Lincoln's City Council passed a new alarm ordinance that became effective on July 1. The ordinance establishes an enhanced fee structure for repeat false alarms during a two year period. The intent of the ordinance was to reduce false alarms. Through the end of November in 2010, our officers have responded to 2,583 false alarms. During the same period in 2009, we responded to 2,917 false alarms a reduction of 11%, and its picked up steam since the ordinance went into effect.
The decrease is being driven by repeat false alarms. In 2009, there were 281 premises with three or more false alarms in the first 11 months, and they accounted for 1,301 of the false alarms. In 2010 that number has fallen to 218 premises, accounting for 985 alarms. This is exactly what the ordinance sought to accomplish, and I suspect the results will improve even further with time.
The alarm trend has been good since our peak year of 2002. During the first 11 months of 2002, we responded to 4,354 false alarms--almost 1,800 more than we have rolled on from January through November this year When you consider that each of those false alarms requires at least two units, that's a huge impact over time. During the first 11 months of that peak year of 2002, we had 483 premises with three or more false alarms, accounting for 2,771 of the total false alarms. So the repeat false alarms in 2010 are well under half the 2002 level.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query false alarms. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query false alarms. Sort by date Show all posts
Monday, December 6, 2010
Friday, June 29, 2012
Unusually effective
The Mayor, City Councilman Jon Camp and I all received an email yesterday from a disgruntled citizen who is upset to learn that he must pay a $25 annual fee to register his residential alarm system. He opined that the two-year old ordinance changes here in Lincoln would do nothing to reduce false alarms. I've given several updates on this topic here on my blog before, but here is the response I sent him:
"The Mayor's Office has asked me to respond to your email about your disagreements with the City's alarm registration and excess false alarm ordinances. Ordinances of this type are virtually universal in cities of Lincoln's size. We have a fairly conservative ordinance, in that the cost of registration is comparatively low, the number of "free" false alarms comparatively high, and the fee for excess false alarms comparatively low. These ordinance changes were adopted to both decrease false alarms and to place more of the cost for responding to false alarms on the users of such systems, rather than the general taxpayers.
With respect to the impact of more restrictive false alarm ordinances in our region and in Lincoln, I can assure you these policies have made a significant difference. As a practical matter, over the past several years alarm companies have instituted procedures to verify alarms more effectively, and to provide better training and support to customers in order to avoid an excessive number of false alarms at a business or residence. Since our peak year, The number of false alarms in Lincoln has declined by more than 2,000 per year, a 45% reduction. The number of addresses with five or more false alarms during a calendar year has decreased by 82%, from a peak of 242 to only 44 last year. This has occurred despite the fact that Lincoln's population continues to grow by about 3,600 per year.
From my standpoint, these are certainly impressive results. Each false alarm results in the dispatch of at least two police officers, and officers are typically tied up on an alarm anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or more. Since we respond to alarms in an emergency driving condition, there is also a risk to both the officers' safety and that of other motorists. Reducing false alarms both conserves resources and improves safety. I regret the fact that you disagree with this public policy decision by our elected officials, but I wanted you to know why I continue to support this approach to alarm registration and excess false alarm fees. "
Monday, May 6, 2013
Personal touch
I blogged last week a couple times about the police department's efforts to reduce false alarms, as a means of both using resources efficiently and improving public safety. One of the most effective tools in achieving this reduction was a redesigned municipal ordinance that increased the cost for chronic repeat false alarms. The pocketbook can be a powerful motivator. There is, however, another tool that has proven to be powerful and one that I think is often under appreciated
Back in 2011, a home improvement store here in Lincoln had developed quite the reputation for their chronic false alarms. That year, Lincoln police officers responded to 19 false alarms at the business Apparently the escalating fines for more than 3 false alarms in a single year hadn't done the trick. But in 2012 and 2013, there has been a dramatic change. There has been one false alarm in 2013, and there were only two in all of 2012. A drop from 19 false alarms to two at a big box retailer is pretty astounding. So, what changed?
The answer lies in the personal touch. Sgt. Ed Sheridan paid a visit to the store, and talked face-to-face with the manager. That was the turning point. I have a feeling that for some businesses the bill for excessive false alarm simply goes into the accounts payable stack along with the other monthly bills for pest control, lawn care, and garbage service. When you meet the right person and have a personal conversation, though, you can often change this dynamic.
You can let the manager know that this isn't just a matter of cost: responding to false alarms puts officers and the public at risk.You can tell the manager about your concern that repeated response to false alarms can lull police officers into a deadly sense of complacency. You can tell him or her about the police officers and firefighters right here in Lincoln who were killed during emergency driving. You can offer to speak personally to the firm's alarm company, or to make an appeal up the chain of command on the manager's behalf to a national or regional manager, if that would help get him or her the needed resources to solve the problem.
Engaging in this approach requires timely information about premises with emerging false alarm problems. Lincoln's ordinance allows three free false alarm responses annually, before the fees kick in. We use one of our GIS applications, CrimeView Dashboard, to alert personnel in our five command areas of emergent alarm problems. An automated query looks for addresses with three or more alarm dispatches within the past 90 days, then creates a widget that is displayed in the dashboard. Although it appears on the dashboard automatically, you can drill into the data as far as you want with a mouse click. Here's what the false alarm widget displayed this morning for Capt. Anthony Butler and the Northwest Team officers:
This widget uses graduated symbol sizes and the number within the circle to immediately show the heavy hitters at a glance. It is a great example of using the power of geographic information systems (GIS) to deliver actionable information to police personnel. We also have a significant problem with repeat false fire alarms. Beginning this year, these are also covered in Lincoln's ordinance. We are in the process of implementing the Omega Group's companion product for the fire service, FireView Dashboard, and I expect that repeat false alarms will be among the widgets we include on the dashboard for battalion chiefs and fire captains.
Back in 2011, a home improvement store here in Lincoln had developed quite the reputation for their chronic false alarms. That year, Lincoln police officers responded to 19 false alarms at the business Apparently the escalating fines for more than 3 false alarms in a single year hadn't done the trick. But in 2012 and 2013, there has been a dramatic change. There has been one false alarm in 2013, and there were only two in all of 2012. A drop from 19 false alarms to two at a big box retailer is pretty astounding. So, what changed?
The answer lies in the personal touch. Sgt. Ed Sheridan paid a visit to the store, and talked face-to-face with the manager. That was the turning point. I have a feeling that for some businesses the bill for excessive false alarm simply goes into the accounts payable stack along with the other monthly bills for pest control, lawn care, and garbage service. When you meet the right person and have a personal conversation, though, you can often change this dynamic.
You can let the manager know that this isn't just a matter of cost: responding to false alarms puts officers and the public at risk.You can tell the manager about your concern that repeated response to false alarms can lull police officers into a deadly sense of complacency. You can tell him or her about the police officers and firefighters right here in Lincoln who were killed during emergency driving. You can offer to speak personally to the firm's alarm company, or to make an appeal up the chain of command on the manager's behalf to a national or regional manager, if that would help get him or her the needed resources to solve the problem.
Engaging in this approach requires timely information about premises with emerging false alarm problems. Lincoln's ordinance allows three free false alarm responses annually, before the fees kick in. We use one of our GIS applications, CrimeView Dashboard, to alert personnel in our five command areas of emergent alarm problems. An automated query looks for addresses with three or more alarm dispatches within the past 90 days, then creates a widget that is displayed in the dashboard. Although it appears on the dashboard automatically, you can drill into the data as far as you want with a mouse click. Here's what the false alarm widget displayed this morning for Capt. Anthony Butler and the Northwest Team officers:
This widget uses graduated symbol sizes and the number within the circle to immediately show the heavy hitters at a glance. It is a great example of using the power of geographic information systems (GIS) to deliver actionable information to police personnel. We also have a significant problem with repeat false fire alarms. Beginning this year, these are also covered in Lincoln's ordinance. We are in the process of implementing the Omega Group's companion product for the fire service, FireView Dashboard, and I expect that repeat false alarms will be among the widgets we include on the dashboard for battalion chiefs and fire captains.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Bottom drops out
On several past occasions, I have blogged about false alarms. These have been falling in Lincoln, despite the fact that the number of alarmed premises has doubtlessly increased. In 2009, Lincoln’s new ordinance increasing the fee for chronic false alarm responses was adopted, and this law went into effect mid-year in 2010. LPD did not propose this change, and deserves neither the credit nor the blame for the outcome.
Now that we have some significant data under our belt, however, I think the introducer, Councilman John Spatz, and his fellow council members who unanimously adopted the ordinance may take a bow. The council hoped this ordinance would reduce the problem of chronic repeat false alarms. It appears to have done just that. The bottom has dropped out of false alarms.
Back in our peak year of 2002, there were 242 addresses in Lincoln where the police responded to more than five false alarms. In 2009, it was 71 addresses. That’s a reduction of just over 70% during that past eight years. While the number had been falling since 2002, the biggest decreases are in the most recent years, –21% in 2009, and another –25% in 2010: the years the ordinance was debated and adopted, and the year of its effective date.
Reducing false alarms not only conserves police resources, it improves public safety by reducing the overall number of emergency responses, keeping officers available for other activities, and helps police officers avoid the possibility of complacency when responding to a location that is the site of perpetual false alarms.
The total number of false alarms last year fell to 2,796. That was a 12% decrease from 2009, and represents a 42% decline from the peak year of 2002, when LPD officers responded to 4,848 false alarms. Just to give you some sense of how we compare, Garland, TX is one of the cities that we exchange data with as part of the Benchmark Cities Chiefs group. They are a little smaller than Lincoln, with a population of 240,876. In the most recent year for which we have exchanged data (2009), Garland responded to 12,716 false alarms--more than four times our number.
Now that we have some significant data under our belt, however, I think the introducer, Councilman John Spatz, and his fellow council members who unanimously adopted the ordinance may take a bow. The council hoped this ordinance would reduce the problem of chronic repeat false alarms. It appears to have done just that. The bottom has dropped out of false alarms.
Back in our peak year of 2002, there were 242 addresses in Lincoln where the police responded to more than five false alarms. In 2009, it was 71 addresses. That’s a reduction of just over 70% during that past eight years. While the number had been falling since 2002, the biggest decreases are in the most recent years, –21% in 2009, and another –25% in 2010: the years the ordinance was debated and adopted, and the year of its effective date.
Reducing false alarms not only conserves police resources, it improves public safety by reducing the overall number of emergency responses, keeping officers available for other activities, and helps police officers avoid the possibility of complacency when responding to a location that is the site of perpetual false alarms.
The total number of false alarms last year fell to 2,796. That was a 12% decrease from 2009, and represents a 42% decline from the peak year of 2002, when LPD officers responded to 4,848 false alarms. Just to give you some sense of how we compare, Garland, TX is one of the cities that we exchange data with as part of the Benchmark Cities Chiefs group. They are a little smaller than Lincoln, with a population of 240,876. In the most recent year for which we have exchanged data (2009), Garland responded to 12,716 false alarms--more than four times our number.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Final reminder
Just three days remain before Lincoln's new alarm ordinance goes into effect on July 1. The new ordinance requires that every alarm company, and every residence or business with an alarm, register that alarm within 60 days. If you have an existing alarm, you have until August 30 to register.
After the initial registration, you must re-register during January of even numbered years, so you'll be good until January of 2012. The registration fee is $100 for commercial alarm users, and $60 for residential alarm users. There is a discount for alarm users who submit their registration through their alarm company. All the details can be found on a FAQ page at our public website.
False alarms have been falling in Lincoln since peaking out in 2002 at 4,848. Last year, there were 3,181. The decline is continuing this year. So far in 2010, false alarms are down 8.3% from the same period in 2009. I expect that with the passage of the new ordinance the number may fall even further. If false alarms continue to fall, this is a good thing. Responding to alarms is dangerous, and when sloppy installation, maintenance, or operation causes repeated false alarms at the same premise, it is especially important for the owners to sit up and pay attention.
Last year's most egregious offender is a home improvement store that had 19 false alarms. They're doing just a little better this year, with only seven false alarms thus far. Under the new ordinance, you are allowed six free false alarms within a two-year registration period. After that, there is a $100 fee assessed for each false alarm until you hit 16, when the fee jumps to $250. Had this ordinance been into effect in 2009-2010, this business would have been assessed $3,650 so far with a half year left during which each additional false alarm would cost another $250.
After the initial registration, you must re-register during January of even numbered years, so you'll be good until January of 2012. The registration fee is $100 for commercial alarm users, and $60 for residential alarm users. There is a discount for alarm users who submit their registration through their alarm company. All the details can be found on a FAQ page at our public website.
False alarms have been falling in Lincoln since peaking out in 2002 at 4,848. Last year, there were 3,181. The decline is continuing this year. So far in 2010, false alarms are down 8.3% from the same period in 2009. I expect that with the passage of the new ordinance the number may fall even further. If false alarms continue to fall, this is a good thing. Responding to alarms is dangerous, and when sloppy installation, maintenance, or operation causes repeated false alarms at the same premise, it is especially important for the owners to sit up and pay attention.
Last year's most egregious offender is a home improvement store that had 19 false alarms. They're doing just a little better this year, with only seven false alarms thus far. Under the new ordinance, you are allowed six free false alarms within a two-year registration period. After that, there is a $100 fee assessed for each false alarm until you hit 16, when the fee jumps to $250. Had this ordinance been into effect in 2009-2010, this business would have been assessed $3,650 so far with a half year left during which each additional false alarm would cost another $250.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Consider the denominator
This is a follow up to my post Tuesday about the declining number of false alarms in Lincoln. A reader, Michelle, who is an alarm administrator for a Texas law enforcement agency, left a comment telling me that the industry standard for assessing false alarms in the ratio of false alarm dispatches to alarm systems. This makes sense. The denominator provides the context for comparison., just like population is used as the denominator to calculate crime rates.
There are 5,554 registered alarms in Lincoln, so last year's 2,383 false alarm calls would represent a ratio of .43. We do not know how many alarms were in operation in 2002, the year we reached our high of 4,848 false alarms. I think we can reasonably assume that there are significantly more today, because the population of Lincoln is more than 30,000 greater today, and it is also my impression that the number of alarmed premises has soared in recent years.
Lacking specific data on the number of registered alarm systems in 2002, if we just assume that the number of alarm systems was the same as in 2012 for the sake of this exercise, the ratio of false alarms to alarm systems would have been 4,848 to 5,554, or.87. If I am right about the likely increase in the number of alarmed locations in the past dozen years, that ratio would actually have been considerably higher than .87, thus the decrease in the ratio to .43 in 2012 would be even more dramatic.
From past comparisons, I already knew that false alarms in Lincoln are on the low side when population is used as the denominator. I was curious, though, if the same would hold true using Michelle's ratio of alarms to alarm systems. In her comment, she had mentioned the website of the False Alarm Reduction Association, faraonline.org, so I went there in search of any data of this type from other jurisdictions. It looks like the site has lots of resources, but most are for members only, and I wasn't quite ready to fork over $150 to get a peak right at the moment.
I did, however, find a document on FARA's site that sheds some light on how Lincoln's ratio of false alarm calls to alarms system stacks up. It was this description of the winners of the 2011 FARA Achievement Awards. The top award went the the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, which reduced the false alarm ratio from .42 to .35 over a three year period. One of the runner ups, the Riverside, CA Police, was recognized for a four year reduction from .69 to .41. With Lincoln's ratio standing at .43, it appears we compare quite favorably with the award winners.
There are 5,554 registered alarms in Lincoln, so last year's 2,383 false alarm calls would represent a ratio of .43. We do not know how many alarms were in operation in 2002, the year we reached our high of 4,848 false alarms. I think we can reasonably assume that there are significantly more today, because the population of Lincoln is more than 30,000 greater today, and it is also my impression that the number of alarmed premises has soared in recent years.
Lacking specific data on the number of registered alarm systems in 2002, if we just assume that the number of alarm systems was the same as in 2012 for the sake of this exercise, the ratio of false alarms to alarm systems would have been 4,848 to 5,554, or.87. If I am right about the likely increase in the number of alarmed locations in the past dozen years, that ratio would actually have been considerably higher than .87, thus the decrease in the ratio to .43 in 2012 would be even more dramatic.
From past comparisons, I already knew that false alarms in Lincoln are on the low side when population is used as the denominator. I was curious, though, if the same would hold true using Michelle's ratio of alarms to alarm systems. In her comment, she had mentioned the website of the False Alarm Reduction Association, faraonline.org, so I went there in search of any data of this type from other jurisdictions. It looks like the site has lots of resources, but most are for members only, and I wasn't quite ready to fork over $150 to get a peak right at the moment.
I did, however, find a document on FARA's site that sheds some light on how Lincoln's ratio of false alarm calls to alarms system stacks up. It was this description of the winners of the 2011 FARA Achievement Awards. The top award went the the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, which reduced the false alarm ratio from .42 to .35 over a three year period. One of the runner ups, the Riverside, CA Police, was recognized for a four year reduction from .69 to .41. With Lincoln's ratio standing at .43, it appears we compare quite favorably with the award winners.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Cause for alarm
...or, maybe more appropriately, cause of alarm. Here's the breakdown for the 3,514 false alarms Lincoln police officers responded to in 2007:
The "unknown" category probably skews these numbers a bit, and in reality to proportion of employee-caused false alarms is even greater. While proper installation and maintenance is certainly important, there is no substitute for good employee training.
The "unknown" category probably skews these numbers a bit, and in reality to proportion of employee-caused false alarms is even greater. While proper installation and maintenance is certainly important, there is no substitute for good employee training. Some of our alarmed premises seem to have chronic problems with false alarms. It's a crime in Lincoln to have more than four false alarms in a 12 month period. So far in 2008, the Home Depot on S. 70th Street leads the way, with 14 false alarms since January 1. They've been issued 48 citations for exceeding four false alarms in a 12 month period since 2005.
Circuit City with 12 false alarms so far in 2008, and a specific Wells Fargo ATM with 11, aren't far behind. The award for most improved would have to go to the Lincoln City Libraries, which, for the first time in several years, managed to stay entirely out of the top ten so far this year. Nice work LCL!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Alarm ordinance enacted
Last week, the Lincoln City Council enacted a new ordinance on false alarms--a piece of legislation that had been in the pipeline for well over a year. Modelled on Omaha's ordinance, the new law creates a system of fees for excess false alarms, replacing the current criminal citation that a business or homeowner receives when they have more than 4 false alarms in a 12 month period.
The new ordinance has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2010. We will be working in the next few months to set in place the infrastructure that will be necessary to effectively enforce this new law. Several changes will take place: alarms must be registered (both business and residential), so that system will have to be established; we will have to come up with a mechanism for handling billing and accounts receivable, since the fees will go to the City; and we will need to tweak our system for tracking false alarms, since the new ordinance replaces a rolling 12 month period with a fixed two-year registration period.
Although false alarms are comparatively low and have been falling steadily in Lincoln (3,279 in 2008, and they will be even lower this year), I predict that the enactment of this ordinance, will cause another drop. My hope is that false alarms can be reduced without negatively impacting our ability to catch burglars in the act.
The new ordinance has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2010. We will be working in the next few months to set in place the infrastructure that will be necessary to effectively enforce this new law. Several changes will take place: alarms must be registered (both business and residential), so that system will have to be established; we will have to come up with a mechanism for handling billing and accounts receivable, since the fees will go to the City; and we will need to tweak our system for tracking false alarms, since the new ordinance replaces a rolling 12 month period with a fixed two-year registration period.
Although false alarms are comparatively low and have been falling steadily in Lincoln (3,279 in 2008, and they will be even lower this year), I predict that the enactment of this ordinance, will cause another drop. My hope is that false alarms can be reduced without negatively impacting our ability to catch burglars in the act.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Alarm comparison
Since I'm blogging about false alarms this week, I thought it might be worth exploring how we compare to other police departments. There is no national source of data on this, but fortunately it's among the hundreds of items the benchmark city chiefs share with each other in our annual survey. Here's how we compare on false alarms per 100,000 population with our 20 benchmark city members:
Looks like we are in pretty good shape, relatively speaking. So, summing up this short series:
1. False alarms are a common police dispatch, and consume some significant resources. They also hold the inherent risks of emergency driving.
2. Their numbers have fallen significantly since 2002.
3. A substantial number of false alarms are caused by employees.
4. There are some premises that account for a startling number of false alarms.
5. Compared to other cities, Lincoln's false alarms are low.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Slashed in half
I have been giving annual updates in recent years on the reduction in false burglar alarms in Lincoln. I neglected to do so in January, but I am catching up now. False alarms fell to 2,383 in 2012. We can now say for the first time that the number of false burglar alarms has been slashed in half (and then some) from the high-water mark in 2002.
Since every one of these involves at least two officers being dispatched and some emergency driving, this has had a significant impact not only on workload, but on public and officer safety. This appears to have been achieved without impacting the number of actual burglaries. There were 1,593 burglaries reported to Lincoln police in 2012, compared with 1,964 in 2002.
There is still a little room for improvement. Although the number of chronic repeat addresses has fallen even further (242 in 2002 to 45 last year), there are still a handful of places that rack up impressive records of repeat false alarms. One local restaurant, for example, had 35 false alarms in 2012, and paid $6,000 in fees. That's a lot of onion rings.
Beginning this year, we are including false fire alarms in the ordinance. A false fire alarm is an even riskier proposition than a false burglary alarm, and consumes even more resources. It is a bit too soon to evaluate this, however, since it has only been in effect for a few months, and since the number of alarms is smaller. You can bet that I will be watching the data, though.
There is still a little room for improvement. Although the number of chronic repeat addresses has fallen even further (242 in 2002 to 45 last year), there are still a handful of places that rack up impressive records of repeat false alarms. One local restaurant, for example, had 35 false alarms in 2012, and paid $6,000 in fees. That's a lot of onion rings.
Beginning this year, we are including false fire alarms in the ordinance. A false fire alarm is an even riskier proposition than a false burglary alarm, and consumes even more resources. It is a bit too soon to evaluate this, however, since it has only been in effect for a few months, and since the number of alarms is smaller. You can bet that I will be watching the data, though.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Somewhat alarming
Any police officer or firefighter knows that we go on a lot of burglar alarms and fire alarms, but that relatively few of those turn out to be actual burglaries or actual fires. Around the country in recent years, cities have worked to reduce the number of false alarms they respond to, and particularly what I call chronic false alarms: places that have many repeats, usually due to faulty equipment or faulty training. I've blogged about these efforts on many occasions in the past.
One of the reasons we have been interested in reducing unnecessary false alarms is to conserve resources, but another important reason (even more so, to me) is safety. Responding to alarms is dangerous. Driving Code 3 (lights and siren) exposes both the responders and the motoring public to heightened risk. A few times every week, I walk by the photos of three Lincoln police officers and at least two firefighters who were killed in traffic crashes during emergency driving. Nationwide, the risk of traffic fatalities is among the biggest threats to police officers and firefighters.
It isn't just the police officers and firefighters who are at heightened risk, either. There has been a lot of concern around the country in recent years about fatal traffic crashes in which emergency vehicles have collided with motorists. I can recall two fatal accidents of this type in Lincoln during my career, although there may we one or more that I'm not recollecting.
Last Wednesday, at Lincoln Fire & Rescue's weekly management staff meeting, our chief officers were discussing this. While this was underway, I used our GIS analytic software, FireView Dashboard, to run a query in our incident data for all calls that were originally dispatched as fire alarms, and the subset that actually turned out to be fires. In the preceding 365 days, we had responded to 1,327 fire alarms. Of those, 16 turned out to be actual fires. Of the actual fires, half were "cooking fires confined to container." Only one of the 16 fires caused any property loss whatsoever, $1,500 damage at a sorority house, when smoke activated a sprinkler head.
On the one hand, any one of those calls originally dispatched as a fire alarm could turn out to be the Real McCoy. On the other hand, we sent a lot of engines and trucks on Code 3 runs knowing that the chances were small:1.2% to be precise. It's a matter of weighing the risk. Is the risk we are trying to mitigate (an incident that has people or property in peril) greater than the risk we are creating by a fire engine and ladder truck running with lights and sirens to the other 98.8%?
One of the reasons we have been interested in reducing unnecessary false alarms is to conserve resources, but another important reason (even more so, to me) is safety. Responding to alarms is dangerous. Driving Code 3 (lights and siren) exposes both the responders and the motoring public to heightened risk. A few times every week, I walk by the photos of three Lincoln police officers and at least two firefighters who were killed in traffic crashes during emergency driving. Nationwide, the risk of traffic fatalities is among the biggest threats to police officers and firefighters.
It isn't just the police officers and firefighters who are at heightened risk, either. There has been a lot of concern around the country in recent years about fatal traffic crashes in which emergency vehicles have collided with motorists. I can recall two fatal accidents of this type in Lincoln during my career, although there may we one or more that I'm not recollecting.
Last Wednesday, at Lincoln Fire & Rescue's weekly management staff meeting, our chief officers were discussing this. While this was underway, I used our GIS analytic software, FireView Dashboard, to run a query in our incident data for all calls that were originally dispatched as fire alarms, and the subset that actually turned out to be fires. In the preceding 365 days, we had responded to 1,327 fire alarms. Of those, 16 turned out to be actual fires. Of the actual fires, half were "cooking fires confined to container." Only one of the 16 fires caused any property loss whatsoever, $1,500 damage at a sorority house, when smoke activated a sprinkler head.
On the one hand, any one of those calls originally dispatched as a fire alarm could turn out to be the Real McCoy. On the other hand, we sent a lot of engines and trucks on Code 3 runs knowing that the chances were small:1.2% to be precise. It's a matter of weighing the risk. Is the risk we are trying to mitigate (an incident that has people or property in peril) greater than the risk we are creating by a fire engine and ladder truck running with lights and sirens to the other 98.8%?
Monday, September 8, 2008
Alarm trends
One of the more frequent police dispatches is to a false alarm. In the past 15 years or so, the number of alarm systems has mushroomed, probably due to more competition in the field, less expensive technologies, and just perceived need. The up side to this trend is that it has likely contributed to falling burglary rates in Lincoln. Here's the burglary trend:
False alarms, however, are problematic in that the volume consumes substantial police resources. At least two officers are dispatched to each alarm, there is always the potential for hazard when emergency responses are undertaken, and the time-on-location can be significant if the key holder is difficult to locate or a considerable distance away. Reducing false alarms, then, is a good thing--as long as it doesn't reduce legitimate alarms or the deterrence of alarm systems in the process. Here's our false alarm trend in Lincoln:
The falling numbers, in my opinion, are likely the result of a new ordinance enacted by our neighbors to the northeast. In 2002, Omaha stiffened it's false alarm ordinance considerably, enacting much stiffer fees after one "free" false alarm. Number two and three cost $100, and after that it's $250 a pop. Lincoln, conversely, allows four false alarms with no penalty, followed by a $25 fine for each false alarm after that. Since the alarm business is to a large extent regional, as are many of the retailers, I think we have benefited from the Omaha metro areas ordinances in this case, without enacting our own.
False alarms, however, are problematic in that the volume consumes substantial police resources. At least two officers are dispatched to each alarm, there is always the potential for hazard when emergency responses are undertaken, and the time-on-location can be significant if the key holder is difficult to locate or a considerable distance away. Reducing false alarms, then, is a good thing--as long as it doesn't reduce legitimate alarms or the deterrence of alarm systems in the process. Here's our false alarm trend in Lincoln:
The falling numbers, in my opinion, are likely the result of a new ordinance enacted by our neighbors to the northeast. In 2002, Omaha stiffened it's false alarm ordinance considerably, enacting much stiffer fees after one "free" false alarm. Number two and three cost $100, and after that it's $250 a pop. Lincoln, conversely, allows four false alarms with no penalty, followed by a $25 fine for each false alarm after that. Since the alarm business is to a large extent regional, as are many of the retailers, I think we have benefited from the Omaha metro areas ordinances in this case, without enacting our own.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
False alarms 2011
About a year ago, I reported on the impact of Lincoln’s revised false alarm ordinance. At the time, however, the new law had only been in effect for six months. We now have a full year operating under the new ordinance. Here is the trend over the past decade—beginning in 2002, which also happened to be our peak year for false alarms.
The number of false alarms has declined by 45%. The number of addresses with five or more false alarms during the calendar year has decreased by 82%. This has occurred despite the fact that Lincoln's population during the past 10 years has increased by about 54,000. These are certainly impressive results.
The number of false alarms has declined by 45%. The number of addresses with five or more false alarms during the calendar year has decreased by 82%. This has occurred despite the fact that Lincoln's population during the past 10 years has increased by about 54,000. These are certainly impressive results.
Friday, March 21, 2014
FireView Dashboard
This week, we have begun to roll out a new application at Lincoln Fire & Rescue, FireView Dashboard from the Omega Group. We have been using their police application, CrimeView Dashboard, at the Lincoln Police Department for several years. These products are examples of many in the marketplace for both government and the private sector that provide tools for analyzing, visualizing, and reporting data from large back-office databases. The object of such products is to provide views of data that are more intuitive and meaningful than green-striped paper spitting from a line printer.
Here are a few examples of things that I've learned or had reinforced by FireView Dashboard as I've worked on setting up data views in the past few weeks. These individual view frames are called widgets, and we have authored 391 of those for the application. That is only the pre-configured portion, though, as the Analysis Mode allows users to create a virtually unlimited number of queries on the fly. The images are just screen shots; in the app you can zoom, pan, change the view (for instance from a map to a day-of-week chart), and drill down as far as you wish--even to the individual incident data. I don't think any of these are a big surprise to firefighters in Lincoln, and some were things that I already knew or suspected, but they are now immediately clear. Click on any of these images for a slightly larger and more legible view.
Medical emergencies dominate
EMS is nearly 80% of our business, and the remainder is composed primarily of false alarms and standby duty at athletic events. Fires are few. I think of them as low frequency, but high-criticality events, for which you must be properly equipped and trained, despite their rarity. Since our core business is emergency medical services, our recruitment, hiring, training, and organizational culture need to reflect the reality of what we actually do. This ought also inform our decisions about what to drive.
The rhythm of the day
The demand for LF&R services peaks at about the same time as the demand for police services: around the time of the evening rush hour. We should keep this in mind when planning discretionary activity like a workout or fueling up the rig during this time, in order to maximize our availability and minimize turnout time.
Problematic false alarms
I've blogged on many occasions about efforts by the police to reduce chronic false burglar alarms, and the value thereof. A burglar alarm, however, is small potatoes compared to a false fire alarm, which sends a convoy of resources by comparison: six to eight firefighters in at least two large apparatus that suck diesel fuel at around 3.5 MPG. If we do something in collaboration with the owners or managers to reduce repeat false alarms, it be a will be a very good thing. It's not just the resources, either. I walk by the photos of three firefighters and three police officers nearly every day, who were killed in the line of duty during emergency driving. Reducing unnecessary Code 3 driving protects everyone.
Residential fire hotspot
House fires have a strong geographic pattern in Lincoln, one that I have seen before. The same pattern is evident in crime. Despite the conventional wisdom, I do not believe this pattern of house fires is the result of newer construction at the edge. Rather, I think it is a reflection of population density and a host of socio-economic factors. The historic core of Lincoln, represented by an ellipse that runs roughly from Cooper Park in the southwest to the edge of Nebraska Wesleyan University in the northeast, is where we need the most fire suppression capability, and a great place to focus fire prevention work.
These are only a few examples of how we can use data and analysis to help guide our operations. FireView Dashboard is a powerful application with immense capabilities, and this is not even scratching the surface. Anyone who has read my blog for a while knows that I am an advocate for, and practitioner of, data-driven management. In this day and age it is critical for public-sector organizations to make decisions based on analysis, and to optimize their service-delivery wherever possible.
Friday, May 10, 2013
PowerPoint fatigue
I'm a little exhausted with lengthy PowerPoint presentations filled with annoying animations and transitions, too many slides, small fonts and lots of words. In fact, I'm a little tired of computer presentations generally. I point the finger in the mirror, because I've been as guilty as anyone. These days, my Keynote and PowerPoint presentations are shorter and contain fewer words than ever, and I've finally learned to ease up on the trickery in favor of subtle animation.
In fact, of late I have increasingly forgone the projector and computer entirely, and just talked at more events. Such was the case yesterday at Leadership Lincoln, where I was asked to present for about 35 minutes about public safety issues to a group of about 30 movers and shakers who are the fellows in the current class. Rather than a collection of groovy slides, I handed out a sheet of paper with a few conversation starters, and let the audience decide what they wanted to have me elaborate on or explain. I think my blog is evidence that I could do this for a long, long time before I drew a complete blank, but here's the little list I used yesterday.
In fact, of late I have increasingly forgone the projector and computer entirely, and just talked at more events. Such was the case yesterday at Leadership Lincoln, where I was asked to present for about 35 minutes about public safety issues to a group of about 30 movers and shakers who are the fellows in the current class. Rather than a collection of groovy slides, I handed out a sheet of paper with a few conversation starters, and let the audience decide what they wanted to have me elaborate on or explain. I think my blog is evidence that I could do this for a long, long time before I drew a complete blank, but here's the little list I used yesterday.
- Of all the incidents handled by Lincoln Fire & Rescue, 76% are medical emergencies.
- Only about half of our ambulance billings are actually paid.
- Lincoln is a great place to have a heart attack. From the time our paramedics are at a patient’s side until the time blood flow to the heart is restored at a hospital is 67.9 minutes. The national standard is 90 minutes—but that is from the time the patient arrives at the hospital.
- Lincoln hasn't added a fire station since 1996. Since that time, we've added 50,000 citizens.
- 8,469 addresses in Lincoln are more than 4 minutes in travel time from a fire station.
- Lincoln Fire & Rescue is one of 28 Urban Search and Rescue Teams in the United States.
- There are 733 Gang members and 31 gangs known to LPD as of noon.
- Yesterday, among the 345 incidents handled by LPD were 22 traffic crashes, 6 assaults, 4 sexual assaults, 6 missing persons, 52 disturbances, 8 mental health emergencies, and 10 child abuse/neglect cases.
- There were 1,194 false fire alarms in Lincoln last year, and 2,384 false burglar alarms: 35 false alarms were at a single restaurant, but they were beat out by one other facility….
- Lincoln has 320 police officers, and is the smallest police department per capita in the State, 1.22 officers per 1,000 population. The national average is 2.4 officers per 1,000. If we were the same size per capita as Omaha, we would need to add 172 officers. To be the same size per capita as Grand Island, we would need to add 91.
- Google this: “Lincoln police” GIS
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
What might be useful
Yesterday, a member of the International Association of Crime Analysts posted a question on their forum:
We organize these data into widgets, which reside on pages, which are within books--all electronic, and all updating automatically. The books are geographic: one for each of the department's command areas, and one that contains citywide data. Here's a description of the pages and widgets.
Current Trends Page
Widgets on the current trends in crime and dispatches. For example, this widget displays the workload trend in the past 14 days. Blue bars are calls for service,with the gray bars depicting the expected trend in the next 7 days, based on the past two years' history. The red line is the predicted trend line, which takes into account day of week variation:
Recent Crimes Page
Widgets for selected crimes within the previous 7 days. These are the kinds of crimes that are of particular interest in Lincoln, including gang-related offenses, retail business robberies, domestic violence, burglaries, thefts from autos, and this widget--drug-related crimes. The map is interactive: click on any icon for the details about that offense, or change the view from a map to a time-of-day chart, for example:
Persons of Interest
Widgets for the registered sex offenders, parolees, offenders on furlough from prison, drug court clients, gang members, and this one--registered sex offenders who have new addresses within the past week. Again the map is interactive, if you are in the app, you can click for the details::
Places
Widgets about problem places, including such things as recent crimes at schools, addresses where we have responded to party disturbances, and this widget--a graduated symbol map of places with four or more false alarms in the past 90 days. We do a lot of work aimed at reducing false alarms, and this widget shows you the problem places right away. If you were actually inside the app, instead of this screen shot, you could click on the maximize button at the top right to take the map full screen:
Wanted Persons
Widgets for people with BOLOs and arrest warrants, over various time period lengths, such as this one--arrest warrants issued in the past week. I am a big believer that keeping pressure on people with arrest warrants has a pay off. You can click one of those buttons at the top of the frame if you would prefer to see these data as a table, rather than a map:
Part 1 Crime
The current trend in Part 1 offenses, compared to the same time period last year. In this screenshot, the data is rendered as a bar graph by offense type, but in the actual app, you can click one of those buttons at the top left for a day of week chart, an interactive map, a table of the data, a time of day chart, or a temporal heat grid:
Special Interests
Widgets for several things not categorized elsewhere, such as recent stolen gun cases, liquor license violations, and this widget of assault on police officers in the past 4 weeks:
Another way we deliver information to commanders is through threshold alerts. This is a snapshot of the citywide alerts in CrimeView Dashboard. When the threshold is exceeded, the icon turns red and pulsates, indicating at a glance something out of the ordinary. Commanders are interested in emerging problems that might be lost in the sheer volume of daily activity. That's the purpose of these alerts. Only one of these (graffiti vandalism) had fired off this morning. You can click on this screenshot for a larger view that is more legible:
"Currently, I do a report for the command staff and then several reports for individual divisions within the department that are geared toward that division only. We are looking at continuing our command staff report, but then putting together a bi-weekly comprehensive report that includes USEFUL information. Of course many of the things done now will be put in this report, but I would love some fresh ideas. I would like to hear your input on what kinds of reports and information you put out regularly that your department finds really useful. So….what’s useful? What just goes to the trash?"I was going to respond with a few ideas, but decided a blog post would be more effective. In Lincoln, we use various methods for keeping our command staff informed, one of which is CrimeView Dashboard. Although I like this product, the purpose of this post is not to promote it. The concepts are not dependent on the software. We were trying to get this kind of information in the hands of our staff way before we adopted CrimeView. These descriptions may give you some ideas on what kinds of information might be valuable to police commanders.
We organize these data into widgets, which reside on pages, which are within books--all electronic, and all updating automatically. The books are geographic: one for each of the department's command areas, and one that contains citywide data. Here's a description of the pages and widgets.
Current Trends Page
Widgets on the current trends in crime and dispatches. For example, this widget displays the workload trend in the past 14 days. Blue bars are calls for service,with the gray bars depicting the expected trend in the next 7 days, based on the past two years' history. The red line is the predicted trend line, which takes into account day of week variation:
Recent Crimes Page
Widgets for selected crimes within the previous 7 days. These are the kinds of crimes that are of particular interest in Lincoln, including gang-related offenses, retail business robberies, domestic violence, burglaries, thefts from autos, and this widget--drug-related crimes. The map is interactive: click on any icon for the details about that offense, or change the view from a map to a time-of-day chart, for example:
Persons of Interest
Widgets for the registered sex offenders, parolees, offenders on furlough from prison, drug court clients, gang members, and this one--registered sex offenders who have new addresses within the past week. Again the map is interactive, if you are in the app, you can click for the details::
Places
Widgets about problem places, including such things as recent crimes at schools, addresses where we have responded to party disturbances, and this widget--a graduated symbol map of places with four or more false alarms in the past 90 days. We do a lot of work aimed at reducing false alarms, and this widget shows you the problem places right away. If you were actually inside the app, instead of this screen shot, you could click on the maximize button at the top right to take the map full screen:
Wanted Persons
Widgets for people with BOLOs and arrest warrants, over various time period lengths, such as this one--arrest warrants issued in the past week. I am a big believer that keeping pressure on people with arrest warrants has a pay off. You can click one of those buttons at the top of the frame if you would prefer to see these data as a table, rather than a map:
Part 1 Crime
The current trend in Part 1 offenses, compared to the same time period last year. In this screenshot, the data is rendered as a bar graph by offense type, but in the actual app, you can click one of those buttons at the top left for a day of week chart, an interactive map, a table of the data, a time of day chart, or a temporal heat grid:
Special Interests
Widgets for several things not categorized elsewhere, such as recent stolen gun cases, liquor license violations, and this widget of assault on police officers in the past 4 weeks:
Another way we deliver information to commanders is through threshold alerts. This is a snapshot of the citywide alerts in CrimeView Dashboard. When the threshold is exceeded, the icon turns red and pulsates, indicating at a glance something out of the ordinary. Commanders are interested in emerging problems that might be lost in the sheer volume of daily activity. That's the purpose of these alerts. Only one of these (graffiti vandalism) had fired off this morning. You can click on this screenshot for a larger view that is more legible:
Friday, February 7, 2014
Better use of time and skills
I had an interesting email Tuesday from the supervisor of a crime analysis unit that has recently acquired the same web-based software we use for much of our work: CrimeView Dashboard. Essentially, this product allows a designer to set up a bunch of pre-configured views of data for users, and still provides users with the ability to create and execute their own ad-hoc queries. These views can be maps, tables, graphs, and grids. There are other dashboard products from other vendors, this is just the one I am most familiar with.
The unit supervisor who emailed me is hearing rumblings that the brass thinks that they can reduce the number of crime analysts now, since they have this new-fangled application--even before it has been implemented. She wanted to know what I thought about that.
I sent her a rather lengthy reply, but here is the gist of it: a product of this type ought to let your officers, detectives, supervisors and managers serve themselves with most simple needs. This in turn, should free your staff to do more real analysis, rather than servicing rather simple information requests: "What is the breakdown or Part 1 crimes in my district by type?", "What are the top 10 places for false alarms so far this year?", "Can you make me a map of registered sex offenders I can take to the neighborhood association meeting tonight?" and so forth.
Most crime analysts spend a lot of time on gathering information for others that really ought to be readily available, and not nearly enough on actual analysis. If you can free them from the never-ending parade of "can you get this for me?" requests, there is better use to be made of their time and skills.
With the implementation of CrimeView Dashbaord or any similar product, I would hope to see more in-depth analyses, more and better bulletins; more frequent proactive emails about crime patterns uncovered, more profiles about prolific offenders identified, and briefings from the Crime Analysis Unit on emerging problems; more and better follow-up evaluation of police strategies, more cases connected by a common M.O. discovered, more predictions of the most likely times and locations of robbery in the next two weeks, more consultation by analysts with police commanders seeking information about what strategies have proven successful based on research evidence; and more timely and accurate identification of trends and patterns--because analysts are spending more of their time doing these things, instead of creating bar charts for lieutenants, maps for captains, and weekly statistical reports for the chief.
The unit supervisor who emailed me is hearing rumblings that the brass thinks that they can reduce the number of crime analysts now, since they have this new-fangled application--even before it has been implemented. She wanted to know what I thought about that.
I sent her a rather lengthy reply, but here is the gist of it: a product of this type ought to let your officers, detectives, supervisors and managers serve themselves with most simple needs. This in turn, should free your staff to do more real analysis, rather than servicing rather simple information requests: "What is the breakdown or Part 1 crimes in my district by type?", "What are the top 10 places for false alarms so far this year?", "Can you make me a map of registered sex offenders I can take to the neighborhood association meeting tonight?" and so forth.
Most crime analysts spend a lot of time on gathering information for others that really ought to be readily available, and not nearly enough on actual analysis. If you can free them from the never-ending parade of "can you get this for me?" requests, there is better use to be made of their time and skills.
With the implementation of CrimeView Dashbaord or any similar product, I would hope to see more in-depth analyses, more and better bulletins; more frequent proactive emails about crime patterns uncovered, more profiles about prolific offenders identified, and briefings from the Crime Analysis Unit on emerging problems; more and better follow-up evaluation of police strategies, more cases connected by a common M.O. discovered, more predictions of the most likely times and locations of robbery in the next two weeks, more consultation by analysts with police commanders seeking information about what strategies have proven successful based on research evidence; and more timely and accurate identification of trends and patterns--because analysts are spending more of their time doing these things, instead of creating bar charts for lieutenants, maps for captains, and weekly statistical reports for the chief.
More analysis, less collation of basic descriptive information from the records management system: that should be the payoff. When you need advice on your portfolio of mutual funds and stocks, you turn to a financial analyst who not only should be reasonably expert concerning investments, but should also give you trusted advice on a strategy to help you accomplish your goals. That's the same thing a crime analyst should do, and he or she should not be spending the majority of time gathering statistics and making PowerPoints for the technologically-challenged.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Omega Dashboard
This week we launched a new computer application from the Omega Group that has some good potential. It’s the Omega Dashboard, an internal application designed to keep our staff informed. The dashboard is a webpage containing automated, updated content that presents employees them with the common operating picture: an overview of certain trends and information so you can stay abreast of what’s going on in this busy City. The whole idea is to give you at a glance a webpage with key information that you don’t have to fetch: it’s already been pushed to your page.
The Dashboard page is composed of panels called viewers. You can display several viewers in your browser, and they can be clicked on and off, arranged on the page, rolled up or expanded. Each viewer contains maps, data, and reports about incidents, crimes, places, or persons. Each viewer can have multiple pages, through which the user can cycle using the control buttons. These pages usually contain links to much more detailed reports which in turn contain drill downs to an increasing level of detail.
The content on the webpage is customized somewhat to your area of assignment: there is different content for the Northeast Team than for the Southeast Team, and so forth. The content is available for the City as a whole, or just limited to any one of the department’s five geographic commands. Here are some examples:
Crime Trends: A series of graphs of this year's trends by month for selected Part 1 Crimes.
Recent Crimes: Maps and details of selected crimes within the past 3 days: robbery, rape, indecent exposure, burglary, auto theft, larceny from auto.
Registered Sex Offenders: An overview graph of sex offenders by risk level, with a link to the detailed information on each; a map of all high risk sex offenders with an address change in the preceding week, and the details on each.
Hot Persons: Maps and details on each person for whom a new arrest warrant was issued in Lancaster County during the preceding week, and each person for whom a police broadcast (our term for an “all points bulletin”) during the preceding week.
Problem Places: Maps and details about the top 10 locations for false alarms, and the locations of any repeat calls to party disturbances at the same address within the preceding 90 days.
Dashboard News: This viewer contains an RSS feed of brief information or notices from the Crime Analysis Unit (and me!)
I’ve blogged about dashboards a couple times lately. This concept has caught on in business and in government as a means of simplifying vast information resources into snapshot view of a few key indicators. I’ve already seen the preliminary concepts of the next version of the Omega Dashboard already, and it looks like a big jump to a new plateau.
The Dashboard page is composed of panels called viewers. You can display several viewers in your browser, and they can be clicked on and off, arranged on the page, rolled up or expanded. Each viewer contains maps, data, and reports about incidents, crimes, places, or persons. Each viewer can have multiple pages, through which the user can cycle using the control buttons. These pages usually contain links to much more detailed reports which in turn contain drill downs to an increasing level of detail.
The content on the webpage is customized somewhat to your area of assignment: there is different content for the Northeast Team than for the Southeast Team, and so forth. The content is available for the City as a whole, or just limited to any one of the department’s five geographic commands. Here are some examples:
Crime Trends: A series of graphs of this year's trends by month for selected Part 1 Crimes.
Recent Crimes: Maps and details of selected crimes within the past 3 days: robbery, rape, indecent exposure, burglary, auto theft, larceny from auto.
Registered Sex Offenders: An overview graph of sex offenders by risk level, with a link to the detailed information on each; a map of all high risk sex offenders with an address change in the preceding week, and the details on each.
Hot Persons: Maps and details on each person for whom a new arrest warrant was issued in Lancaster County during the preceding week, and each person for whom a police broadcast (our term for an “all points bulletin”) during the preceding week.
Problem Places: Maps and details about the top 10 locations for false alarms, and the locations of any repeat calls to party disturbances at the same address within the preceding 90 days.
Dashboard News: This viewer contains an RSS feed of brief information or notices from the Crime Analysis Unit (and me!)
I’ve blogged about dashboards a couple times lately. This concept has caught on in business and in government as a means of simplifying vast information resources into snapshot view of a few key indicators. I’ve already seen the preliminary concepts of the next version of the Omega Dashboard already, and it looks like a big jump to a new plateau.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Dens
This is part four of a series. Read Monday's post, if you haven't already.
Dens are problem places. These are the addresses that police officers are quite familiar with on their own beats: places with repeated calls for service and problems. Some dens have achieved their status because they are the location of lots and lots of human activity that inevitably involve the police and mostly minor crime. For example, so far this year, the list of the top five places where the most crimes have occurred (142 to 406) includes three high schools and two shopping centers.
Other dens are true dens of iniquity: places where bad actors congregate and bad actions occur with regularity. Retired LPD officers will instantly recognize addresses like 1416 P Street, 913 O Street, and 2272 Y Street--problem spots during the 1970's and 1980's. Today's officers have their own list of familiar-sounding addresses. I found, for example, one single-family residence in Lincoln this year that has already generated 13 police crime reports. There is also a home with 12, four with 9, and two with 8. That's a lot of stuff for a few single-family homes.
The Lincoln Police Department is quite good at is in identifying dens. I can give you the track record of a specific address all the way back to 1980 in a matter of moments, and find the owner and a photo of the premise in a few clicks thereafter. Our information by address is rich and deep. A den may be an exact address, or it may be an area where problems are concentrated. We use some specific techniques for pinpointing locations with emerging problems, such as Threshold Alerts. Our GIS capability is well-developed.
A key to dealing with dens is to look beyond the individual calls for service and incidents. This is the essence of most good problem-oriented policing projects: gathering the information, assessing the underlying problems, addressing those with a targeted strategy, and assessing the results.
Dealing with problems at places is not solely the job of the police. Place managers such as business owners, apartment managers, retail managers, and property owners have the most important role. We want to help them do it well because it is in our best interest. As an example, we provide some great resources to rental property owners and managers, so that they may be alerted to a den existing in their own units. Owners and managers can instantly obtain up-to-the-minute information concerning the basic details of all police dispatches to their property. We also provide liquor license holders with information about drunk driving arrests where the defendant claims to have been drinking in that particular establishment. We emphasize the value to our officers of establishing relationships with retail businesses on their beat, and we are heavily-involved in one of the most important places in any community: schools.
Here are a few examples of place-based interventions LPD has initiated that I've blogged about here in the Chief's Corner in the past:
Working with landlords to reduce problems at rental property.
Keeping close tabs on the residences of high-risk sex offenders.
Dealing with problematic practices at bars.
Recruiting good tenants into fragile neighborhoods.
Despite the fact that we do a particularly good job of locating and working on dens, there are a few ways I think we could improve. We could, for example, intervene more effectively on businesses with repeated false alarms. If the small fines don't seem to have the desired impact, maybe a personal visit by the police captain who commands the area would. I also think that in some case we could intervene earlier with place managers--even thought this is an area in which we generally excel. Sometimes we wait a little longer than we should. By the time we've actually spoken to or written the owner/manager, the problem has been in existence for quite a while.
Some people opine that place-centered police intervention merely moves the problems elsewhere. In my book, though, the displacement argument is unconvincing. The net effect of displacing crime is usually positive:even if there is some displacement, it's not one-to-one. And there can be some unexpected diffusion of benefits when crime prevention efforts focused on one offense type or one area actually exert a positive influence on crimes and areas other than those directly targeted. It's a contested issue, but I believe the greater weight of research evidence backs me on this one.
The Series:
Theory and practice
Wolves
Ducks
Dens
Evidence-based policing
Dens are problem places. These are the addresses that police officers are quite familiar with on their own beats: places with repeated calls for service and problems. Some dens have achieved their status because they are the location of lots and lots of human activity that inevitably involve the police and mostly minor crime. For example, so far this year, the list of the top five places where the most crimes have occurred (142 to 406) includes three high schools and two shopping centers.
Other dens are true dens of iniquity: places where bad actors congregate and bad actions occur with regularity. Retired LPD officers will instantly recognize addresses like 1416 P Street, 913 O Street, and 2272 Y Street--problem spots during the 1970's and 1980's. Today's officers have their own list of familiar-sounding addresses. I found, for example, one single-family residence in Lincoln this year that has already generated 13 police crime reports. There is also a home with 12, four with 9, and two with 8. That's a lot of stuff for a few single-family homes.
The Lincoln Police Department is quite good at is in identifying dens. I can give you the track record of a specific address all the way back to 1980 in a matter of moments, and find the owner and a photo of the premise in a few clicks thereafter. Our information by address is rich and deep. A den may be an exact address, or it may be an area where problems are concentrated. We use some specific techniques for pinpointing locations with emerging problems, such as Threshold Alerts. Our GIS capability is well-developed.
A key to dealing with dens is to look beyond the individual calls for service and incidents. This is the essence of most good problem-oriented policing projects: gathering the information, assessing the underlying problems, addressing those with a targeted strategy, and assessing the results.
Dealing with problems at places is not solely the job of the police. Place managers such as business owners, apartment managers, retail managers, and property owners have the most important role. We want to help them do it well because it is in our best interest. As an example, we provide some great resources to rental property owners and managers, so that they may be alerted to a den existing in their own units. Owners and managers can instantly obtain up-to-the-minute information concerning the basic details of all police dispatches to their property. We also provide liquor license holders with information about drunk driving arrests where the defendant claims to have been drinking in that particular establishment. We emphasize the value to our officers of establishing relationships with retail businesses on their beat, and we are heavily-involved in one of the most important places in any community: schools.
Here are a few examples of place-based interventions LPD has initiated that I've blogged about here in the Chief's Corner in the past:
Working with landlords to reduce problems at rental property.
Keeping close tabs on the residences of high-risk sex offenders.
Dealing with problematic practices at bars.
Recruiting good tenants into fragile neighborhoods.
Despite the fact that we do a particularly good job of locating and working on dens, there are a few ways I think we could improve. We could, for example, intervene more effectively on businesses with repeated false alarms. If the small fines don't seem to have the desired impact, maybe a personal visit by the police captain who commands the area would. I also think that in some case we could intervene earlier with place managers--even thought this is an area in which we generally excel. Sometimes we wait a little longer than we should. By the time we've actually spoken to or written the owner/manager, the problem has been in existence for quite a while.
Some people opine that place-centered police intervention merely moves the problems elsewhere. In my book, though, the displacement argument is unconvincing. The net effect of displacing crime is usually positive:even if there is some displacement, it's not one-to-one. And there can be some unexpected diffusion of benefits when crime prevention efforts focused on one offense type or one area actually exert a positive influence on crimes and areas other than those directly targeted. It's a contested issue, but I believe the greater weight of research evidence backs me on this one.
The Series:
Theory and practice
Wolves
Ducks
Dens
Evidence-based policing
Sunday, February 22, 2015
What has fueled the drop?
Friday, local cyber-reporter Deena Winter quizzed me via Twitter about the cause of the drop in calls for service (CFS) handled by the Lincoln police department. CFS peaked in 2001 and 2002 at just over 148,000. We didn't quite crack 119,000 in 2014. I've been somewhat perplexed by the drop of 29,000 CFS during a time when the population of Lincoln increased by over 35,000 people. What could be fueling that dramatic drop?
Although Chief Al Curtis and I cut a lot of call types in the 1990s (such as funeral escorts, private property traffic crashes, barking dogs, lock-outs, most medical emergencies already dispatched to Lincoln Fire & Rescue, and others) the drop in CFS really didn't start until the early 2000s--long after those changes. Aside from privatizing downtown parking enforcement in 2010-2011, there really hasn't been any big change that I can think of in what LPD handles since the 2001-2002 peak.
Wanting to explore this phenomenon more closely last year, I got a list from IT of all CFS by incident type, and ran a comparison between 2002 and 2013. I just updated this for 2014 over the weekend in order to answer Deena Winter's question more accurately. Here are the incident codes with drops of more than 1,000 between 2002 and 2014. When applicable, I've linked past posts about things that might be contributing to these declines.
1,036 fewer abandoned vehicles
2,264 fewer false alarms
3,850 fewer disturbances
1,863 fewer forgeries (when's the last time you wrote a check?)
2,027 fewer traffic crashes
1,040 fewer suspicious person/vehicle calls
6,203 fewer parking calls (more than half of the drop was before privatization.)
2,802 fewer vandalisms
4,523 fewer theft and burglary cases
3,171 fewer miscellaneous other (a call type code that functions as sort of a catch-all)
In contrast, here are the call types that have gone up by 1,000 or more:
1,445 more mental health investigations
1,546 more suspended drivers
There are several other call types that have gone up or down, but those that have declined simply outnumber those that have increased.
A rather spirited public discussion is underway on the issue of police staffing in Lincoln. Unfortunately, it has become somewhat clouded by electoral politics. I'm glad we're having the discussion, though. We had it last summer, too, when a consensus emerged to add two officers to the biennial budget, and apply for a grant (which we received) for two more. That's good. I like having four more officers to serve a growing community. But there is no magic number. Lincoln needs exactly enough officers to deliver the services citizens expect, in the manner they wish to receive them.
You judge that by listening and watching. We know that public satisfaction with our services is pretty high, because we ask a few thousand people about that every year. I think we are able to produce this result with a lean police force because we are particularly efficient. We need to continue to listen closely to that feedback, and to keep an eye on our response time to priority 1 and 2 incidents--the things where time really matters--because geographic growth alone impacts that independently of workload.
Like every police department in America larger than Petticoat Junction, we have times during the week when the number of calls for service exceeds the number of available officers. And like every city, we prioritize pending calls during those rush hours, assisted by computer-aided dispatch software. A belated report of neighbors shoveling snow into the street can wait quite a while, whereas a crime in progress needs an immediate response. The queuing of calls is happening less today than it was in the mid 1990s, when LPD was at its busiest.
As calls for service have fallen, the workload has moderated considerably. It used to be common for several officers on the Southwest and Center Teams to crack into the low 100s in CFS per month. When's the last time you've seen that?
Weird, but true. It can't last, though. That bar has got to start inching up at some point.
Although Chief Al Curtis and I cut a lot of call types in the 1990s (such as funeral escorts, private property traffic crashes, barking dogs, lock-outs, most medical emergencies already dispatched to Lincoln Fire & Rescue, and others) the drop in CFS really didn't start until the early 2000s--long after those changes. Aside from privatizing downtown parking enforcement in 2010-2011, there really hasn't been any big change that I can think of in what LPD handles since the 2001-2002 peak.
Wanting to explore this phenomenon more closely last year, I got a list from IT of all CFS by incident type, and ran a comparison between 2002 and 2013. I just updated this for 2014 over the weekend in order to answer Deena Winter's question more accurately. Here are the incident codes with drops of more than 1,000 between 2002 and 2014. When applicable, I've linked past posts about things that might be contributing to these declines.
1,036 fewer abandoned vehicles
2,264 fewer false alarms
3,850 fewer disturbances
1,863 fewer forgeries (when's the last time you wrote a check?)
2,027 fewer traffic crashes
1,040 fewer suspicious person/vehicle calls
6,203 fewer parking calls (more than half of the drop was before privatization.)
2,802 fewer vandalisms
4,523 fewer theft and burglary cases
3,171 fewer miscellaneous other (a call type code that functions as sort of a catch-all)
In contrast, here are the call types that have gone up by 1,000 or more:
1,445 more mental health investigations
1,546 more suspended drivers
There are several other call types that have gone up or down, but those that have declined simply outnumber those that have increased.
You judge that by listening and watching. We know that public satisfaction with our services is pretty high, because we ask a few thousand people about that every year. I think we are able to produce this result with a lean police force because we are particularly efficient. We need to continue to listen closely to that feedback, and to keep an eye on our response time to priority 1 and 2 incidents--the things where time really matters--because geographic growth alone impacts that independently of workload.
Like every police department in America larger than Petticoat Junction, we have times during the week when the number of calls for service exceeds the number of available officers. And like every city, we prioritize pending calls during those rush hours, assisted by computer-aided dispatch software. A belated report of neighbors shoveling snow into the street can wait quite a while, whereas a crime in progress needs an immediate response. The queuing of calls is happening less today than it was in the mid 1990s, when LPD was at its busiest.
As calls for service have fallen, the workload has moderated considerably. It used to be common for several officers on the Southwest and Center Teams to crack into the low 100s in CFS per month. When's the last time you've seen that?
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Weird, but true. It can't last, though. That bar has got to start inching up at some point.
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