Eli B. Silverman

The New York City Police Department's Compstat: Dream or Nightmare?:

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 policings essential components within the context of the Compstat paradigm. This provides a more powerful mechanism to combat crime and terrorism.

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

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 Compstats 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.

An exploratory study of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board mediation program

– This study seeks to provide an exploratory analysis of the level of satisfaction of citizens and police officers who participated in police complaint mediation. The New York City Civilian Complaint Review Boards mediation program served as the case sample., – A two‐page questionnaire, of multiple choice and open‐ended questions, was sent to the sample population (N=285) of officers and complainants who either had their cases mediated or fully investigated., – Complainants who participated in mediation were significantly more satisfied with the police complaint procedure, and the NYPD as a whole, than those whose cases were fully investigated. Two major areas of research concern also emerged from the data: a need for an analysis of the cases where complainants wish to avoid face‐to‐face meetings with subject officers, and a clarification of the expectations of mediation participants., – This studys low response rate (18.2 percent) warrants caution in generalizing the findings of this study. Another limitation to this research was the cross‐sectional survey design; a pre‐post survey design would better determine whether the sample bias existed., – This research helps to inform police and civilian oversight officials of the effectiveness of police complaint mediation. In addition, this study highlights areas which merit future investigation., – This paper is the first examination of the satisfaction of police complaint mediation participants in the United States. This research is helpful for police and civilian oversight administrators considering the establishment of such a program, or those seeking the improvement of an existing one.

Police Manipulations of Crime Reporting: Insiders’ Revelations

Social scientists have theorized about the corruption of crime reports (Bayley, 1983; Campbell, 1976). Yet, scant empirical research has examined the impact of modern policing methods on the accuracy of crime reporting. Our research uses an anonymous survey of 1,770 retired New York City police officers examining retirees’ experiences with crime report manipulations across their years of retirement. This includes retirees from the community policing as well as police performance management eras. We subject the data to various statistical tests including tabular analysis, graphical trends to visualize the data, MANOVA, and logistic regression to explain report manipulations. Results indicate that the misuse of the performance management system and pressures on officers from management are key explanations for manipulating crime reports. Individual explanatory variables such as gender, educational status, rank, race, and marital status had no effect. Our research supports Bayley’s and Campbell’s theories. We recommend greater transparency to remedy this.

Organizational change and decision making in the New York city police department: a case study

The New York City Police Department has received an extraordinary amount of attention in recent years. This article addresses the nature of changing informational bases and departmental decision-making processes, particularly in terms of their interaction with recent managerial and strategic changes. This studys methodology of interviews, analysis of documents and participant observations yields findings which suggest that a revolution has occurred in the nature of decision-making in the New York City Police Department.

Corruption and Fraud in Policing

In democratic society the police are part of the executive branch. As such, the police are checked and balanced in their power by the judicial and legislative branches. While this helps to minimize corruption, we find that corruption not only exists but morphs to deal with any control mechanisms. We demonstrate this through the New York City Police Department. Tracing this department’s history with corruption exemplifies the issues that law enforcement agencies in free society must deal with. Typical acts of corruption, whistleblowers, the police culture, and what can be done about corrupt activity will all be discussed in this chapter. Ultimately, corruption must be controlled for democratic institutions to properly function.

Review essay/reining in the police?

John Alderson, Principled Policing: Protecting the Public with Integrity Winchester, U.K.: Waterside Press, 1998, 185 pp.