IACA 2012 Conference Survey

The 22^nd Annual Training Conference is less than four months away and your Conference Committee is hard at work to make your experience in Henderson and the greater Las Vegas area a rewarding one both professionally and personally. Great fun is a key part to a successful conference and to help us better prepare the fun, we have developed a short survey to help us understand some of things you may like to see and do while you are in Nevada.

Simply click on the link below and take a few moments to answer the questions. Your contributions will go a long way in making the 2012 conference the best yet.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/33SK9VJ

IACA International Symposium

The IACA International Symposium was held at the Europol Headquarters at The Hague in the Netherlands on April 17-18th. We've posted some photos over at the IACA Facebook page to give you a taste of what you missed if you weren't there.

You can view them here.

Don't forget, the IACA Annual Training Conference is coming up on September 10-14, 2012 in Henderson, Nevada. More information about the conference can be found here.

For more news about IACA, follow us Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+.

2012 IACA Conference Speakers

The IACA is proud to announce Dr. Rachel Boba Santos has agreed to present at the 2012 IACA Training Conference to be held September 10-14, 2012 at The Ravella at Lake Las Vegas!

Dr. Boba Santos will present twice at the conference. First, by request, her immensely popular presentation, "A Structure for Crime Analysis Results: Product Examples by Purpose, Scope, and Audience" which was presented to a packed room at the 2011 MAPS Conference in Miami. Second, Dr. Boba Santos will present "Fusion Center Analysis: A Model for Structure and Sample Products" to highlight work being conducted by fusion center analysts. Dr. Boba Santos has also agreed to participate in our open-forum "Ask The Expert" sessions. And, at our request, she will hold a book signing for her book, "Crime Analysis with Crime Mapping, 3rd Edition" released this month from Sage Publications.

Joining already announced keynotes Dr. John Eck and Dr. Cynthia Lum, along with a plenary session featuring The Innocence Project, the IACA continues to build an agenda for a conference you are not going to want to miss!

2012 IACA Training Conference
Dates: September 10-14, 2012
Location: The Ravella at Lake Las Vegas
Early Registration Fees: $400/$450 (member/non)
Hotel: $119 plus tax (IACA block only)
Hotel Shuttle to/from Airport: $30 each way

Registration Opens Soon! Watch the IACA website for details!

Crime Analysts Don't Come in a Box

When I was a young crime analysis intern in the early 1990s, my first assignment was to analyze two years’ of bicycle theft data in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I printed off a list of more than 500 from the old Wang mainframe and started the long process of reading each address, determining its location on the large paper map that took up one wall, and dotting it up with a magic maker. More than two weeks later, I finally had the full map. I then set about creating charts of the top times of day and days of week—which, of course, I drew by hand on graph paper. The whole analysis took about three weeks and resulted in a two-page report.

Part of me will always miss these days.

Today, I or any one of you could do the same analysis in about 5 minutes, and most of that would be spent waiting for the GIS application to launch. A few technologies—data querying, spreadsheets, and mapping—have resulted in a net savings to police departments of 2 weeks, 4 days, 7 hours, and 55 minutes.

The Cambridge Police Department did not, with this extra time, conclude that they could do with only 0.2% of their analytical staffing. Nor did many crime analysts, in the post-desktop-computing revolution, do all their work before morning coffee and spend the rest of the week playing video games. Instead, we adapted to this time savings by doing more. Analysis is fundamentally a process of asking the right questions, finding answers, and using those answers to ask more questions. In 1994, I could only ask three questions:

 

• Where are the bicycle thefts occurring?
• What hours of the day are they occurring?
• What days of the week are they occurring?

In 2011, given the same overall task, I could ask dozens more questions. I could analyze all potential factors, including type of location, victim and offender characteristics, bicycle makes and models, lock type and status, and recovery data. I could cross-tabulate these various characteristics and look for correlations between, say, location and time, or time and day. I could use known offender information to construct a crime travel demand model. I could collect data on bicycle sales from second-hand shops and search for known offenders.

More important, I could get myself out of the damned office and engage in some true problem analysis on bicycle theft. I could speak to victims and ask about their locking habits. I could study environmental variables in the theft hot spots. I could interview known bicycle thieves about their modus operandi. And I could search the literature to figure out what other agencies had successfully done to prevent bicycle theft. I could use this additional information to make explicit recommendations for enforcement and prevention.

There are, in short, plenty of ways to fill the “saved” 2.98 weeks, even if I did nothing but continue to analyze bicycle theft with it. In reality, of course, we’ve used this saved time to analyze things we never had a chance to analyze before. When I started as a crime analyst, almost all analysts kept lists of five or six “target crimes” on which they spent most of their time. Now, thanks to technology, I find analysts analyzing all sorts of things that we would have laughed about in the 1980s and early 1990s: noise complaints, domestic disputes, traffic collisions, parking complaints, and so on. The entire discipline of problem analysis was virtually impossible in the per-technology era because we were spending too much time putting pins in maps and logging crimes in paper matrices to do anything qualitative.

Never once, in that era of transition to desktop computing, did I hear any analyst, officer, or chief suggest that ArcView or Microsoft Excel was going to render analysts obsolete. It would have been absurd. Technology does not decrease the need for analysis; rather, by saving time and effort, it empowers analysts to a greater degree of breadth and depth. By making certain tasks of analysis unnecessary, technology does not make analysis itself unnecessary.

Analogues abound in other areas of policing and society. No one hawks telephone reporting or online reporting as replacements for police officers; instead, they allow police officers to focus on things that make better use of their skill sets. Computers in cars have not eliminated the need for mechanics. The existence of thousands of web sites devoted to home improvement did not make it any less advisable to call a professional contractor when I had to re-do my kitchen. All of these individuals, like crime analysts, offer a service that cannot be shifted to any technological solution.

Of course, most of you are nodding along—after all, you’re analysts. “Christopher,” you’re saying patiently, “You’re preaching to the choir.”

But actually, if you’re an analyst, I’m not really talking to you. I’m writing this message, instead, for a handful of companies who, in the last few years, have been increasingly selling their products as “replacements” for actual crime analysts—who think that by making mapping, charting, and statistics easier for the analyst—or other members of the agency—they are obviating the analyst.

I am writing to companies who have used phrases like “crime analyst in a box” to describe their software, or who say that it “allows any member of the police department to be a crime analyst,” or who tout to the media that a crime analyst costs $70,000 per year but the software can be had for only $30,000.

Listen up.

I used to spend a lot of time pushing pins into paper. When GIS systems came along, I didn’t have to do that anymore, so I was able to spend my time making more advanced thematic maps for my executives and officers. Then you came along with special crime mapping packages that allowed them to make some of those maps themselves, so I was able to research and learn about spatial statistics and apply the right hot spot technique to the right map. You’re doing some of that, too, now, so I’m spending time learning Crime Travel Demand and Risk Terrain Modeling.

I used to spend a lot of time keeping logs of crime series on paper matrices. Then you gave me data querying technologies that allowed me to generate dynamic matrices from my RMS. That was great—I could spend more time chasing leads on potential suspects and developing known offender files. You came along with software that linked intelligence from multiple sources, so I re-directed my time to advanced temporal and spatial forecasting models.

Throughout this evolution, my professional association has made this development possible with literature, training, peer networking, and the sharing of ideas over our discussion list. It’s kept up with your technology—while still providing basic training to analysts who don’t have it yet. And the more you provide, the more we will to continue to advance. We will never be obsolete.

I would encourage you to take a lesson from the web site WebMD, which, while providing a host of diagnostic tools, says:

This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Or, perhaps, look to the web site FindLaw:

We try to provide quality information, but we make no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained in or linked to this web site and its associated sites. As legal advice must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each case, and laws are constantly changing, nothing provided herein should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel.

I know you have to look out for your bottom line. I don’t expect you to convince chiefs that they need analysts more than they need your software—that’s our job. I don’t expect you to refuse to sell your analysis tools to agencies that don’t have a full time analyst. But I do expect you to stop suggesting that your product takes the place of an analyst. Analysts do not simply generate numbers and maps; they provide context and interpretation. They fuse quantitative and qualitative data, and they serve as expert consultants to their agencies on what does and doesn’t work for various problems. Many of them are pioneering models that predict future crime, triage the use of resources, and identify high-volume offenders. But they only learned how to do these things by first getting their hands dirty doing the things that you’re telling agencies they don’t need an analyst to do. Our jobs are to take the data that your software provides and to dig deeper. If you provide software that does some of that deeper digging for us, then we’ll dig deeper still.

Crime analysis will always have a love-hate relationship with emerging technologies, but it’s more love than hate. Your technologies allow us to have a much greater effect on crime and disorder in our communities than we were able to have when this profession started. Most of the discussion at crime analysis conferences these days centers on how to best employ technologies. We respect what you’ve done for us. Respect us in turn. Crime analysis does not, and never will, come in a box.

Christopher W. Bruce
President
International Association of Crime Analysts

My Last Year

Within a couple of weeks, the IACA will announce the appointment of an Elections Committee, and we will begin receiving nominations for all five board positions for the 2013-2015 board term. For me, this process drives home that this is my final year as IACA president. Leading this organization has been the best position I have ever held, or could ever imagine holding, and I can't tell you how I'm going to miss it.

I think I can speak for all board members and all committee members, current and past, when I say that you never accomplish as much as you hope to. In recent months, my mind has turned to how much time I have left, and what I want to accomplish with the rest of it.

A long-forgotten document.

Our Vice President of Administration, Susan Smith, e-mailed me a few days ago and said she'd found a "strategic plan" that I'd put together as part of my 2006 campaign. I had forgotten about it and, when she mentioned it, I was afraid to look at it. I didn't want to be reminded of all the visions I had that didn't come true. But then, today, I had a phone conversation with her, and she said, "You really need to read it." So, with trepidation, I did. And within minutes, my trepidation vanished and was replaced with awe. I had really not taken into account everything that this great, all-volunteer association had managed to accomplish in the last six years.

I did the strategic plan as a SWOT assessment. Check out some of the things I wrote about the association in 2006:

• "The IACA has never had much savoir-faire when it comes to managing its human resources...many of our committees suffer from lack of management...We generally rely on too few individuals to carry the bulk of work for the organization...We have generally failed to create and manage coherent, long range plans, including project plans and budgets." I'm not saying we're doing perfect in this regard, but wow have things improved. We have so many committees, and committee members, now that I struggle to keep track of them all. Each of them has a charter and budget, and the organization as a whole has a comprehensive budget.

• "There is not a sense that the IACA is a very 'active' organization...We generally have few significant projects in the works at any given time." I had forgotten about that. Back in 2006, we were struggling just to manage our annual conference and our fledgling certification program. Since then, we developed our Professional Training Series, our international symposiums, webinars, publications, the Standards, Methods, and Technologies committee, our Crime Analysis Unit Development Center, online training, and one of the best web sites of any nonprofit organization.

• "Despite our name, the IACA has never been truly 'international.' At most, we represent analysts in English-speaking nations, but we remain remote from even many of these." We still have a long way to go in this area, but I have to take pride in how far we've come. Our international membership has grown to encompass 41 nations. We've held our first international symposiums and established strong partnerships in Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. And we just formed an International Outreach Committee to better serve analysts around the globe.

Our first international symposium in Vancouver was a big leap forward for the association.

In the document, I proposed 21 action points for the coming years. I was surprised and happy to see that 14 of them have come to fruition, including a significant expansion in committees, an expansion of the leadership team, a better system of benefits for committee service, a crime analysis census (though we need to repeat it), a fundraising committee, a large Publications Committee, more partnerships with other organizations, a Professional Training Series, expansion of our certification process, more awards, more member benefits, better marketing of the profession to chief executives, the establishment of a committee much like our Standards, Methods, and Technologies Commmittee, greater internationalization, and continual improvements in our annual conferences.

Some of the ones that didn't happen strike me as a bit odd now. I proposed a gradual increase in the membership dues to $75 per year, concurrent with the introduction of new benefits and services. This will come as a shock to those board members who have heard me argue against any increase in dues for the entirety of my term. I'm not sure what I was thinking back then. I also proposed that we collect "historical documents, recollections and stories, and artifacts" of the profession and establish a Museum of Crime Analysis, which may be the silliest idea I've ever had.

The board and committees in the throes of strategic planning in 2009. Jim Mallard has just taken offense to something I said and is about to strangle me with his power cord. I still have the ligature marks.

Most of the other things that didn't happen have to do with organizational management, and I'm disappointed I didn't push harder here. I wanted yearly strategic planning sessions and formal training in nonprofit management for board members. We made an attempt at strategic planning in 2008, but I bollixed it all up, and it never went anywhere after that. This is an organization of 2,500 members, with a budget of nearly $300,000 per year, run entirely by well-meaning but untrained volunteers. It's a miracle we haven't had management, liability, tax, contract, or other problems faced by such organizations, and I would really recommend some kind of formal training for the next board.

I should mention that, when it comes to the successes of the past six years, I am not in any way taking credit. I'm glad to have been there, and to have facilitated what I could, but nearly every one of our accomplishments has been due to someone else's hard work. In some cases, I think I probably got in their way. In the chaos of day-to-day management, we sometimes forget what excellent, dedicated people we have serving on our board and committees. I don't say that to flatter. I look across this association and I see such intelligence and talent that it's staggering.

Together, we've accomplished great things, and we've raised the profile and professionalism of this field. In my last eight months with you, I want to try to squeeze out a little more. In addition to the continued progress of our many committees, I'm setting the following things as personal goals for the remainder of 2012, and I welcome any advice or assistance that you care to offer.

1. It's high time that we had a wiki. There have been attempts made on this before, but nothing that's come to fruition. I want a place where we can collectively pool our knowledge on the terms and concepts of our field--a place where, if you're attending a conference or reading a publication or Discussion List posting, and you encounter an unfamiliar phrase, you can quickly look up a concise, informative, and free definition.

2. While this field has made a lot of progress in various technical areas, I think we've continually lagged in the application of advanced statistical models to our data. There are better ways to measure change than percent change, better ways to predict the future than simple linear regression and moving averages, and better ways to evaluate than...well, really anything that most of us are doing. 49 years after the origin of the profession, it's absurd that we still haven't come to a resolution on issues like the minimum sample size we need for a spatial and temporal forecast, or whether we can use standard deviation as a predictive measure. I'd like to find a way to gather statisticians and practitioners and take a good look at what we're not using, what we're under-using, and what we're mis-using, and work towards better statistical literature for our field.

3. We had a professional census in 2008, but it only covered the United States, and it's four years out of date by now anyway. We need a method for an ongoing, regularly-updated survey of how many analysts exist, what their job functions are, how much they get paid, and other key variables.

It's a modest but reasonable list, and if I can make progress in all of them, I'll consider my last year a success.

I look forward to spending the next eight months working with you, and I hope I see as many of you as possible in Henderson. Thank you for being such a great association of which to be president.

Sincerely,

Christopher W. Bruce

President

International Association of Crime Analysts

Announcing - 2011 IACA Bulletin and Analytical Product Contest Winners!

Each year, the IACA holds a contest for members to submit their fabulous analytical products for a chance to win! These are products that they’ve prepared in the course of the year which have been distributed within their respective agencies to assist in or in support of an investigation. The official announcements were made on site during the annual training conference which was held this year in Hyannis, MA. This is a follow-up notice to inform our entire membership body of the exciting results.

First, a huge thanks to all who participated in the 2011 IACA Bulletin and Analytical Products Contest! If you were not a winner this time, try again next year as there were some very outstanding product submissions.

This year’s products were judged by the following panel of judges: Stacie Snow, Ventura County SD (CA), Shefali Tripathi, Gainesville PD (FL) and Mary Bertuccelli, Scottsdale PD (AZ). It is important to note that if anyone entering the contest was from a judges respective agency, the judge was removed from judging that category and Albert Mesa, Ventura County SD (Interim Awards Committee Chair) stepped in as the alternate judge. Tiana Antul, Worchester PD (MA) was our conference committee liaison and assisted on site. Thank you so much everyone, for your contribution to this event!

The winners of the 2011 IACA Bulletin and Analytical Products Contest are as follows:

Charting Category:
1st - David McClocklin, Ontario Provincial Police (Canada)
2nd - Jessica LeBlanc, Fairfax Police Department (VA)
3rd - Michelle Comeau, Center for Public Safety Initiative (NY)

Intelligence Category:
1st - Adrian Martin, Rochester Police Department (NY)
2nd - Sabrina Potts, Shawnee Police Department (KS)
3rd - Kellen Crouse, Albany Crime Analysis Center (NY)

Statistical Category:
1st - Kyle Stoker, Raytown Police Department (MO)
2nd - Leslie Morris, Albany Crime Analysis Center (NY)
3rd - Crime Analysis Unit c/o Lt. Daniel Wagner, Cambridge Police Department (MA)

Mapping Category:
1st - Scott Peacock, Walmart Asset Protection Investigations (AR)
2nd - Jessica LeBlanc, Fairfax Police Department (VA)
3rd - Ailsa DeVictoria, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (CA)

Tactical Category:
1st - Mike Winslow, Scottsdale Police Department (AZ)
2nd - Anne-Laure Del Cerro, Albany Crime Analysis Center (NY)
3rd - Zarine Hussain, Naperville Police Department (IL)

I can't thank the judges and committee members enough for all the time and effort that went into the contest preparation & reviewing all the submissions. We received 72 submissions this year, I’m told it was the highest in the history of the contest.

 TACTICAL CRIME BULLETINS – 25 ENTRIES
 CRIME/INTELLIGENCE CHARTING – 6 ENTRIES
 CRIME MAPPING – 17 ENTRIES
 STATISTICAL REPORTS – 15 ENTRIES
 INTELLIGENCE PRODUCTS – 9 ENTRIES

If you are interested in seeing the winning products from this year’s bulletin contest, they are located on the IACA website. http://www.iaca.net/conference_materials.asp


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This information is found on the website under Events> Conference> Conference Presentations.
Search for: Year=2011, Category=Bulletins Contest
Some items, particularly those in the charting category are larger files and may take a while to download or open.

If you were a winner who did not attend the conference and have not yet received your certificate, or award (1st place winners), please contact me at vp-membership@iaca.net . I look forward to increased participation in the contest next year!

An Historical Moment! IACA Exceeds 2000 Members!

I am absolutely excited to announce an historical moment for the IACA and our members!  This week, the number of active members hit a record 2000, and is still climbing.

We can attribute the success of our growing membership to a number of things, but most importantly it is due to developing and maintaining positive relationships with dedicated members who are passing the knowledge of the IACA along to others.

In addition to the number of members overall, this past year we have seen a growth in the number of international members.  In July of 2010 there were 29 countries represented with active membership; and in only a year we have grown to have active representation in 37 countries.

I encourage everyone of you to keep up the great work!  Continue spreading the news in regards to the benefits of becoming a member of the IACA, and I look forward to seeing many of you in Hyannis, MA at the upcoming annual training conference. 

Ericka Jackson, IACA VP of Membership