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Efficiency move: SFPD puts crime analyst in station

By: Tamara Barak Aparton
Examiner Staff Writer
June 29, 2009

Jeff Taylor (Courtesy photo)

An analyst that will pinpoint crime trends — assaults on city busses and shootings, among others — has been hired to work with one of the police stations in the south side of The City.

Jeff Taylor, formerly a crime analyst at the department’s Bryant Street headquarters, started work last week at the Ingleside Police Station.

Taylor will interpret data daily on crimes, marking the first time the information is kept in a station database and interpreted locally.

The data will be used to shape deployment strategies based on criminal hot spots, violence trends and dangerous intersections.

The Ingleside station was chosen in March as the testing ground for reforms based on a series of studies by the nonprofit Police Executive Research Forum on ways to increase efficiency.

The station covers a police district that includes nearly two dozen neighborhoods, including the bucolic Saint Francis Wood and the Sunnydale housing projects.

Using computer software, Taylor will be able to create daily reports on the top five crimes in neighborhoods.

“We can respond with a more high-visibility patrol. We can reach out to the community and develop a response and solution to a particular crime pattern,” Ingleside Capt. David Lazar said.

The goal is to tackle the problems to a point where police receive fewer calls for service.

“I want to see, based on our computer data, what address we’re responding to the most. Then we’ll do an analysis of the problem and formulate a response,” Lazar said. “I also want to reduce or prevent accidents by learning where we’re seeing the most frequent accidents and the primary collision factor.”

 



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Reader Comments

All comments on this page are subject to our Terms of Use and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Examiner or its staff. Comment box is limited to 250 words.

crop

Jun 29, 2009

what a friggin waste of money. you know they use to have pin maps which did the same thing and everyone knew what was going on. what a sad state of affairs

 

Carolina

Jun 29, 2009

What a friggin uneducated opinion crop. Do you realize it is more than "pin maps"? Technology has improved dramatically. Would you tell a company not to use computers/analysts to analyze their customer base? Would you teach a student to write on their hand, when they could type on a computer? Crime analysis is done all across the country, you would be surprised how it can help a PD.

 

crop

Jun 29, 2009

well carolina, you couldnt be further from the truth.. all you have to do is work a given area, read a few reports, and you will know by district what is going on. this is not rocket science and it has worked for years. while mr analyst is printing forms, reports and graphs, mr auto booster is working away.. same with burglaries.. all other crimes are generally random, such as robberies and homicides. and mr carolina, a customer base and police work has nothing in common. we cannot build widgets and market them. we work after the fact , not before.. you maybe well versed in the field of computer analyst, but police work is not the same. or didnt you analyze that

 

SFRUNNER

Jun 30, 2009

Analyzing crime statistics is but one tool to use in determining where to best deploy the Department's constrained resources. The other tools, which must be deployed with equal vigor, are creating and providing viable economic opportunities in the crime-ridden areas of our lovely City. Hopefully, the Mayor's office and the Chamber of Commerce will work with the Police Department to reduce social-economic forces that generate crimes.

 

SFnative

Jun 30, 2009

Crime trends are not that hard to determine if they are reported to the police. The number one way to track crime trends taking the data and compiling it. This can be done by use of the CAD system when calls of crimes are reported to police dispatch, when you have people that call the station directly this might change the numbers a bit. Lets not forget the SFPD is not the only law enforcement agency in the city. Federal Park police, CHP SF State and U.C. police etc. Unless you have all the numbers you will not have an accurate number of all the crimes and cannot totally deploy based on those numbers. Using the crime maps program currently would give the same basic numbers as the analyst would since he is using the same data, now you have someone that can make charts and graphs. What is his salary?

 

Sfcopper

Jun 30, 2009

This will only show where crime has been committed, not who is commiting it! Criminals are very mobile and will commit crimes in multiple police districts. This will only track crime in ONE district! Cops know where the crimes are
mostly being committed (ie. Murders near the projects, burglaries in the commercial districts, etc). Having cops work a regular sector daily is the best tool and you don't have to spend money on some computer geek to tell them what they already know!

 

crop

Jun 30, 2009

that is exactly what i have been saying. you put up all the bells and whistles and graphs and charts. id you work a station with a good LT. who reviews all the reports as they come in, you know where the auto boosts and burglaries are. and even if we had up to the minute informations, there are not enough cops around to handle them all at the same time..more fluff.. carolina wake up

 

Carolina

Jun 30, 2009

None of you truly no what you are talking about. It is like thinking you know how to run fingerprints just because you saw it on CSI, or you should be a judge because you watch Judge Judy.
It is not all about "graphs and charts". They are visual representation of your data, just like at any business/ocrporation/government.
A good LT is out on the street, not in the office reviewing reports for analysis, only checking them off to make sure they meet standards. Let a cop be a cop, that is what they want to do. Let your analysts analyze, your dispatch dispatch, etc. Use your resources.
Yes, criminals are mobile, but newsflash, police departments share information.
It is not all about where crimes is, it is also about who what and why, tactical, strategic analysis, etc.

 

Carolina

Jun 30, 2009

Crop said:
"all other crimes are generally random, such as robberies and homicides."
Wow, you really don't know what you are talking about here. Explain to me why one gas station would get robbed 4 times in one year, while the gas station right across the street didn't get robbed at all? Random? Don't think so. Just one example. Analysis gets discussion going to problem-solve. How you could not think that analyzing a customer base is not the same as analyzing crime is, well, interesting. Another example, Why does one apartment complex get motorcycles stolen but the other doesn't? Why, when? How come? How do we know this? Thru analysis.
Again, crime analysis is more than saying "we had 3 robberies yesterday compared to 2 the day before". That is not analysis, that is just counting.

 

NYGirl

Jun 30, 2009

Sure - the cops can know where the patterns are, where the burglaries are occurring - but are they keeping track of all the other data, such as people with that history who were just released from prison, people who were arrested in the area that have that MO, probationers, parolees, drug houses? Are they supposed to keep track of all of that? No - how about using technology and mapping (not bells and whistle charts but maps overlaying different data sets) and sending that out to the officer? Then when he stops Joe Schmoe who the analyst told him just got out onto parole, he can question him on burglaries in the area? That's a lot more than a pin map can do!

 

crop

Jul 1, 2009

Carolina, now i know you know nothing. The Good Lts. read and report to the oncoming watches. Capts also review and put out list the next day. I dont know where you work, but since san francisco is city and a county, we have no information to share with other agencies unless it done the old fashion way, the telephone. you dont understand the working men and women of SF know whats going on on a daily basis and not some stuffed shirt analyzing crime patterns. NY GIRL, you are out of touch with reality. Analyst are not going to tell us Joe Schmoe just got released. You cannot just stop people on the street and question them about crimes without probable cause. its called Miranda. You two must be analyst that do not deal in the real world of crime. Ill take a smart street cop over a computer anytime

 

chad

Jul 4, 2009

This is just another move that is a waste of money. Ingleside knows where the crimes are, the associations are the people that can tell them if they are too dumb to look at the crime reports! Ever since putting Capt. Lazar in this station, things are going downhill. He cancelled his monthly meetings at Ingleside.
I now see why John Avalos wants change. Too many cops at this station, and persistent crime, and lies.
Put one of our other Capt.'s back and we will do fine if not better than this joke. Ingleside station has really gone to the pit's. someone HELP!!!!

 


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