#2 Lessons From My Story

I will post a "lesson" from my life as an analyst once a week until I run out of them! Skip over these if they don't interest you. For those who read on, consider the power of your own stories and where they might take you. And if you want to follow these post threads, in the future click on the label "my story."

Expect the Unexpected: #2 Lessons From My Story

It took months and months, from the time to when I took the civil service exam to become a crime analyst, until I actually started. It took even longer to be hired to become Criminal Research Specialist (which had a later title name change to Investigative Analyst) for the United States Secret Service. I applied in a January then was not interviewed until September and then did not start work until the following June - approximately of a year and a half of waiting!

The lesson from this part of my story: have lots of patience!

Another lesson which astounded me when I became a crime analyst which persisted throughout my career: most people in your workplace don't know what you are supposed to do nor what you can do. It saddens me that, nearly twenty-two years later, this is still the reality for many law enforcement analysts.

When I started working at the Buffalo Police Department in 1997, I was the first crime analyst. One naive analyst for 20,000 Part One Crimes! Me, with no computer skills and no one to guide me on site. An overwhelming amount of crime to dig into with an Records Management System in development and no automation, except for a daily posting of crimes on an Intranet that I could read. Progress happens - now there are at least 18 analysts assigned to the county crime analysis unit which includes the city and its suburbs.

I was (fortunately) sent to a lot of training financed by grant funding, training no one else in the department was familiar with. This training saved me - I learned that crime analysis was real and that other crime analysts would help me as I tried to figure out what to do. Thankfully, because expectations were practically non-existent, I had a great deal of time to learn on the job. I joined a listserver, which I learned about from an academic working with the department, and connected to analysts from around the world; their advice helped me so much. This cyber-networking also helped me stay sane in the challenging work world that I found myself working in. I was not isolated. Others were experiencing my challenges - others had surmounted them.

Gil Kerlikowske was the Commissioner of my police department at the time I was hired; he would move on a year later to become Chief of Police in Seattle, then later the Drug Czar of the United States. It was his idea to hire a crime analyst, and then he left. That did not help me. Another mini-lesson here for analysts: when the leader who understand your role leaves, your role will be more difficult until a new law enforcement manager fills his or her shoes.

To have a job where you expect others to tell you what you should do, which is how most normal jobs operate, and instead find yourself in a job that you must invent based on the outside training you get, felt preposterous to me. How unexpected! I did not know this was possible!

Expect the unexpected as a law enforcement analyst - you won't be disappointed! It is the surprise that keeps on giving.

I recently watched the mini-series Manhunt on Acorn TV. In this show, based on a true crime story, the main character, DCI Colin Sutton (played by Martin Clunes of Doc Martin fame) heads an investigative team trying to solve a murder case. He works for the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) and his wife is an analyst with a local level police department. She offers to help him using her analytical tools but he is dismissive of her. Of course, it turns out he solves the case without her help, following his hunches despite those who don't believe he is doing his job right. Yet, I could not help but ponder the role of the analyst, not even believed in her marriage to a law enforcer. The misunderstood, unsupported, lonely life of an analyst...

Make sure you get support from others! You may have to look far and wide for it, but it is there.