CompStat 2.0: Police Data Transparency and Community Trust

Two agencies, The Vera Institute of Justice in accordance with The Police Foundation and the NYPD in accordance with Microsoft, have recently announced their own separate development, test, and implementation of a model for law enforcement agencies aiming to upgrade current CompStat processes.

Both The Vera Institute and NYPD are calling their new versions of CompStat ‘CompStat 2.0’.

The Vera Institute has a history of work on public safety related issues like police management practices, police-community relations, misconduct, and policing in democratic societies worldwide. And, the Vera Institute worked with the NYPD in the past on development of projects including The Manhattan Summons project as well as the development and implementation of the original CompStat launched by NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton in the early 90’s.

The New CompStat 2.0 (two different versions)
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to receive any information from NYPD PIO office on their version of CompStat 2.0, except it’s due to roll out this month. NYPD's information technology deputy commissioner Jessica Tisch told NY Post CompStat 2.0 lets cops see a breakdown of crimes in different sectors of their precincts. *Edit: NYPD released CompStat 2.0 a couple of weeks after this blog post was published. Check it out here. It's pretty close to our recommendations outlined below!

The Vera Institute's version won’t have any deliverables until closer to 2017 and their roll out will take about two years. Vera’s version plans to integrate community policing strategies specifically addressing the White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing report. with a goal of helping police departments be more accountable to the communities they serve by measuring and evaluating the impact of community policing practices with a focus of driving down crime. The Marshall Project suggests the new Vera Institute CompStat 2.0 will focus on data from community satisfaction surveys so commanders can get an idea of community priorities and community sense of trust.

What is CompStat?

CompStat, a program developed by NYPD transit officer Jack Maple and originally called ‘Charts of the Future’, collects and analyzes crime data weekly to identify spikes in crimes using crime maps and comparative statistics to target enforcement areas in order to drive down the crime rate.

It’s also used a performance management tool with four generally recognized core components:

• Timely and accurate information or intelligence
• Rapid deployment of resources
• Effective tactics
• Relentless follow-up

CompStat is credited with bringing down crime in NYC by 60%. The year after CompStat was adopted in NYC, murders dropped to 1,181. By 2003, there were 596 murders—the lowest number NYC had seen since 1964.

CompStat has also been adopted and implemented by an estimated two-thirds of 500 the nation’s largest police departments. DC Metro PD, LAPD, Philly, Austin, San Juan, San Francisco, Nashville, Oakland, New Haven, and Baltimore are a few of the agencies actively using the CompStat program.

A Broken System

Although successful, CompStat has received criticisms over the years. Specifically, causing and encouraging downgrading and suppression of crimes because of the management pressure created by the program’s heavy focus on statistics and push for better numbers each week. NYPD’s 81st precinct under Commissioner Raymond Kelly and 40th precinct under Commissioner Bratton have been found guilty of both downgrading and suppression of crimes to make CompStat numbers look better.

Downgrading typically includes misclassification of a crime. For example, a felony becomes a misdemeanor. Suppression is when what the victim reported isn’t reflected in the report. A robbery becomes ‘lost item’.

Manipulation of crime reports and statistics has a direct ripple effect into the community. Officers may be more aggressive about arresting individuals (like in the 81st precinct) which destroys relationships with community members. If crimes are downgraded or suppressed, communities in need of resources to combat a high crime rate will find themselves without, causing frustration toward non-existent policing.

Data Transparency is Key
The recently proposed Ferguson draft consent decree includes an entire section on ‘Data Collection, Reporting, and Transparency’. The Sunlight Foundation just launched the ‘Hall of Justice’, a data repository of robust, searchable inventory of publicly available criminal justice datasets and research. Chicago rolled out RespectStat, a program that incentivizes positive interactions over arrests and uses the Police-Community Interaction (PCI) survey to collect community based data. The Task Force on 21st Century Policing created the Police Data Initiative which uses data and technology to build trust, enhance community policing, and reduce inappropriate use of force.

Take a look at the current NYPD CompStat weekly report (Note: Weekly reports are removed each week from NYPD’s site and only includes percentages and statistics, no underlying data.)

Check out this weekly CompStat crime map from an agency in Florida (Note: there is no list or printout of the location of each incident.)

These documents are good, but touch only the surface of data and information that’s available. More information is needed by anyone to determine not only the crime happening, but where each crime happens, where to deploy resources, and what is being done to address crime issues each week. 

A Successful and Effective CompStat 2.0
Public oversight of data is important. It’s one of the reasons why CompStat, UCR, and NIBRS reports are released publicly. CompStat underlying data is already available internally to agencies, it’s just a matter of making it available to the public. Opening up the underlying data included in the current CompStat program creates a feedback loop of communication between communities and police, leading to a higher level of transparency and trust.

Here are 6 key features that will make any new CompStat 2.0 program successful and effective:

1. Release details on each crime included in the CompStat report, including:

       - Date and time
       - Location
       - Crime type
       - Description
This eliminates opportunity for suppression and downgrading of crimes. See SOCS for more information on a crime data standard being adopted by agencies nationwide.

2. Include all crime incidents that occurred. Currently, if multiple related incidents occur in the same location only the most serious incident is counted. 

3. Include Part 1 and Part 2 crimes. Currently, only Part 1 crimes (murder and non-negligent homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft, and arson) are included in CompStat reports. Part 2 crimes should be included as well (simple assault, curfew offenses and loitering, embezzlement, forgery and counterfeiting, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, drug offenses, fraud, gambling, liquor offenses, offenses against the family, prostitution, public drunkenness, runaways, sex offenses, stolen property, vandalism, vagrancy, and weapons offenses).

4. Break out shootings into their own category (NYPD is already doing this, so does SpotCrime). 

5. Make sure the data is open and easily accessible. This means the data is available in a machine readable format is has no restrictions on the ability to collect, use, and share. Currently NYPD reports are removed and replaced each week. NYCShootings has noticed this and now keeps an inclusive repository of NYPD CompStat data on their own. Most CompStat reports are posted to the public as PDF - a format that is neither open or machine readable.

6. Introduce a new data point that measures relationships. This data point should not only the community’s feelings toward a police agency (similar to what RespectStat in Chicago is collecting), but also measures the agency’s feelings toward the community.

Which CompStat 2.0 program will prove more effective - NYPD or Vera Institute?  Only time will tell. Our hope is both programs will make police departments more transparent, accountable, and foster a better relationship with the community.

In the meantime, is your police agency participating in the current CompStat program? Are they releasing crime data openly? If not, ask them to make crime data openly available. And, let us know by emailing feedback[at]spotcrime[dot]com. We will map the data and send out email alerts for free.