The law enforcement profession abounds with data and metrics—crime and clearance rates, staffing ratios, training hours, salary levels, and so forth. Humans have a natural desire to gauge performance, which is often accomplished by comparing performance, data, or accomplishments with those of their peers. Law enforcement leaders are no different—chiefs want to know how their agencies are doing relative to other agencies. Understanding the various approaches other agencies employ to handle contemporary issues can inform or validate a current or proposed course of action. Such insights and comparisons are helpful from a management perspective in a variety of situations, including during budget preparations, when advocating for agency needs before governing officials, and when communicating with the public and the media. In fact, much of the value of IACP membership lies in the opportunities provided by the association to network, receive peer-to-peer support, and share promising practices.
Certainly, data, when analyzed and translated into knowledge and insights, can drive better, more informed decision-making. With this in mind, the IACP and IACP Net, with support from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), created a new resource for comparative analytics: the Law Enforcement Benchmarking and Performance Analytics Portal.
Introduced at the 2016 IACP Annual Conference in San Diego, California, the benchmarking platform has quickly become a key tool for helping agencies and their leaders identify, connect with, and learn from their peers. Nearly 200 agencies have registered to use the system, which is available at www.theIACP.org/benchmarking. Dozens completed the online data collection form in 2015, 2016, or both.
For agency officials thinking of starting a new program or adding new specialized staff, the benchmarking portal can help them identify and connect with agencies that have already gone through similar scenarios.
Agencies are asked to input data in a variety of categories, including agency and community demographics; assignments; budgeting; staffing; crime and arrest rates; workload; salaries; officer safety; and “hot topics,” like use of force, body-worn cameras, and civilian complaint boards. The reporting feature allows users to see a graphic visualization of where their agency stands relative to similarly sized agencies. For agency officials thinking of starting a new program or adding new specialized staff, the benchmarking portal can help them identify and connect with agencies that have already gone through similar scenarios. Chief Tony Pustizzi of the Coral Springs, Florida, Police Department and chair of the Benchmark Cities Group commented,
While the data requirement is intense, requiring answers to a large number of detailed questions, the output is valuable. Being able to immediately see where your agency stands relative to other agencies of comparable size is a powerful and informative tool.1
Access to the Law Enforcement Benchmarking and Performance Analytics Portal is free, but limited to law enforcement agency representatives. To register, an agency official can send an email request to benchmarking@theiacp.org. (IACP members should include their member number.) Data contributed by participating agencies are secure and accessible only to other registered users of the system.
Types of Comparative Reports•Police budget as a percentage of jurisdiction’s budget •Personnel budget as a percentage of overall police budget •Calls for service per 1,000 population •Calls for service per 1,000 population relative to police budget •Part 1 crimes per 1,000 population •Part 1 crimes per sworn officer •Racial and ethnic demographics of department personnel •Sworn strength per 1,000 citizens •Sworn and non-sworn personnel by assignment •Calls for service per officer •Calls for service per first responder •Complaints – internal and external complaints against sworn and non-sworn personnel by whether the complaints were founded, unfounded, not substantiated, or under investigation. •Use-of-force statistics •Median salaries |
Benchmarking with Publicly Available Data
As part of this project, IACP has also taken publicly available data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to create a series of comparative online data visualizations that are filterable by agency size, type, and population served. Available on the Benchmarking webpage, these interactive charts allow law enforcement leaders to explore data from the most recent BJS Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (2008) and the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey (2013) in exciting new ways.2 For example, users can compare unique data points like median entry-level salaries, agencies with civilian complaint review boards, or counts of female chiefs by state.
Background on Benchmarking and the IACP
The concept of a benchmarking tool that collected data from around the United States was born in IACP’s Midsize Agencies Division. In 1997, Chief John Douglass, then of the Overland Park, Kansas, Police Department, identified and surveyed his own group of “Benchmark Cities” when he was looking for a way to compare his department with other similarly situated and resourced departments. From there, the Benchmark Cities Group was created. The survey and annual meeting to discuss the results are still held today.
Chief Douglass championed the idea of nationalizing the survey during his tenure as the first chair of the IACP’s Midsize Agencies Division. Most departments that participated in the Benchmark Cities Survey were also active members of the IACP Midsize Agencies Division, so expanding the Benchmark Cities survey concept to a broader national audience became a natural goal of the Midsize Agencies Division. The original Benchmark Cities Group serves as an advisory group for the continued development and evolution of the online benchmarking tool. Chief Paul Williams (Springfield, Missouri, Police Department), current general chair of IACP’s Midsize Agencies Division, attests to the value of expanding the benchmarking tool into a worldwide resource:
The value of the Benchmark Cities Group has always been the unique ability to see where your agency stands relative to its peers and then to connect directly with the chiefs of those agencies. With the IACP’s new online benchmarking tool, that power is magnified. Any agency can contribute data and use the system, allowing for potentially infinite comparisons. The more agencies that contribute, the more robust the tool will be.3
The IACP, which continuously works to advance the goals of its members and the profession, sought and was awarded funding from the COPS Office to support this project. The Law Enforcement Benchmarking and Performance Analytics Portal is a great resource for law enforcement leaders seeking information and data as they strive to bring best practices to their agencies and communities.♦
Notes:
1Tony Pustizzi (chief, Coral Springs Police Department), email, June 1, 2017.
2Brian A. Reaves, Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2008 (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011); U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) (Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2015).
3Paul Williams (chief, Springfield Police Department), email, June 1, 2017.
Please cite as
Tracy Phillips, “Benchmarking and Performance Analytics: Your New Tool for Data-Driven Decision-Making,” IACP Working for You, The Police Chief (July 2017). 78–80.
