Understanding and Assessing Police Agency Analytics

• In Event: Building Analytic Capacities in Law Enforcement

Abstract

For the past several years the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Law Enforcement Organization of Planning and Research Directors (LEOPRD) project has focused on improving the level and use of analytic capacity in US police agencies. In early 2014, the LEOPRD project completed the development of a policy agency self-assessment tool that focuses on six core police agency analytic functions: crime analysis, research and evaluation, policy development, strategic planning, resource allocation, and project management. This assessment tool was piloted in several phases with approximately 70 police agencies, including a number of small agencies. The assessment tool is linked to models and resources for agencies planning to improve their analytic capacities. The tool has also been modified and deployed to assess the Smart Policing Initiative and analytic capacities of BJA Smart Policing Initiative grantee sites. This paper will review results from the LEOPRD and SPI assessments, as well as models and promising approaches for how to police agencies can accomplish this task in a resource-constrained environment.

Author

• Vivian Elliott, CNA