The Compstat paradigm has revolutionised the way policing is accomplished in democratic countries. Many agencies throughout the world have emulated the Compstat programme which originated in New York City in 1994. The strengths of Compstat have been widely publicised: dramatic reductions in crime, accountability of key staff members, and coordination of various units within an agency.The weaknesses of Compstat are less recognised: due process considerations, community relations, leadership issues, inadequate problemsolving. Weaknesses pose challenges and the authors present an alternative model to address these weaknesses. This model focuses on integrating community policing's essential components within the context of the Compstat paradigm. This provides a more powerful mechanism to combat crime and terrorism.

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A recent federal district court decision found that the New York City Police Department engaged in unconstitutional policing. Officers stopped millions of minority young men over the span of several years. Most of those stopped were innocent of any wrongdoing. This article uses qualitative and quantitative research methods to investigate these inequities, examining the views of both the police and those who were stopped. The authors find that pressure on officers emanating from headquarters was responsible for much of the illegal behavior by lower‐level officers. Additionally, youth in minority neighborhoods felt mistreated by the police; this led to distrust in the police. The authors suggest solutions to ameliorate this painful episode in police practice. The article concludes with specific recommendations such as reducing management pressure on officers and police developing community partnerships.

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The New York City Police Department (NYPD) introduced Compstat in 1994. Since then, the NYPD and many other law enforcement agencies which have adopted Compstat, have declared dramatic decreases in reported index crime. Indeed, in New York City the claim is that index crime has decreased over 76 per cent. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this research examines Compstat's managerial environment. Our main concern in this paper is examining the extent (if any) of pressures which managers believe they are exposed to at Compstat, as well as how those pressures might influence unethical crime reporting. Results indicate that managers perceive that they are subject to significantly greater pressure in the Compstat era especially, but not exclusively, with respect to decreasing index crime. Further, these pressures help explain unethical crime reporting in the Compstat era.