Thinking about police data: Analysts’ perceptions of data quality in Canadian policing

O’Connor, Christopher; Ng, John; Hill, Dallas; Frederick, Tyler

doi:10.1177/0032258x211021461

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…To increase self-sufficiency in policing practices, it is necessary for police to engage in processes to collect and analyze their own data, which requires buy-in from frontline personnel and increasing the role of criminal intelligence analysts (O’Connor et al, 2021). Employing the ODARA is only the first step toward adherence to the risk principle.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A field study on the police use of the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA).

Jung¹,

Himmen²

2022

Journal of Threat Assessment and Management

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The Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA) is undisputedly a valid tool to assess the risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) recidivism. However, there is limited research examining the use of the ODARA in the field of practice, particularly when employed by law enforcement, which is its intended use. The present study examines the predictive accuracy of the ODARA when it is scored by police officers. A sample of 97 male-against-female IPV cases where an ODARA was completed by the primary investigating officer were followed up. The results indicate that police-scored ODARAs predicted general recidivism (area under the curves [AUCs] = .698-.713), and more importantly, violent recidivism (AUCs = .629-.700). Also, the ODARA predicted IPV reconvictions significantly above chance (AUCs = .681-.682); however, the ODARA did not predict IPV recidivism in the form of police charges (AUCs = .629-.632). In light of the constraints on police services in allocating resources to IPV cases, this study offers further support for law enforcement to employ the ODARA for determining a perpetrator's IPV risk and to identify and prioritize high-risk cases. The findings contribute to the larger body of research that increasingly supports the use of evidence-based approaches in policing practices. Public Significance StatementThis study supports police using the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA) as an actuarial measure of intimate partner violence risk. The ODARA predicted reoffending, including violent and intimate partner violence recidivism, when the ODARA was completed by the primary investigating police officer.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A field study on the police use of the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA).

Jung¹,

Himmen²

2022

Journal of Threat Assessment and Management

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“…And, although study participants described many instances where the analysis of knife crime was being undertaken, many participants also described serial challenges in working up detailed and rich pictures of local knife crime problems. This was attributed to various factors including a lack of analysts, limited access to analysts and various data quality problems, particularly the lack of (consistently applied) 'flags' for knife crimes and accurate information on the types of knives used in knife crime (see also Sanders and Condon, 2017;Burcher and Whelan, 2018;Cope, 2004;O'Connor et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Police practitioner views on the challenges of analysing and responding to knife crime

Bullock¹,

Agar²,

Ashby³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Knife crime remains a major concern in England and Wales. Problem-oriented and public health approaches to tackling knife crime have been widely advocated, but little is known about how these approaches are understood and implemented by police practitioners. To address this knowledge gap, this article draws on semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 44 police personnel to consider the processes and challenges of applying problem-oriented and public health approaches to knife crime. Our findings show that knife crime was seen as a complex social problem which would not be solved by ‘silver bullets’; prevention was prioritised and the limitations of enforcement were widely acknowledged; there was an emphasis on understanding and responding to vulnerability and risk; discussion of ‘holistic’ and ‘whole systems’ approaches was evident (but these concepts were rarely defined); and the problem of serious violence was viewed as a shared, multi-agency issue that the police could not tackle alone. Various challenges were also evident, most notably around the analysis of the drivers and patterns of knife crime and the evaluation of knife crime interventions. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for knife crime prevention and the implementation and advancement of problem-oriented and public health approaches to policing.

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“…Despite such issues, research featuring data that derive from police case files have the potential to reveal vital information about many elements of criminal investigations, including differing investigative approaches, victim care, and officer attitudes. They are considered important as a result (O'Connor et al, 2022; Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2022).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability, resilience, and rape: Uncovering the hidden work of police officers during rape investigations

Rumney

McPhee

2023

International Review of Victimology

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Drawing on original empirical data comprising police interviews and case file analysis, this article seeks to better understand the policing responses to cases of rape and specifically, the ways in which officers assist victims in the context of two themes – encouraging engagement with the investigative process and ensuring victim safety and general welfare. This work – which we call ‘hidden work’ as it is often neglected in the research literature – involves victim care, multi-agency working, provision of practical assistance, along with efforts to protect victims from physical and psychological harm. This article reaffirms key observations in the existing literature that emphasise the importance of victim welfare and engagement as part of a police investigation. A focus on victim care can be seen as an end in itself but also as a strategy that may carry benefit to the police themselves in the pursuance of performance goals should a victim remain engaged with the criminal justice process. However, the central argument in this paper is that traditional measures of police performance, such as detection and arrest rates, miss a significant amount of police activity which are important to rape victims and that a broader range of considerations should be factored into discussion of police performance. This is suggested not to diminish or downplay the significance of traditional measures of performance, or indeed to minimise police shortcomings in these areas, but to facilitate a more nuanced discussion of some of the realities of investigative work in the complex field of sexual offences. The article concludes by arguing that much of this hidden work should be included in formal assessments of police performance alongside traditional key performance indicators.

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Thinking about police data: Analysts’ perceptions of data quality in Canadian policing

Cited by 11 publications

References 54 publications

A field study on the police use of the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA).

A field study on the police use of the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA).

Police practitioner views on the challenges of analysing and responding to knife crime

Vulnerability, resilience, and rape: Uncovering the hidden work of police officers during rape investigations

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