Tag: Statistics

Police Benchmark Cities Survey

Several years ago I accidentally discovered the “benchmark cities survey” and I haven’t heard it talked about in academic and policing circles. It is a fantastic resource. the Survey consists of 5 major areas: Demographics, Budget, General Performance & Service Measures, Crime & Clearance, NIBRS Crime & Clearance, and Traffic Safety. Below are links to a few different years of the survey. This survey would be helpful for police in making knowledge based decisions, students for a police administration course, and academic research.

In 1997, a group of police chiefs from around the country established the benchmark cities survey, which created measurement tool to help ensure police departments provide the best service possible within their respective communities. Overland Park Police Department has taken the lead in compiling the survey results. The survey, updated annually, provides a range of information about each department. With that information, the participating agencies can set better goals and objectives, and compare their performance in the various areas.

The Overland Park Police Department has the most current year of the survey HERE

  • The Lawrence KS PD combined all the PowerPoint presentations into a single presentation report (which is a better format):
    • The 2024 presentation is HERE (Norman, OK Police Department)
    • The 2023 presentation is HERE (Plano, TX Police Department)
    • All past benchmark cities surveys can be access at the Lawrence KS PD reports webpage HERE
    • The 2022 Survey can be accessed HERE Unfortunately this file is an Excel workbook that is the survey response form.
    • The 2021 presentation Has a broken link
    • The 2020 presentation can be accessed HERE
    • The 2019 presentation is HERE
    • The 2018 Presentation is HERE
    • The 2017 Presentation HERE
    • The 2016 report is HERE
    • The 2015 report is HERE
    • The 2014 report can’t be located
    • The 2013 report is HERE
    • Thank you Lawrence PD!!!!!

Desistance From Crime – Implications for Research, Policy, and Practice

A key step in advancing our knowledge in these areas is to examine how we think about and measure the process of individuals ceasing engagement in criminal activities, referred to as “desistance.” How we conceptualize this process can afect how we evaluate the efectiveness of laws and policies intended to provide or increase public safety. How practitioners view this process — and their role in supporting it — can infuence how they engage with clients across all stages of system involvement. Furthermore, programs and initiatives are ofen judged on their ability to reduce reofending and improve other outcomes. Having a clear understanding of what we consider desistance to be, incorporating policies and interventions that support desistance, and identifying best practices to evaluate these eforts is important work.

Recidivism — often defned as criminal acts or interactions with law enforcement that result in re-arrest, reconviction, or return to prison — has been the primary outcome for criminal justice research for decades, and it continues to be. The recidivism data available from federal, state, and local systems over time provide valuable information. For example, the data can help us gauge the performance of correctional programs and whether policies are successfully providing public safety to their communities. Practitioners can also use recidivism data to assess the risk of reofending for the populations they serve. Despite the value of this information, we must expand beyond recidivism in how we understand and examine individual behavior.

This volume takes important steps in describing how a desistance framework can move the feld forward across key decision points in the criminal justice system (e.g., at time of arrest, charging, pretrial release, case processing, disposition and sentencing, and reentry). Although research has focused on desistance for some time, the term and its accompanying knowledge base are far less known than recidivism. Recidivism is a discrete measure — that is, yes or no — and has a limit to the amount of information it can provide. Capturing where an individual is in the desistance process provides more nuanced information, better supports assessment of individual progress toward less criminal behavior, and facilitates a strengths-based perspective focused on building on individual assets to promote positive change. Incorporating desistance principles into the criminal justice feld has great potential to improve outcomes, elevate practices, better support those with system involvement, and more effectively use resources to provide safety to the community.

Get the report HERE:

www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/301497.pdf

Fatal Police Shootings and Race: A Review of the Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research | Manhattan Institute

Since the Ferguson unrest, a narrative has solidified around the idea that police use lethal force disproportionately and without justification against African-Americans. Some data show the strength of this perception, particularly among blacks and on the political left. In a survey conducted…
— Read on www.manhattan-institute.org/verbruggen-fatal-police-shootings

San José Independent Police Auditor’s Office Statement on Reports Assessing the San Jose Police Department

Three reports released.

The After-Action Report for San Jose Police Department response to the protests from the death of George Floyd.

Use of Force Report by the San Jose Police Department.

21st Century Police assessment of the San Jose Police Department.

NEWS RELEASE: San José Independent Police Auditor’s Office Statement on Reports Assessing the Police Department | News | City of San Jose
— Read on http://www.sanjoseca.gov/Home/Components/News/News/3783/4699

Drug Arrests Stayed High Even as Imprisonment Fell From 2009 to 2019

To better identify and understand recent changes in and effects of the use of the criminal legal system to address drug problems, The Pew Charitable Trusts analyzed publicly available national data on drug arrests and imprisonment, drug treatment, and harm from drug misuse from 2009 through 2019—the most recent decade for which data is available.
The study found divergent enforcement trends—high rates of arrest but substantially reduced incarceration—coupled with a lack of treatment options and high mortality rates among people with illicit drug dependence.

  • Drug possession arrests held steady at more than a million a year, in stark contrast with a large reduction in overall arrests, which dropped 29%.
  • Only 1 in 13 people who were arrested and had a drug dependency received treatment while in jail or prison.
  • Racial disparities in drug enforcement declined. Arrests of Black people for drug offenses fell by 37%, more than three times the drop among White people.
  • Increased arrests of White individuals for possession of methamphetamine offset declines in marijuana arrests and drove the reduction in racial disparities.
  • The numbers of people admitted to and held in state prisons for drug offenses both fell by about a third, accounting for 61% of the overall reduction in prison populations and 38% of the total decline in admissions.
  • The decline in the number of Black people incarcerated for drug offenses made up 26% of the decrease in prison admissions and 48% of the drop in the prison population.
  • Drug- and alcohol-related mortality rates increased fivefold in prisons and threefold in jails despite the decreases in the number of people in prison for drug offenses.

See more HERE

The report can be downloaded HERE

Winnable Criminal Justice Reforms

CONTENTS

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/

(413) 527-0845

Expand alternatives to criminal justice system responses to social problems …………………………………1 Reduce the number of people entering the “revolving doors” of jails and prisons …………………………2

Improve sentencing structures and release processes to encourage

timely and successful releases from prison ……………………………………………………………………………..3

Reduce the footprint of the probation and parole system and support success on supervision…….5 Protect incarcerated people and families from exploitation by private contractors……………………….7 Promote physical and mental health among incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people………..7 Give all communities equal voice in how our justice system works ………………………………………………..9 Eliminate relics of the harmful and racist “war on drugs” ………………………………………………………………10

static.prisonpolicy.org/reports/winnable2021.pdf