CompStat is an abbreviation for computer or comparative statistics. It is an accountability method first pioneered in New York City in 1994 under the leadership of former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton. The concept uses factual data to analyze crimes, where they are occurring and develop responsive crime fighting strategies that can be measured for effectiveness based on continuing data analysis. The methodology has since been widely adopted by law enforcement agencies nationally.
Unlike internally developed CompStat programs that require hours, days and months of manual effort to produce results, the COPLINK CompStat Analyzer instantly automates compiling, comparing, visualizing and analyzing statistics in real-time. This occurs by taking advantage of COPLINK's underlying technology, which automatically refreshes updates from underlying data sources, and through enhanced geographic and visual display tools. These features enable wider and more in depth analysis of data points, effective decision support and on-demand response for deploying resources than is otherwise possible using traditional CompStat methods. The Los Angeles Police Department, led by CompStat pioneer Chief William Bratton, is among the first agencies nationwide to adopt COPLINK CompStat Analyzer.
Griffin added, "CompStat Analyzer's unprecedented speed of adoption among our national customer base is testimony to COPLINK's years of proven performance and reliability." He continued, "With deployments now active or in progress across nearly 1600 jurisdictions nationwide, COPLINK leads the industry with the largest national footprint and the most in depth range of proven tactical lead generation, analytics, visualization and decision support solutions available in the market."
COPLINK CompStat Analyzer helps law enforcement visually understand the big picture of criminal activity. It displays what, where, when, and who is involved in law enforcement response to calls for service and criminal offenses. It quickly helps line-level officers, supervisors and command personnel see how an agency, division or officer is responding over time. With this information, agencies can more effectively deploy scarce personnel resources to reduce criminal activity. The program's flexibility also can show activity across the entire jurisdiction or focus on specific geographical areas. This knowledge enhances department, unit and individual performance.
CompStat Analyzer's wide variety of GIS-based mapping, graphing, charting and analytic tools including temporal and spatial analysis allow data to be sliced and diced myriad ways. Users can also filter information by location, time, week, day, hour, document type, agency, division, beat, activity, officer role, vehicle, race, gender, entity and crime type or any combination thereof.
CompStat Analyzer is accessible either through the COPLINK base program or separately. This stand-alone operational capability permits access by persons outside of law enforcement, such as elected officials, planning department staff, social service agencies and other relevant government concerns. The separate access shields the underlying incident details; the viewer sees only the aggregate data, not the individual incidents. This feature provides law enforcement and community leadership with a dynamic tool for public presentations on crime trends and performance while significantly reducing preparation time.
Accurate, timely and easily understood knowledge presented to the public is a key component in developing strategies for a substantive focus on crime and disorder. COPLINK's CompStat Analyzer helps further this key tenet of community-oriented policing.
CompStat Analyzer is available as an add-on module to the COPLINK Base solution.
