In January 2017, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) launched Strategic Decision Support Centers (SDSC), small conference rooms intended to act as communication hubs for real-time crime response. The rooms are outfitted with advanced technology—a bank of display screens provides information from sensors that can detect gunshots, feeds from Chicago’s surveillance cameras and details from predictive policing software that identifies places and people at higher risk of crimes.
Almost two years after launch, and one year after an expansion, a recent study by RAND Corporation quantifies SDSCs’ positive impact: a 5 to 15 percent average reduction in crime, with some districts reaching up to a 40 percent reduction in certain illicit actions. According to the authors' models, a district that adds an SDSC can expect to see reductions in at least some of the 10 types of major crimes modeled, including shootings, robbery, burglary, and criminal sexual assault.
Although originally intended to be a dedicated space for command, control and communications in response to events in real-time, the study showed that SDSCs are so much more than that. In fact, they support higher levels of awareness among officers, data-driven decision-making, more structured daily cycles, and better long-term planning operations that address chronic crime problems.
"Prior to the opening of the centers, commanders we interviewed described making decisions largely ad-hoc, based on whatever they heard about," said John Hollywood, lead author of the study and a senior operations researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "Once the centers were in place, command decisions were much more structured and data-driven."
Specifically, Hollywood and his colleagues noted SDSCs feature novel technology and processes that helped improved mission outcomes within the CPD.
These include:
- Advanced data analyses that focused on crime “hot spots” and other problem-orientated policing, enabling timelier and more accurate decision-making,
- Continuous camera footage led to numerous detections of crimes in progress, as well as aided in identifying perpetrators post-crime,
- Shot detection technology, camera views and monitoring of dispatch traffic helped get police units on the scene faster than before; and
- The ability to provide past criminal history and warning information to officers on scene was credited as improving officer safety.
The report also gave recommendations on how SDSCs can improve, some of which the CPD has already begun to implement, such as the creation of a new oversight panel, a more-detailed set of departmental directives and ongoing development of supporting technologies. Given the success so far, another recommendation was to expand the scope of SDSC operations to go beyond reactive response and provide support for active crime issues/investigations. However, some elements of improvement may be out of the hands of the CPD. Researchers identified SDSCs’ major challenge as sustainability, especially considering political leadership changes over time.
Overall, SDSCs were seen as a success within the CPD—and a program that should be expanded both within Chicago, as well as other areas.
“We see SDSCs as a promising model for improving law enforcement agencies’ awareness of their communities, improving their decision-making, and carrying out more effective and more efficient operations that lead to crime reductions and other policing benefits,” the study authors concluded. “Agencies interested in this model will also benefit from reviewing the types of issues and opportunities identified in this paper to help ensure the sustainment and improvement of [real-time crime centers] over time.”
Photo courtesy of UChicago Urban Labs.