What is Precision Policing?

Precision Policing Definition

Precision policing is a systematic, proactive and almost precognitive approach to ensuring public safety. It organizes a police agency’s structure around data and information to build investigations of high value suspects committing the most crimes. It involves a more collaborative inter-agency cooperation, but also a strong focus on community collaboration. What was once the job of the detective department, is now a whole agency collective.

It was developed by the NYPD in 2014 and championed by the recent drop in crimes across the city.

With precision policing, the NYPD has moved away from the controversial stop and frisk and moved toward identifying people and patterns with data. NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton describes it as "fewer arrests for minor offenses—'broken windows' types of offenses—while at the same time more significant numbers of arrests for the serious crimes that we're focusing on." 

Although stop and frisk was netting netting high arrests for the department, it wasn’t decreasing crime. Instead, the crime rate was stagnant and animosity and distrust from the community was on the rise. 

So with precision policing, the results are three-fold. Officers now have the data to back their arrests causing fewer arrest. They are able to arrest those who are most dangerous and committing the most crime. And they are able to have a better relationship with the communities they serve.

Five Pillars to Precision Policing

There are 5 pillars of precision policing known as the 5 T’s:

1. Trust - There is inter-agency trust by collaborative policing and partnering with other city agencies, non-profits, community-based organizations, the faith-based community, and others on public safety issues. Earlier this year, the NYPD released their new COMPSTAT 2.0, an online portal to share crime information, in order to help create a stronger level of trust and accountability with the public.
2. Training - Training is focused on de-escalation and using the least amount of force necessary to gain control of situations. Gone are the days where new officers fresh out of the academy are sent sent to IMPACT or high crime rate zones. Instead, new officers are paired with seasoned, veteran officers who mentor them in developing the interpersonal skills and discretion that are the soul of police work.
3. Technology - Technology is a priority. Recent improvements to the NYPD infrastructure include high-speed data access for every department, system security, smartphones for all patrol officers, and the COMPSTAT 2.0 to connect better with the community.
4. Terrorism - Use training and preparation for safe, effective crowd control, safe disorder response, crime suppression, and mobilizations. 
5. Tackling Crime - Whole agency task forces made up of teams of local precinct detectives and patrol officers, gang detectives, narcotics officers, Juvenile Justice Division investigators, among others, are created in order to meld specialty investigative skills with local knowledge and expertise to target violent groups and organize comprehensive investigations.

Example of Precision Policing

Say there’s are an influx of shootings in the city. Instead of stopping everyone you may suspect has possession of a gun, you pull data from recent drug busts, arrests, robberies, and homicides to try to identify any relationships. When this data is pieced together, a bigger, stronger investigation is formed. So now, instead of just one gun charge that may have been initially found in hundreds of stop and frisks or traffic stops for minor violations, you now have an investigation that has led to credit card fraud, drug charges, as well as gun charges tied to a few people. Once the investigation is finished, you can arrest the select few committing the crimes. 

The result is a lower arrest rate, and a lower crime rate.

In NYC, precision policing has led to a 4.1 percent drop in the 2016 crime rate. The number of stop-and-frisk encounters also dropped 96% since 2011. Not only is this a more effective and smarter way of policing, it’s a better way to police a community without making them feel like they are an enemy. 

Did you find this new crime-fighting strategy interesting? Keep an eye out for our blog post on using new technologies like blockchain and Google’s machine learning API with public crime data.