If you were the Oakland Police Department, how would you fight crime with an understaffed, overstressed police department?

Simple. You get smarter about it.

Twentieth century methods don’t necessarily work in 2011. To update the Crimestopper’s Manual for the new millennium, you need up-to-date tools and resources. And, part of smart policing, in this day and age, is knowing when to call for tech-savvy backup.

Enter Urban Strategies. The Oakland-based organization, that has a solid track record in transformative community-building efforts - encompassing such areas as economic opportunity, public safety, violence prevention, education and data analysis - recently partnered with OPD to unveil an innovative crime-mapping resource, which allows local law enforcement to effectively track hotspots better than ever before.

Thanks to the new mapping technology, OPD claims a 13 percent decrease in property crimes since the partnership began. That’s an encouraging statistic, considering that robberies and home invasions have spiked in Oakland, despite an overall decrease in violent crimes over the past four years.

Such immediate results offer a glimpse into what could be the future – not just of police work, but of socio-cultural engineering in urban areas – as the public sector pursues partnerships with multi-faceted, community-based think tanks and data-crunchers who put up-to-date technology to good use.

The possibilities for local governments, law enforcement and social service agencies and other bureaucratic institutions seem endless. Information gleaned from one project or initiative can be utilized in others, and statistical data can be shared across a wide variety of end users, resulting in more thorough and comprehensive solutions to urban problems and quality of life issues.

But how did this all happen?

We asked Urban Strategies’ Steve Spiker to explain how his organization’s collaboration with OPD came about, how it works and what possibilities he sees with other local agencies for similar partnerships. Here’s what he had to say:

Q: How did the collaboration with OPD come about?

A: Council Member Brooks invited us to meet with Captain Rachal who had been discussing the lack of mapping and analytical support available. We had been working with Council Member Brooks to develop a project to support the NCPCs in Oakland for several months prior to this. Ms. Brooks was familiar with the Council through our work in Oakland over many years. Our initial pilot developed over 18 months with three successive commanders in east Oakland.

Q: How does crime mapping help police fight crime?

A: Your best response would be from Captain Joyner in East Oakland who has been using this the longest in Oakland. He provided this quote recently in support of this work:

'Capt. Joyner: As the Commander of Area 3, my job is extremely difficult attempting to balance crime prevention, community collaborations, and customer service. With the reduction of staff and increase in crime it has become apparent that we must employ 21st century crime fighting techniques to deal with 21st century crime. Urban Strategies Council has become the foundation for every strategic move I make. Their professionalism, vision, and dedication to this community is priceless. I am proud to be part of a partnership that exemplifies what we are trying to be in this city, innovative!'

Our understanding is that police command staff need a clear operating picture of where and when certain types of crimes are happening in their jurisdiction. They also need to be able to contextualize the areas with high crime by layering community services, facilities, street conditions and surrounding businesses. Mapping crime and community issues and the built environment enables them to build a better picture of what is happening in an area and what maybe contributing to or enabling certain crimes.

The mapping and analysis is also useful for staff and resource management - being able to task officers to the right area at the right time of day or the right season to preempt certain criminal activity. This type of mapping and analysis provides a more actionable way to view huge amounts of data and allows for data-driven decisions and intelligence-led policing.

Q: Looking at the hot spot map, what does that allow OPD to do that they couldn’t before?

A:  If we look at points showing crimes across from Lockwood Elementary School we can see a few incidents of drug crimes in a given month, but if we look at violence we see several assaults and robberies. These crimes often take place at the same location and so the point data are not always enough to visually understand what is happening in an area. If we build a hot spot map we can show the real intensity of crimes in an area that accounts for multiple events occurring on the same corner so officers and residents can clearly see that this one location is a dangerous location needing attention.

Technically, it provides a visual representation of huge volumes of data that allows police, officials and residents to make smarter decisions about where to place staff and other resources, to plan ahead of time for certain major events each year that result in focused crime outbreaks in certain areas also. This is also useful for evaluating crime suppression efforts. If the same hot spots keep reappearing, then both the police and the community need to consider different tactics or efforts to reduce criminal activity in that area.

Q: Can the drops in violent crime and property crime be attributed to this new data?

A:  We are very careful about attributing changes in crime to any one thing. We have researched crime prevention and violence prevention strategies across the U.S. for many years and we understand very well that crime reduction is a complex, multi-step process. Access to timely, actionable information is a key element of all successful CompStat policing models across the country and this has helped many cities significantly reduce crime. We are excited to see the results at the end of the first year of our partnership.

Q: How will this access to data help OPD in the future, from a strategic and planning perspective?

A:  Many crimes in Oakland follow seasonal trends and some crimes peak on particular holiday days each year (for example the Friday before Memorial Day regularly sees large increases in property crimes while Halloween sees consistent increases in violence). This intel will allow for more proactive policing strategies and will help the OPD to focus limited resources on areas with the greatest impact. It will also aid them in balancing prevention and suppression versus investigation and reporting.

Q: Are there other similar departments or agencies you feel this type of statistical analysis could be helpful for?

A:  We are talking with the Alameda County Probation Department and have worked with them for several years and seen similar needs around the use of data and mapping. We are in discussions with the Oakland Housing Authority about similar work also. We have a long standing partnership with AC Public Health and the OUSD to work on collaborative research and mapping projects.

For more information, visit www.UrbanStrategies.org.