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."
What skills and talents do you bring to the profession? Where does your passion for analytical work reside?
While I did not (and still do not) have high-level technical skills in information technology that many excellent analysts possess, I do bring a natural affinity for writing to the profession. Not simply writing skills, but an interest in writing, in communicating, in defining, in articulating, in helping via writing. I also have a passion for understanding and advocating for the profession itself.
I gathered a great deal of information on the field of law enforcement analysis, partially in preparation to finish my Master's thesis in 2001, and also including the practical advice many analysts had given me directly, and indirectly through a listserver, since I became a crime analyst on 9/2/1997. The field of law enforcement analysis was and IS rich with willing helpers - other analysts eager assist a struggling analyst. I felt very indebted to them.
I knew there were a number of analysts in my position, the lone analyst in an agency trying to do effective work with little on-site guidance and knowledge of analytical capacities and value. I decided that maybe I could write the book I wish I had had when I was started out, for them, the other isolated analysts.
As the saying goes, pay it forward, those good deeds done for you by others. I believe in that.
I decided to write a book for new analysts and told everyone I was doing so. That made me do it!
I asked another, more experienced analyst, to collaborate on this book for new analysts to give me more authority, since I had not been an analyst for very long. I wanted to call the book "Getting Started in Crime Analysis." I approached the Police Executive Research Foundation with the idea for my book, but ultimately it was not academic enough for them. That was okay with me, because I did not want to write an academic book - I wanted something practical for new analysts working in the field. There still are too few books out there specifically for those working in this profession, but back then there were none easily obtainable. Steve Gottlieb's 1994 book "Crime Analysis: from First Report to Final Arrest," seemed to be the only one that existed as far as I could tell, and I got my copy through his training class.
Because one of my secret ambitions was to be a best-selling novelist, I knew how to query publishers with book proposals and did so. The Haworth Press agreed to publish the book, and later it was sold to Routledge, its current publisher. The book is filled of out-dated urls but many of the basics in it hold water over time. There are better books out there now, but it served a good purpose back then.
"Introduction to Crime Analysis: Basic Resources for Criminal Justice Practice" by Deborah A. Osborne and Susan C. Wernicke arrived in my mail on my birthday in September 2003. The title was more academic than I wanted, but I was appreciative of the opportunity to be published and to be able to help others with the information shared by others that had helped me.
Here is a secret for you: If you hold back from writing things for the profession because you are afraid of criticism and being judged, know that I have NEVER had anyone complain to me directly about anything written that book, nor in my subsequent book, nor in any of the articles and book chapters I have written. I am sure there are critics, and there should be, but critics are NOT going to clamor to you with their complaints. Help someone by taking the risk to share information, ideas, and what is in your mind if that is what you are called to do.
Lesson: Pay it forward! What can you do to contribute to the profession with your unique set of talents, interests, and abilities? Don't be afraid!
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