Auburn Police Department – a data-informed organization

Ever wonder how the Auburn Police Department uses data to address our community's concerns? Since becoming the police chief, you may have heard me once or twice encouraging our community to call and report problems and issues. I have listened to it all in response to this, such as "APD is too busy," "It is not that big of a deal," or, "You would not come out anyway, so what does it matter?" Well, it does matter. All the concerns and issues occurring within our community are essential to us, and it helps us paint a better picture of what is going on within our community. The information that comes into the police department plays a significant part in being "data-informed," which is similar to "data-driven," which gives data more weight in the decision-making process. Being "data-informed" describes the ability to combine our collected information with the experiences and intuition of our team. The men and women of the Auburn Police Department have a combined 371 years in law enforcement, which includes experience from a variety of other police departments and professions. This level of expertise aids our ability to provide a high level of service to the community. It would be a waste if we did not use all this experience and intuition. For years, law enforcement has been using data to focus our limited resources better to address areas of concern within their communities. We have created several strategies, such as Community Oriented Policing, Problem-Oriented Policing, Intelligence-Led Policing, Evidence-Based Policing, and many more. Each is a philosophy, procedure or tactic used by a police department to have more impactful successes. Years ago, NYPD started its internationally recognized program, COMPSTAT, short for computer statistics. Since then, many agencies have rolled their models to address the needs of our communities. July 2020 began an entirely new chapter for the Auburn Police Department. We modernized our CAD/RMS system to improve our internal processes and workflow. This modernization also created the opportunity to enhance our collection and use of data. Honestly, the previous system could not even export to Microsoft Excel, which reduced the system's usefulness. We now have more than a year's worth of data in the new system on topics such as traffic collisions, alcohol-related incidents, proactive efforts, and so much more at our fingertips. We can better address and focus the police department's resources toward significant community issues with all this information. In July 2021, we created and rolled out our version of a crime and traffic reduction model, IMPAACT, or Implementing Meaningful Proactive Approaches to Auburn's Crime and Traffic. This intelligence-led policing model combines the information received by our community and what the staff is seeing on the streets. This combination creates a starting point for us to focus our attention and address the issues at the earliest inclination and before the problems worsen. The other part of intelligence-led policing is identifying priorities. We have all heard the adage, "If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority." This saying remains true for police departments as well. We do not have infinite resources to address the various issues we experience within our communities. We often operate like Band-Aids when dealing with problems. Being data-informed allows us to be more than just short-term solutions but work with stakeholders and our community to address concerns more for the long term. For starters, we look at our data over the past year, and what stood out was the number of collisions we have had along Highway 49. Highway 49 accounted for more than 30 percent of the crashes in the entire city. Of course, it accounts for most the highest level of traffic in town, so that is not a surprise. This area appeared to be a good starting point on our model to see what efforts we could make to address the high number of collisions. Our department's efforts included public messages through social media and traditional media, increased visibility along Highway 49 located within Auburn, and increased traffic stops and education. The results of our focused department-wide efforts were a 57-percent decrease in collisions along Highway 49 within the city of Auburn, from June 2020 compared to September 2020. Citywide, crashes have been steadily decreasing since June. Overall, we have reduced collisions by about 39 percent since June. It will take continued monitoring and an effort on all our parts to minimize crashes, but this is a great start. I am excited to share with our community our department's efforts and our ability to be data-informed. I continue to encourage our community to call and report issues. We may not be able to make it right away, but the information is vital. The information and data allow us to identify potential problems and concerns early. Keeping our city safe is a team effort between our community and the police department.