Smart Policing in Detroit: The MDOC Alert Initiative

• In Event: Smart Policing Initiative: Place-Based Strategies to Reduce Crime

Abstract

In 2022, Detroit Police Department and Wayne State University were awarded a multiyear BJA Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) grant to implement a unique “focused deterrence” intervention aimed at offenders under community supervision to reduce violent, gun, and personal crimes in the city. Using real-time DPD data on calls for service and incident reports generated by responding officers, we integrate MDOC probation and parole data to flag offenders on community supervision who were identified in incident reports. These Alerts are sent within 24 hours to the offender’s supervising parole/probation agent. Offenders under community supervision are tagged as offenders, victims, or bystanders, and these MDOC Alerts often provide agents with actionable information about clients’ behaviors that would remain unknown. We examine over 7,000 MDOC Alerts generated in Detroit in 2023, and several thousand additional Alerts now being generated in 2024. We examine the nature of these incidents involving offenders on parole and probation, the distribution of these Alerts across offense types, and the volume and frequency with which those under community supervision appear in these Alerts as offenders, victims, and bystanders. Future analysis aims to examine links between actionable Alerts and subsequent involvement in crime incidents and/or desistence from crime.

Authors

• Kelly Rayner, Detroit Police Department

• David Martin, Wayne State University

• Peter B. Wood, Eastern Michigan University