The NYPD's Compstat: Compare Statistics or Compose Statistics?

Abstract

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.

Can Performance Management Best Practices Help Reduce Crime?

“…Examining the use of best practices associated with performance management is crucial in policing, as police organizations have to maintain a balance between the demands of the community, social justice, organizational flexibility, budgeted resources, accountability, fairness, efficiency, and effectiveness (Den Heyer ). Furthermore, many problems have accompanied the use of performance management system in policing, such as abuse of authority, an increased sense of marginalization among communities, and data manipulation (Eterno and Silverman ).…”

“…However, public reports might also have negative consequences, such as encouraging officers to engage in data manipulation to avoid embarrassment (Eterno and Silverman ). Reports can create unnecessary pressure on officials, especially for outcome performance metrics such as crime reduction, which may not always be under police control.…”

“…Performance management systems are now well‐established concepts that are increasingly being adopted by police agencies in the United States and abroad (Van Sluis, Cachet, and Ringeling 2008). These systems are hailed for improving police performance, on the one hand (e.g., Behn ), and blamed for encouraging abuse of authority, on the other (Eterno and Silverman ). Some scholars argue that these systems can be made effective if certain best practices are applied with their use (Behn ; Mastrofski ).…”

Public service commissioning: origins, influences, and characteristics

“…The two great exemplars of recent decades -Compstat (NYPD in the 1990s), and the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit (in the Blair government) -have critics as well as supporters (Barber et al 2011;Eterno and Silverman 2010).…”

“…One line of criticism hinges on the distortionary impact of performance incentives, particularly highly-specific targets imposed from above (Eterno and Silverman 2010). Another focuses on the different kinds of knowledge possessed by central planners and front-line practitioners (Berlin 2013;Hayek 1945;Scott 1998).…”