Improving Your Crime Analysis Capacity

The January 2012 report How Can Seattle Crime Analysis Rise to the Next Level? examines how that city might improve its analytical capabilities. Unfortunately, it is likely rare that agencies think to improve their crime analysis capacity often enough.

One conclusion at the end of the report is that data should be in the hands of the user, that automated reports should be accessible to the users of the data., and produced by them via better technology.  Law enforcement analysts' common role to be the producers of statistical reports will disappear as technology improves and as users grow more tech-savvy (think younger officers rising up through the ranks). Therefore, it is important for the profession that analysts develop higher level analytical skills to add value to policing.

Law enforcement analysts will thrive only if they improve their own, individual analytical capacity.