From the Free Dictionary: CompStat originated in the New York City Police Department in 1994, under leadership of Police Commissioner William Bratton and his Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple. It is a multilayered dynamic approach to crime reduction, quality of life improvement and personnel and resource management. CompStat employs Geographic Information Systems and was intended to map crime and identify problems. In weekly meetings, ranking NYPD executives meet with local precinct commanders from one of the eight patrol boroughs in New York City to discuss the problems. They devise strategies and tactics to solve problems, reduce crime, and ultimately improve quality of life in their assigned area. The system is also in use in other major metropolitan cities including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore actually calls their system Citistat.
Los Angeles police chief William Bratton has done a commendable job and will be hard to replace when he leaves at the end of this month. He brought the CompStat system with him to Los Angeles. CompStat has proven to be a success in every law enforcement jurisdiction where it is in use.
In Houston, unfortunately, Mayor Bill White and his puppet police chief, Harold Hurtt have stubbornly refused to adopt the CompStat system despite the repeated efforts of commercial real estate broker Jay Wall and a group of other civic minded citizens to have this system instituted by the Houston Police Department..
A word of caution though. Crime statistics nationwide have often been cooked to make city and county law enforcement agencies look better and/or to make their entities look less dangerous than they actually are. That has certainly been true in Houston where the murder rate was reduced by listing homicide victims as suicides, even though they had been shot multiple times. My question is: Can the Los Angeles crime reduction numbers really be trusted?
CHIEF BRATTON HIGHLIGHTS CRIME DROP AT NEW COMPSTAT CENTER OPENING
At the unveiling of the LAPD center, police chief touts the force's success
By Tony Castro
Los Angeles Daily News
October 20, 2009
In one of his final acts as police chief, William Bratton unveiled the new CompStat center in the new Los Angeles Police Administration Building on Tuesday, giving him another opportunity to outline his success in reducing crime.
During Bratton's tenure from 2002 to 2009, homicides in the city dropped 53 percent, rapes 38 percent, robberies 28 percent and aggravated assaults 67 percent, according to the latest crime figures.
"My successor will have his or her work cut out for them to keep this goal," said Bratton, 62, who leaves at the end of this month to work at a global security firm in New York.
The CompStat opening included a large cake bearing the center's logo and Bratton's name that was rolled out by officers to commemorate both the unveiling and Bratton's role in reducing crime.
The statistics also showed a significant drop in property crimes during his tenure. Overall, crime fell 38 percent, including a 53 percent drop in violent crime and 32 percent in property crime.
Other major drops included 33 percent in thefts from cars and 26 percent in burglaries.
The LAPD under Bratton also took a big bite out of gang crime - down 34 percent overall, including 59 percent in gang-related homicides.
"There is a possibility," said Bratton, "we could end this year with as few as 300 homicides or close to it, and that's extraordinary when you think that in 1990, we had 1,100."
Bratton said the CompStat system will help reduce crime even more in the future.
"We are fast approaching a state," said Bratton, "where we are going to be able to predict with some degree of certainty where crime or crime patterns are emerging and can be stopped before they effectively emerge."
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