Analytical Imagination: Traveling Criminals

It has been my experience as a trainer of analysts that a number of analysts admit that they are not creative in using analytical techniques and developing analytical products. I hope to provide some ideas for analysts analyzing particular problems. I will do this on a frequent basis using specific crime problems.

So how might you analyze this problem of traveling criminals and how might you share your findings with those you can take action on the new knowledge you produce?

For the problem of traveling criminals:

Create target profiles of individuals known to be in your are and those who have been in your area in the past - these profiles should include associates, modus operandi, arrest histories, photos, maps, aliases, and other pertinent information. The information should be succinct and well-presented. The profiles should be made available to all your officers.

A set of indicators for traveling criminal activity should be developed for your officers and they should be advised to collect complete information when taking reports that involve these indicators.

Advisories for citizens should be prepared containing general indicators of traveling criminal activity. Your public information officer should inform the media. Extra effort is important to make sure that senior citizen centers and senior outreach workers receive these advisories to prevent victimization.

A computer folder should be maintained on this topic and updated whenever relevant reports and other information is gathered on traveling criminals. You may create a code or flag for traveling criminals to use in a database you already use, or keep an Excel spreadsheet with traveling criminal related data. This way you don't have to repeat queries or try to remember where you have the information. Keep photos, reports, histories, products, open source information, maps, information from other jurisdictions - everything you have on on this topic - in one place and update it as new information develops.

Map incident involving past crime by traveling criminals over as many years as possible. Do you have hot spots or small clusters of crimes? Can special effort be made to contact vulnerable citizens for prevention efforts in those neighborhoods?

These are just a few suggestions to help you think - if you have others, please comment for other blog readers. Thank you!