NCJ Number
217490
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 74 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2007 Pages: 52,54,56,58
Date Published
February 2007
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article describes the use of CompStat management in the small Paradise Valley (Arizona) Police Department.
Abstract
Paradise Valley is a small, affluent bedroom community nestled between Phoenix and Scottsdale, AZ that enjoys low violent crime rates but relatively high property crime rates. In 2002, the Paradise Valley Police Department implemented their own version of CompStat by reporting on the department’s statistics at the weekly command staff meeting. By early 2003, crime, collision, and workload statistics were being reviewed at the monthly management team meeting to allow for the participation of all supervisors. The management team then used this information to create a report about the most important areas for police concentration in each crime category. The report is sent to all police personnel as well as volunteers, the three local newspapers, the mayor, and town council members. The results are clear: between 2003 and 2005, crime dropped 20 percent and collisions dropped 16 percent. Other benefits have been an increased focused on crime prevention both by the police department as well as by citizens. The Paradise Valley Police Department meets regularly with neighborhood crime prevention groups and schedules crime prevention classes several times a month, including women’s safety courses, ID theft prevention, and mail theft prevention. The CompStat process has reenergized officers and has deepened the level of partnership between the department and the community.