The Value of Integrating Data across Agencies and Jurisdictions to Improve Public Safety

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Public safety agencies have benefited from recent technological improvements (e.g. new hardware and software capabilities) that facilitate the integration and analysis of data. These datasets can be used to explore relationships between crime and other causal factors and generate results that inform efforts to improve public safety. Integrated public safety data, however, rarely combines cross-agency data, and very few examples have integrated data across jurisdictional boundaries, despite the documented benefits of doing so (see La Vigne and Wartell (2001)). The Urban Institute (UI) conducted a comprehensive, cross-agency and inter-jurisdictional pilot study to collect, integrate, and analyze crime and related data across the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. The integrated data were used to investigate a number of research questions, developed with input from local public safety agencies. The panelists will discuss results from the investigative work, all of which employs integrated datasets. Panelists will address the role of residential and commercial contexts in modeling crime; examine indicators of neighborhood-level risk and service need among offenders and compliance with supervision conditions; discuss the relationship between transportation networks and hubs in community crime levels; and consider whether—and how—the inclusion of cross-jurisdictional data improves the accuracy of predictive crime maps.

Sub Unit

• Area IV. Criminal Justice Policy and Practice / 38. Crime Prevention

Individual Presentations

• Neighborhood Change and Crime: Examining the Story as a Whole - Christina Plerhoples, Urban Institute; Helen Ho, Urban Institute; Rolf Pendall, Urban Institute

• Gunfire and Gun Crime: Exploring the Relationship - Nancy La Vigne, Urban Institute; Samuel Bieler, Urban Institute; Jeremy Levy, Urban Institute

• Moderating Effects of Neighborhood Context on Recidivism: Implications for Research and Practice - Emily Tiry, Urban Institute; Bryce Elling Peterson, Urban Institute; KiDeuk Kim, Urban Institute

• Investigating the Effective of Cross-Jurisdictional Data Mapping on Predictive Crime Mapping Accuracy - Meagan Cahill, Urban Institute; Samuel Bieler, Urban Institute

Chair

• Nancy La Vigne, Urban Institute

Discussant

• Eric Martin, National Institute of Justice