Combining Police and Probation Information Resources to Reduce Burglary: Testing a Crime Analysis Problem-Solving Approach
Abstract
This research report describes the joint effort of the Phoenix Police Department (PPD) and the Maricopa County Adult Probation Department (APD) to develop a shared database for use, with GIS mapping, as a crime analysis tool within a formal problem-solving process to reduce crime. The project as originally designed included three components:
1. Construction of a shared database and integration of selected data from the two departments; 2. Collaboration of the departments in a formal, systematic problem-solving process aimed at reducing regional instances of burglary; and 3. Documentation of the above components and an evaluation of their impact on crime, using a quasi-experimental research design.
Evaluators established a quasi-experimental design to test the central proposition that database shared by the police and probation departments and used in crime analysis and problem-solving applications would support greater reductions in crime than would reliance solely on single-agency data....