CompStat

CompStat—or COMPSTAT, short for COMPuter STATistics, is a computerization and quantification program used by police departments. It was originally set up by the New York City Police Department in the 1990s. Variations of the program have since been used in police departments across the world. According to a 2022 podcast by Peter Moskos with John Yohe and Billy Gorta, the name CompStat was suggested by detective Richard Mahere for the computer file name of the original program to comply with conventions, short for "COMParative STATistics" and "COMPuter STATistics". CompStat was started under the direction of Jack Maple when he was a transit police officer in New York City. The system was called Charts of the Future and was simple – it tracked crime through pins stuck in maps. Charts of the Future is credited with cutting subway crime by 27 percent. The original commanding officer of the Transit Police Crime Analysis Unit was Lieutenant Richard Vasconi. Chief of New York City Transit Police William J. Bratton was later appointed police commissioner by Rudolph Giuliani, and he brought Maple's Charts of the Future with him. Maple eventually made the NYPD adopt it after it was rebranded as CompStat, and it was credited with helping to bringing down crime by around 60%. There was a CompStat meeting every month, and it was mandatory for police officials to attend. The year after CompStat was adopted, 1995, murders dropped to 1,181. By 2012, there were 417 murders—the lowest number since records start in 1964. On a weekly basis, personnel from each of the NYPD's 77 precincts, nine police service areas and 12 transit districts compile a statistical summary of the week's crime complaints, arrests and summons activity, as well as a written report of significant cases, crime patterns and police activities. This data, with specific crime and enforcement locations and times, is forwarded to the chief of the department's CompStat Unit, where information is collated and loaded into a citywide database.