Working Tip - Thinking Ahead

As a crime analyst, one is asked the same sort of questions on an irregular but repeating basis. Any intelligence analyst with a specific portfolio probably experiences the same phenomenon.

Although my job description did NOT include the duty to provide citizens, businesses, and community leaders with crime statistics formally, I was the person individuals were sent to with their statistics questions. These requests sometimes involved a need for data to help write generate grants - grants that would likely help the community. The data was an important need.

I solved my problem of having to do time-consuming special studies by analyzing historical crime data and then updating it every six months using GIS. I joined both Part One and Part Two UCR data (separately to speed the process) with US Census Tract data. This way I was able to obtain the crime counts by census tracts for at least the previous five years and put this data in a table. I made a document I could share with the public with instructions on how to look up the census tract they were interested in (go to www.cencus.gov - see American Factfinder on the left column and click). The document included separate tables of Part One Crime and Part Two Crime by census tract and by year. I included a map of the city census tracts.

To make this even more valuable to your law enforcement decision-makers, you could enlarge single maps of each district/precinct/area in your jurisdiction and include the years crime statistics and demographic data for each area in a brief report. This would be thinking ahead and make your work life easier in the long run. It would be a strategic analysis if you provide interpretation of the data in your report. This type of report would give you "big-picture" insight into the problem areas in your jurisdiction.

An intelligence analyst studying a certain group, such as outlaw motorcycle gangs, could do something similar - chart any data you have by each motorcycle gang by year - you will be able to show changes in known gang members by gang, changes in weapons recovered, changes in known arrests, changes, in whatever you track by quantity - and once you do it for the history of your data it is easy to update.

So pay attention to what those special requests coming across your desk have in common. What can you do to think ahead?