City of Davis

What Is Crime Analysis?

Crime analysis is a discipline of public safety analysis, which provides information support for the missions of law enforcement or criminal justice agencies. Strictly speaking, crime analysis involves:

• The study of criminal incidents
• The identification of crime patterns, crime trends, and crime problems
• The analysis of these patterns, trends, and problems
• The dissemination of information to a police agency so that the agency can develop tactics and strategies to solve patterns, trends, and problems

What Does a Crime Analyst Do?

Just about any work that involves research, data, statistics, or maps can fall under the heading of "crime analysis." The crime analyst is the information center, the data processor, and the cerebrum of a police agency. Some examples of crime analysis in context are:

• Identifying and disseminating information about crime trends and crime problems so that the agency can develop long-term policies, strategies, and problem-solving solutions to address them.
• Forecasting future occurrences in crime series so the agency can attempt to apprehend the offender.
• Researching the modus operandi and characteristics of known offenders to determine who may have committed a crime or a crime series.
• Preparing monthly, quarterly, or annual reports (including statistical reports) for the agency.
• Conducting and analyzing community surveys.
• Analyzing the effectiveness of police programs.
• Analyzing workload distribution by shift and geographic area.
• Providing database querying, statistics, and other types of law enforcement information on demand.
• Preparation of charts, graphs, and maps for reports, community presentations, or courtroom presentations.

How Does Crime Analysis Fit Into the COPPS Philisophy?

The theoretical framework of COPPS has evolved steadily over the past decade and it has become increasingly clear how much the approach depends for its success on the careful analysis of data about crime problems. Indeed, community oriented policing and data analysis are highly interdependent. A framework for community oriented policing is of little use if good data are not available and, similarly, complex data about crime problems require a meaningful framework for analysis.

Crime Analysis and COPPS Working Together

The Problem Solving Capacity of Crime Analysts

Problem Analysis Module (Analysis of Persistent Crime Problems)