Policing Smarter Through IT: Lessons in Enterprise Implementation

• NCJ Number: 206752
• Author(s): Wesley G. Skogan; Susan M. Hartnett; Jill DuBois; Jason Bennis
• Date Published: September 2004
• Length: 53 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2002-CK-WX-K003
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
• Corporate Author: Northwestern University
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/NCJRS; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This report presents a description of the development, implementation, and assessment of the Chicago Police Department’s integrated criminal justice information system, the Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEAR) system.

Abstract

Within the criminal justice field, the information technology revolution, also referred to as IT, has been exploding. In 2001, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) began its development of a state-of-the-art, integrated criminal justice information system entitled the Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEAR) system. The intent was to build an enterprise information system, customized to CPD, yet adaptable to others. CLEAR impacts three functional aspects of policing: management, criminal justice integration, and community/business partnerships. The expectation is to create safer communities, downsize administrative functions, increase management and officer accountability, and increase proactive community involvement. This report presents a description and overview of this national IT model and a representation of the future of police information systems. The report summarizes those lessons learned from an evaluation of the CPD’s CLEAR system which tracked the ways the CPD confronted system development and implementation issues as they arose. On the operational level, the report discusses training, help desk and internal marketing strategies, and the incorporation of early feedback from working officers. A description is also given of organizational level issues, such as scheduling the roll out of new systems, developing privacy and security policies, and external data sharing arrangements. The report concludes with a discussion on the importance, as well as the difficulty, in assessing the effectiveness of new information technology in a public sector organization. The CPD’s IT plan reflects its problem-solving orientation, stressing “intelligence driven” policing and an internal accountability process which manages results.