

In San Diego, most development is in-house for the design and creation of RFPs for 
vendors. The ability to develop the RFPs reflects the high level of expertise and long-
standing commitment to technology in the San Diego Police Department. The department works 
closely with vendors and has the assistance of the citys centralized IT 
agency. The department believes that it cannot use off-the-shelf systems and applications 
in furtherance of COP and POP and is therefore required to push systems designers for 
more sophisticated and responsive equipment and systems. Hartford also 
developed its primary information systems in-house using civilian programmers. In 
the future, however, reliance on vendors is likely to increase. 

In Tempe, there is ample capacity in the department for planning and implementing 
information technology and its use. However, given the costs of such systems and the 
lack of systematic integration among city agencies, the city of Tempe consolidated IT 
as a central city function. The city is now in the process of building a centralized city 
information infrastructure and an accompanying city data archive that will serve many 
agencies. From the perspective of the police, this type of approach appears to be a 
lower risk endeavor for the department in its planning and acquisition of information 
technology and systems, but at the same time this arrangement makes the department 
dependent on others to solve their information problems. There are some committees 
in the Tempe Police Department to oversee and discuss IT issues. The assignment and 
location of an IT employee in department headquarters is the foundation of the linkage 
between the city and the department on matters of systems development and use. 

Who Is Responsible for Integrating Technology with Operations? 

Technology acquisition, implementation, and integration are the essential ingredients 
for program success. Integration is the linking of organizational processes and function 
to the new technology, in effect changing the way personnel do business within 
the new framework set by the technology and other programs. Often technology is 
acquired without such integration being fully planned or executed. The issue of 
integrating new technology with systems and operations is problematic for many police 
agencies. Frequently, those responsible for systems integration have little line 
experience or oversight, while those responsible for operations have only a marginal 
linkage with systems planning and implementation. 



In San Diego, systems integration is positioned so that both the IT development staff 
within the police department and neighborhood policing efforts are linked at the top 
of the organizational hierarchy through a deputy chief who oversees both operations. 
This was a conscious effort to link COP/POP and IT development so that the two could 
interact and feed off of one another. Despite the co-location of IT and neighborhood 
policing, neither has been isolated from patrol and other units of the department. 

In Charlotte, there has been a conscious attempt to link the expertise of the external 
(now internal) technology consultant with the line-command functions within the 
department. While the civilian consultant was instrumental in developing the plans 
and driving the process of systems integration and implementation, it is equally 
important to invest department command in the coordination and implementation of 
fundamental changes in the agency. While the chief is keenly aware of the planning 
and systems development efforts, as are the command staff in general, it is also 
important to specifically fix responsibility for implementation and for linkage with the wider 
departmental effort to implement COP and POP. The department assigned a senior 
command officer, a major, to oversee this process and to work directly with the civilian 
consultant, who has office space in the department and essentially functions as a 
full-time employee. 

In Reno, a committee chaired by a deputy chief now oversees systems acquisition and 
implementation. This committee has been involved throughout the planning, RFP 
development, and contract award, and is likely to serve an important role in making 
sure the acquired systems are rolled out effectively. 

In Tempe, responsibility for systems integration falls to Support Services and to a 
committee overseeing technology development. Given that the city now plays a significant 
role in acquiring and implementing technology and support systems, it remains 
to be seen how coordination will develop in the future. 

9 How Do the New Systems and Processes Affect the Quality and Output of Police Work, and 
How Would These Changes Be Measured? 

Ultimately, the success or failure of any technology system rests on its ability to 
improve police decisions and actions so that community problems are addressed and 
public safety is enhanced. The central theme of any of these developments should be 
to prevent crime and disorder and reduce the publics fear of crime, rather than 
respond to these concerns and events after they have occurred. As Charlotte indicated, 
their focus is on preventing the next crime. 

Outcome assessment is perhaps the least explored of all issues that confront IT linkage 
with COP/POP in the cities studied. Most have little capacity or experience in 
designing evaluations of their programs and in understanding whether these interventions 
and efforts achieve measurable results that can be linked to the program. 
Most of the agencies studied have few ongoing evaluation efforts, since they have been, 



understandably, focused on systems implementation. But without systematic formative 
assessment of the impacts of these efforts, it will be difficult to assess whether COP 
and POP are, in fact, facilitated by the new technologies being implemented in many 
of these sites. 

10 How Does the Process of Assessment Continue? 

Acquiring and implementing technology in support of COP and POP objectives are not 
discrete processes with a finite end. Rather, such efforts are likely to be continuous, 
as both the technology itself changes and the police agencys needs and capacity to 
use technology increases over time. Given the rapid state of research and development 
regarding telecommunications and computing and analytic systems, building a 
process for continuous process assessment and improvement is a fundamental need 
of any agency upgrading technology in support of COP and POP. 

This need for an ongoing assessment process is linked, albeit loosely, to the prior 
assessment. Given the wide array of arrangements and responsibilities in the departments 
visited, it is difficult to estimate how these agencies will learn from their current 
experiences and translate that learning to new systems in the future. In San Diego 
and Charlotte, it appears that such assessment is indeed ongoing. This is not clearly 
occurring in the other sites studied. 

11 How Is Such Change Financially Supported? 

Technology is expensive. When a police agency decides to pursue any major form of 
technology development [e.g., laptops in police cars, the design of a new management 
information system (MIS) or computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, or the creation 
of LAN and WAN infrastructure], the costs are substantial. More importantly, once on 
a path in technology acquisition and use, departments may find that their sunken 
costs prohibit them from changing course as both their needs and technology 
change. 

Computer, 911, or other information/telecommunications systems are indeed expensive and 
take years to fully develop, implement, and structure. It is also difficult to 
organize the thinking aspects of any police agency for a considerable period of time. 
These organizational intelligence systems are complex, often requiring significant 
external support for their design and implementation. In virtually every site studied, 
concerns were raised about how much vendors direct and control the process of 
defining and implementing technology. Absent an internal capacity for better understanding 
organizational needs and refining RFPs for vendors, police departments can 
indeed be in a dependent and at times awkward position with respect to technology 
purchasing and use. Often those who may be charged with technology oversight in the 
city or county governmental system in which the police department is imbedded may 
themselves have little understanding of the dynamics and needs of police departments 
and their constituents. 



Most of the agencies studied have had to use funding from a variety of sources to 
advance their technology objectives. Funding sources include the host jurisdiction, 
local fundraising, linkage with Federal and State grants, and program development 
targeted for IT funding from other sources. Given that these efforts typically span 
several years and involve literally millions of dollars, an assessment of the funding 
streams for these efforts is warranted. 

12 Concluding Note: The Uneven Development of Information Domains in Support of COP/POP 

As discussed in the overview (Section 1), in reviewing phase-one departments and the 
goals associated with ISTEP, we developed a conceptual framework consisting of seven 
information domains that were considered necessary in technology development supporting 
community- and problem-oriented policing. In all of the agencies studied, 
these domains were unevenly developed, if developed at all. For the most part, 
information for the problem orientation, area accountability, and strategic management 
domains were the most developed in the agencies studied. The community interface 
domain was in an intermediate stage of development at most sites, while information 
associated with inter-organizational linkages, work-group facilitation, and environmental 
scanning were the least developed in the sites studied. 

Interestingly, this pattern of information development can be associated with the focus 
on COP and POP in each site. Problem orientation, area accountability, and strategic 
management can be thought of as internally driven information domains  those that 
police departments are most likely to identify first. Historically, information on crime, 
calls for service, and the locations of problems have been within the general reach of 
police agencies. COP and POP have sharpened the use of this information, but much 
of the information is collected by police agencies on a routine basis. This information 
serves these three domains (with some augmentation) reasonably well. In recent 
years, the integration of community concerns into police policy and decision making 
has also required the police to develop new and improved ways of communicating 
with their constituents. Information on community interface is a logical path for 
information growth in police agencies, and it appears that the agencies studied here are 
indeed moving along that path. Police departments have begun to use computer technology 
for community interface by creating local and citywide websites that provide 
information directly to the community. These websites vary in terms of their sophistication, 
but all are moving in the direction of providing direct access and information about safety, 
crime, and disorder to the public. 

Environmental scanning, work-group facilitation, and inter-organizational linkage are 
areas of reasonably new information needs for the police. These information needs 
will require a rethinking of how the agency collects environmental (non-crime) 
information, works in collective associations with other agencies (including information exchange), 
and develops a group-think process within the police agency. 

In respect to work-group facilitation, most departments still struggle with understanding 
the problem-solving process and breaking information down so that the system can learn from 
successful problem solving. Many of the sites visited are now 



tracking problem-solving activities in the hope of better understanding the dynamics 
of the problem-solving process for discrete types of events. At the same time, information 
about problem solving is being collected to better understand its impacts. All 
too often, critics of the COP/POP process suggest that such activities are not measured 
well and that these efforts detract from the departments ability to provide basic services. 
Tracking problem solving and the work-group process will go a long way in illustrating 
how problem solving works and what it contributes to community safety. San 
Diegos POP Track program, and variations on this theme in Reno, Charlotte, and 
Tempe, underscore the importance of tracking problem solving as a method both for 
demonstrating how COP/POP works and for providing information across work 
groups so that problems can be worked on throughout the department. 

Information on environmental scanning and interagency linkages relies on many 
organizations outside of police agencies. Such information is not typically resident 
within the agency and must therefore either be developed by the police or collected 
from an existing information system managed by some other agency. In most of the 
agencies visited, interagency relationships at the tactical level do exist. These take the 
form of committees that are focused on particular crime types or locations in the city. 
As these relationships mature and as police agencies develop more user friendly 
access to their own information, it is anticipated that linkages with other information 
sets are a likely consequence. Moreover, as cities begin to standardize and/or centralize 
IT development, such cross-agency information uses are also likely to occur. 
The San Diego Police Department has perhaps the most elaborate systems for interacting 
with other agencies and conducting environmental scanning activities. The 
departments longstanding commitment to COP/POP has permeated much of the local 
government as well, and the interaction between the police department and outside 
agencies is high. San Diego serves as a model for such interactions and for linking 
police and other services to focus on local crime, fear, and disorder problems. 



Police Department

Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project 

ISTEP 

Biographies



Author Biographies 

Timothy Bynum 

Timothy Bynum is a Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State 
University and is formerly the Associate Director of the Institute for Public Policy and 
Social Research at MSU. He received his Ph.D. in Criminology from Florida State 
University. Dr. Bynum has considerable experience in policing research having been 
the principal investigator in over 30 national, state, and local research efforts in the 
area of crime and justice. He has published extensively with articles appearing in 
Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Journal 
of Criminal Law and Criminology, and Crime and Delinquency. He is presently concluding a 
visiting fellowship with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. 
In addition, he was a member of the research teams of the recently concluded national 
evaluations of the Youth Firearms Violence Initiative and the Weed and Seed strategy. 
Additionally, Dr. Bynum has been the Site Director for the Detroit Arrestee Drug 
Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program, formerly the Drug Abuse Forecasting Program, 
since 1994. He is also the Director of the Michigan Justice Statistics Center and is 
currently the President of the Justice Research and Statistics Association. 

Gary Cordner 

Gary Cordner is Dean of the College of Law Enforcement at Eastern Kentucky 
University, where he is also a Professor of Police Studies and Director of the Regional 
Community Policing Institute. He received his doctorate from Michigan State 
University and served as a police officer and police chief in Maryland. Dr. Cordner has 
co-authored textbooks on police administration and criminal justice planning and coedited 
the volumes What Works in Policing?, Police Operations: Analysis and 
Evaluation, Managing Police Organizations, Managing Police Personnel, and Policing 
Perspectives: An Anthology. He edited the American Journal of Police from 1987 to 
1992, co-edited Police Computer Review from 1992 to 1995, and now edits Police 
Quarterly. He is currently a consultant to Abt Associates on several national studies 
and a Senior Research Fellow with the Police Executive Research Forum. Dr. Cordner 
is a past-president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the country's largest 
association of criminal justice educators and researchers, as well as a founder and 
former chair of that organization's Police Section. 

Scott H. Decker 

Scott H. Decker received a B.A. in Social Justice from DePauw University in 1972. He 
earned an M.A. in Criminology in 1974 and a Ph.D. in Criminology in 1976, both from 
Florida State University. He is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the 
University of Missouri-St. Louis. He received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in 
Research in 1989. He is the author of six books, over one-hundred articles, and more 
than one hundred presentations. His research has been funded by the Harry Frank 
Guggenheim Foundation, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services, National Institute on Drug Abuse and the State of Missouri. Dr. 



Decker is Co-Principal Investigator of three projects that focus on youth violence 
funded by the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and 
Delinquency Prevention, and the Gang Crime Prevention Center of the Illinois Attorney 
General. Dr. Decker is Project Director of the St. Louis Homicide Project. This multifaceted 
project includes research, policy and community involvement components. 
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and University of Missouri-St. Louis are 
active participants in the project. Dr. Decker serves as a consultant to the Missouri 
Governor's Commission on Urban Violence, the Missouri Governor's Sentencing 
Commission and formerly served as a member of the Mayor's (St. Louis city) Crime 
Commission. In addition, he has provided background research for subcommittees of 
the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. 

Terence Dunworth 

Terence Dunworth is Managing Vice President of the Law and Public Policy Area for 
Abt Associates, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received his B.A. in Economics 
and Statistics from Durham University in England, an M.A. in Political Science from 
the University of Utah, and his Ph.D. from Michigan State University. During the past 
two decades, he has served as a contractor or consultant to a variety of organizations, 
including the U.S. Department of Justice, the administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, 
the Federal Judicial Center, the World Bank, the United Nations Development 
Programme, and several state and local institutions. Previously, he was a member of 
the faculty of the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. His areas of 
research interest include policing, drug abuse enforcement policy, sentencing, problems 
of determining the allocation of public resources to the justice system, and the 
management of criminal and civil justice agencies. He has a number of publications 
in each of these areas. Dr. Dunworth is currently the Corporate Officer-in-Charge of 
the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program (ADAM) (National Institute of Justice) 
and recently completed the National Impact Evaluation of Weed and Seed (Executive 
Office of Weed and Seed and the National Institute of Justice), the National Evaluation 
of the Youth Firearms Violence Initiative (Office of Community Oriented Policing 
Services and the National Institute of Justice), and the National Assessment of the 
Byrne Formula Grant Program (National Institute of Justice). 

Jack R. Greene 

Jack R. Greene is professor of Criminal Justice and Dean of the College of Criminal 
Justice at Northeastern in Boston, where he is responsible for a college enrolling 
1000 undergraduate students, 160 graduate students, having a major research center 
devoted to topics of criminology and criminal justice policy research. Prior to assuming 
the duties of Dean in the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, Dr. 
Greene was the Director of the Center for Public Policy at Temple University where he 
also served as a Professor of Criminal Justice. Dr. Greene received both his M.S. and 
Ph.D. from Michigan State University in East Lansing. Dr. Greene has extremely varied 
teaching, grant and research experience. He was the Senior Consultant to the Chief of 
the Los Angeles Police Department for a National Institute of Justice Project focused 
on rebuilding patrol services, increasing strategic management, and building part



nerships with community organizations. He has held similar positions within the 
Philadelphia Police Department. Dr. Greene has extensive grant experience, serving as 
principal investigator on research grants investigating the implementation of community 
policing in municipal agencies, public housing communities and business districts, as 
well as the assessment of technology utilization in police agencies. He has 
also been involved in research examining school crime and disorder, and in the 
development of a research collaborative with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. 
Dr. Greene is the author of numerous books, monographs, journal articles, reports, 
and papers on the police, organizational change and the assessment of police services. 
Dr. Greene is the recipient of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Fellow 
Award, for outstanding scholarship and teaching. Among Dr. Greene's publications 
are his most recent co-authored book Police Administration (McGraw-Hill, 1997); 
Community Policing: Rhetoric and Reality (Praeger, 1988) and Managing Police Work 
(Sage, 1984). 

Thomas F. Rich 

Thomas F. Rich has been an Associate at Abt Associates, Inc. in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts since 1994. Prior to that he worked for 12 years at Queues Enforth 
Development, Inc., a criminal justice software and consulting firm. His experience 
spans criminal justice research and evaluation, criminal justice information systems, 
software development, and geographic information systems. He recently directed a 
National Institute of Justice funded effort to introduce crime mapping to community 
crime prevention organizations in Hartford (CT). He is also the author of two NIJ 
publications on crime mapping  The Use of Computerized Mapping in Crime Control 
and Prevention Programs and "The Chicago Police Department's Information 
Collection for Automated Mapping (ICAM) Program." 

Shawn R. Ward 

Shawn R. Ward is a Senior Analyst for Abt Associates, Inc. in Washington, D.C. Prior 
to joining Abt, Shawn was a detective and six-year member of the Akron (OH) Police 
Department. While there, he helped create the Planning and Research Unit and initiated 
computerized mapping for crime analysis. He also formed a GIS partnership 
between the Akron Police Department and the University of Akron's Department of 
Geography and Urban Planning. Shawn has expertise in planning and managing law 
enforcement grant projects, including those funding technology and community policing 
efforts. Shawn received both his B.S. in Political Science/Criminal Justice and his 
M.A. in Urban Planning from the University of Akron. He is currently working on several 
U.S. Department of Justice funded law enforcement projects, including the 
Investigation of the Police Response to Illegal Firearms Markets, Impact of Multi-
Jurisdictional Task Forces, the Changing Federal Role in Local Public Safety, and the 
U.S. Attorney General's Report to Congress on the COPS Office. 



Vincent J. Webb 

Vincent J. Webb is a professor at Arizona State University where he also serves as 
Chairman of the Department of Administration of Justice. Prior to moving to Arizona 
State University - West he was on the faculty at the University of Nebraska at Omaha 
for over 20 years where he served in a number of capacities including Chairman of 
the Department of Criminal Justice and Director of the Center for Applied Urban 
Research. Dr. Webb has worked with a number of law enforcement and other criminal 
justice agencies in areas such as capacity assessment, strategic planning, policy 
development and program evaluation. One focal point of this work has been on 
capacity building in the area of information technology to support data-driven 
decision making. Dr. Webb is currently working on projects that involve assessing the use 
of contemporary information technology in the practice of community oriented policing. Dr. 
Webb's recent publications include articles on public preferences for the allocation of 
police resources related to community oriented policing. 



DOJ Seal

FOR MORE INFORMATION: 
U.S. Department of Justice 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
1100 Vermont Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20530

To obtain details on COPS programs, call the U.S. Department of Justice Response Center
at 1.800.421.6770

Visit the COPS internet web site:
www.usdoj.gov/cops

Created: February 16, 2000 
e09990004