NYPD using cutting-edge technology to solve crimes

According to the New York Daily News here is how NYPD uses technology to solve crimes. At a recent CompStat session  bullet cartridges found at several crime scenes over the prior two months were matched to one gun.
Surveillance cameras at multiple crime scenes revealed the same vehicle present at each scene. From there they tied the vehicle to an owner, and soon enough to a suspect.

All types of technology are now in play.

The NYPD recently provided the Daily News with an unprecedented look at its 21st century arsenal, which includes: 

• Thousands of security cameras scattered throughout the city linked together in a network called the Domain Awareness System (DAS). 

• Records of hundreds of thousands of license plate numbers scanned and pinned to specific locations at specific times. 

• Social media posts bragging about criminal behavior. 

• Facial recognition technology that matches facial characteristics of potential suspects to images in a massive NYPD database. 

• Improved ballistics capability that allows cops to quickly identify the source of a bullet. 

• Prosecutors in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island have created crime strategies units, using data to identify ties between crimes. Authorities can also map the crime to spot trends, quality of life issues or gang activity. 

• A system of sensors the NYPD plans to install that would detect gunshots — even when residents don’t report the shootings. Cops can then sync the sensors with cameras to capture footage of the crime. 

• Last week, a select group of cops answered calls with Microsoft tablet computers in hand that can instantly tap into the criminal history at an address — including residents with outstanding warrants. 

The department also has set aside $1.5 million for a sound sensor system called Shotspot that captures gunshots at specific locations. That allows police to respond to shots even if no one calls 911. 

To read more Click Here

Fudging the numbers: Crime reporting in NYC

New York City police officials are under scrutiny for manipulating crime reports to make it appear that crime rates continue to fall when in fact they are not falling. An anonymous survey of nearly 2,000 retired officers found that the manipulation of crime reports — downgrading crimes to lesser offenses and discouraging victims from filing complaints to make crime statistics look better — has long been part of the culture, according to the New York Times.

In the early 1990s violent crime was ravaging the NYC. According to Robert Zink of the NYC police union, the Compstat program was started when crime was at an all-time high, with over 2,000 homicides a year and countless felonies.

The program called for the immediate tracking of crime, swift deployment of police resources to problem areas and what Compstat’s creator Jack Maple called relentless follow-up.

The only problem is, it didn’t anticipate the “fudge factor.” That’s the characteristic that allows local commanders to make it look like crime has dropped when it has in fact increased.

In the early days, it was easy for a precinct commander to benefit from Compstat. He or she had crime-ridden neighborhoods where rudimentary policing techniques could bring crime down. Add the increased resources from the Safe Streets/Safe City program, and just paying attention to patterns and putting cops where crime was happening caused stats to fall dramatically. Then add to that the benefit of the gun control effort by the street-crime teams and we’ve made some real and honest impact on crime in New York City, reported Zink.

Of course, when you finally get a real handle on crime, you eventually hit a wall where you can’t push it down any more. Compstat does not recognize that wall so the commanders have to get “creative” to keep their numbers going down. Zink suggests, no mayor or police commissioner wants to be the one holding the bag when crime starts climbing, and no precinct commander wants to be the one to deliver the bad news that he or she doesn’t have enough cops to do the job.

So the fudging begins.  The police manipulate the reporting and citizens get a false impression of what is actually going on in their communities.  The problem is not unique to NYC, similar issues have plagued Baltimore, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Atlanta.

To read more: http://www.nycpba.org/publications/mag-04-summer/compstat.html

Connecticut Victim Families Support Repeal of Death Penalty

The Hartford Courant asks if the death penalty is worth it in Connecticut. The state's only execution in the last half-century was the lethal injection of serial killer Michael Ross on May 13, 2005, 21 years after his arrest. Ross had not exhausted all his appeals, but waived them and repeatedly asked to be executed--similar to the three execution carried out in Pennsylvania since 1976. However, Pennsylvania has 222 killers on death row, Connecticut has 11.

The Connecticut legislature is considering a bill to abolish the death penalty. More than two dozen family members of murder victims came to the Capitol complex recently to support the bill, and 76 relatives signed a letter backing the bill. Some have described the death penalty as a cruel and costly hoax.

Connecticut's repeal bill, submitted by state Representative Gary Holder is written as a prospective measure, which means it will apply to those convicted after its effective date.
Those on death row and anyone convicted before the repeal, if it happens,will still face death penalty. But as Gail Canzano, a clinical psychologist from West Hartford, whose brother-in-law was murdered in Hartford in 1999, told the Courant, those already condemned, "have decades of appeals ahead of them and it's unlikely either of the murderers will ever be executed." For this, she said, "the entire state watched as the family suffered in the courtroom, reliving the events through bloody photographs and horrifying details."

To read more: http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-death-penalty-0222-20110222,0,1892358,print.story

Bratton Speaks Out: Crime Fighting Gains in Jeopardy

Retired police Chief Bill Bratton is the only person to lead the two largest police forces in the United States, New York and Los Angeles. Bratton came to prominence as Rudy Giuliani’s police commissioner. Bratton’s adaptation of James Q. Wilsons “broken window” theory brought about an unprecedented reduction in crime. His introduction of CompStat has been credited with revolutionizing police work.

Bratton recently lamented the reductions in crime fighting resources and personnel. He expressed concern that the advances in law enforcement that have impacted crime rates around the country may be in jeopardy. During a recent interview with PoliceOne.com, Bratton spoke of his concern for policing in these difficult economic times.

"New York City, with its counter-proposed budget, will have dropped from 41,000 officers down to around 34,000 officers this year, which brings them back to a 1990 staffing level. Los Angeles with 9,900 officers, because of cutbacks, budget is no longer paying officers overtime — they are giving them comp time instead — and that effectively reduces the size of the force by almost 700 officers. They still have 9,900 because they are giving them so much time off in lieu of overtime."

"That brings them back to levels when I was Chief in 2002. That type of decline is going to take years to make up for, in fact, because right now there is no sense that cities are going to be doing a turn-around in the near future. So as you look out over that ten-year period of time, the loss of personnel that we’re experiencing now make take almost a decade to recoup those losses, if in fact, some places ever do that."

"The issue also is that there is so much that is available to help in crime fighting, crime prevention, reduction efforts that are available in this profession now — whether it is technology or forensics or any of those other advances — that will no longer be affordable to police agencies. So, it’s ironic that just as we are finding additional medicines to deal with the problem of crime, we can’t afford them. That’s going to hold us back also."

For full interview: http://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/2056048-American-policing-in-the-next-decade-A-conversation-with-Chief-Bill-Bratton/

Baltimore Puts Comstat on Hold

Will Baltimore pull the plug on Comstat?

The term Comstat is a derivation of Compstat which is short for computer statistics. Compstat was introduced in New York City by by Jack Maple of the Transit Authority Police. At the time it was called Charts of the Future. Maple methodically plotted and tracked crime with pins stuck in wall maps. Charts of the Future was credited with cutting rampant subway crime. Chief of the New York City Transit Police William J. Bratton was later appointed Police Commissioner by Rudolph Giuliani, and brought Maple's Charts of the Future to NYPD.

Compstat became a more sophisticated version of Charts of the Future. Compstat is the use of technology and communication to reduce crime, and expend personnel and resources. Compstat utilizes Geographic Information Systems to map crime and identify problems. In weekly meetings, police executives meet with local precinct commanders to discuss issues in there neighborhoods. The sessions are intended to devise strategies and tactics to reduce crime, and improve quality of life throughout the community. Besides New York and Baltimore, Compstat is used in Austin, TX, Los Angeles, Newark Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Vancouver to name a few.


Baltimore began using some Compstat principles in the late 1990s. Governor Martin O'Malley, then mayor of Baltimore, brought in New York consultants shortly after he became mayor to implement a more sophisticated review of data. According to the Baltimore Sun, O'Malley vowed to get tough on crime, he instilled the New York philosophies into the Police Department's operations and expanded it across agencies. The broader program, known as CitiStat, won a Harvard innovation award in 2004.

Comstat was first implemented by Former Baltimore police Commissioner Edward T. Norris, who led Compstat sessions in New York and later Baltimore, and said the weekly meetings were necessary and revealing.

Norris told the Sun,"It allows the strongest commander to shine, and it exposes the fakers very quickly." Norris, went on to say, "I don't care what company it is. If you are a good employee, do you want to be buried or get a chance each week to stand in front of the CEO and show him how smart you are?"

So why walk away from Comstat?

Anthony Guglielmi, Baltimore police spokesman, told the Sun that Comstat meetings has been suspended for the 30 days as the Police Commissioner looks for "creative ideas to revamp Comstat," which Guglielmi called "laborious" and "stale."

According to the Sun, the meetings have been criticized by some officers who say they often devolve into browbeatings. Commanders often take a day or more to compile thick binders of information and are holed up for hours memorizing facts so as not to be caught off-guard. Confrontations are frequent.

"It's a beat-down session," said Robert F. Cherry, president of the Fraternal Order of Police union told the Sun. "It's become a forum for finger-pointing and just running through a lot of numbers without giving some concrete strategies for fighting crime."

My Take

The idea of accountability can be threatening to some executive officers. The weekly scrutiny of your work in an open forum can be embarrassing especially for under performing executives. However, will a more kind and gentle approach yield the same kind of results experienced in New York City.

William J. Bratton took over as police commissioner in 1994 and introduced Compstat to the city. Only four years earlier, there were 2,245 homicides in New York City. In 2009, there were 412.

By all accounts, the Compstat meetings were rough in New York City. Precinct commanders who could not perform were replaced. However, no one can argue with the results. The unprecedented reductions in crime have saved literally thousands of lives and billions of dollars.

To read more: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-04-09/news/bal-md.ci.comstat08apr09_1_comstat-police-department-s-operations-anthony-guglielmi