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Using facts and figures as ammo against crime
Analyst maps out patterns by studying data using latest technology and techniques

By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer
First published: Monday, December 17, 2007

SCHENECTADY -- Nathan Meehan displayed a map on his computer screen that showed the boundaries of the city of Schenectady and various dots with times next to them.
The dots were locations of BB-gun shootings reported on Nov. 5. The pattern of the dots indicated to Meehan where the shooters likely started, and that a police security camera at a Stewart's Shop along the route might have picked up the car.
     
Meehan, a Scotia native, is not a police officer. But his work, now becoming common at police departments of all sizes, is just as valuable. He's the Schenectady Police Department's crime analyst, a job created as part-time work in 2004 but that about a year ago became a full-time position.
The doctoral candidate in criminal justice started out with the routine task of plotting monthly burglaries on maps and trying to find similarities between them. Now, he has a University at Albany student doing that work, and he's moved on to analyzing crimes in Schenectady that appear to be linked, such as store robberies or car break-ins.
Meehan's job is not to tackle the highest-profile cases, such as homicides. But his work is just as important -- catching the criminals who affect many more lives on a daily basis.
Crime analysts have been used by police for more than 40 years. But the arrival of advanced computers and software in the 1990s gave the industry a boost.
Schenectady was able to hire an analyst for $55,000 thanks to state grants for Operation IMPACT, a program that encourages data-driven policing in the state's worst crime areas. Albany's police force reorganized last year to also use the grants for such analysts.
To make crime analysis possible, Schenectady's incident reports are entered into a spreadsheet system. Meehan then cleans up the wording to make it uniform for searching so he can search various topics in the report.
For example, Meehan found commonalities in a series of home burglaries last year by matching how the burglars pried open a rear door to get in. A description of a car in those neighborhoods led to the eventual arrest of three suspects. Meehan also discusses such details with state parole and probation workers to see if they have clients with similar tendencies and nearby addresses.
"It's not guesswork any longer," said former Schenectady Police Chief Michael Geraci, who recently left the department to take a position with the federal government. Geraci said previously, most case information was gleaned from officers' memories of past incidents -- not the most reliable source of data.
When Meehan entered college, he thought he wanted to be an attorney or an FBI agent, but he eventually decided neither were his calling. He says he has enjoyed this work since he started, but he's intent on becoming a professor and teaching criminal justice.
"I promised myself that I'd have my Ph.D. by the time I was 30," the 29-year-old said.
Lauren Stanforth can be reached at 454-5697 or by e-mail at lstanforth@timesunion.com.

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To make crime analysis possible, Schenectady's incident reports are entered into a spreadsheet system. Meehan then cleans up the wording to make it uniform for searching so he can search various topics in the report.
For example, Meehan found commonalities in a series of home burglaries last year by matching how the burglars pried open a rear door to get in. A description of a car in those neighborhoods led to the eventual arrest of three suspects. Meehan also discusses such details with state parole and probation workers to see if they have clients with similar tendencies and nearby addresses.
"It's not guesswork any longer," said former Schenectady Police Chief Michael Geraci, who recently left the department to take a position with the federal government. Geraci said previously, most case information was gleaned from officers' memories of past incidents -- not the most reliable source of data.

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SCHENECTADY
Official: Too many cops call in sick Public safety chief seeks change
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett insisted Monday that the city’s police officers want to improve their department — but he then castigated them for calling in sick and using comp time to get out of work.
    “The first thing we need to do is get the patrol division to come to work a reasonable number of days a year,” Bennett told the Schenectady City Council at its second policefocused Public Safety Committee meeting.
    Committee Chairman Gary Mc-Carthy plans one last session to hear from residents before refocusing his committee to draft legislation, change policies or create spending plans to address problems at the department.
    McCarthy wants to significantly improve response times. Bennett could not offer current statistics, but in August 2006, then-Chief Micheal N. Geraci said it takes offi cers 9 1 /2 minutes on average to get to the most serious calls, violent crimes in progress.
    Nonviolent complaints take much longer. If a drug dealer is peaceably selling cocaine outside your door, or you’ve crashed your car but have no injuries, the average response time is 45 minutes, Geraci said then.
    Bennett said police will get to every incident faster if more of them come to work.
    “State police work 220 days. Our people don’t even come close to that,” he said. Bennett is the retired superintendent of the New York State Police.
    City police work an average of 197 days a year, according to a Sunday Gazette review of 2006 police attendance records. Officers take an average of 12.25 sick days a year and nine compensatory days. But the 70 officers who were hired before 1995, and have unlimited sick time under terms in effect then, take an average of 14 sick days. New hires, who can’t take more than 15 days a year, use an average of 10 sick days.
    “We have a problem with too much sick leave being used,” Bennett said. “There has to be limits. The amount of sick time used is significantly higher than the state police. Do we have a group of unhealthy people? I don’t think so.”
    He also said the city must stop offering comp time instead of overtime pay.
    “It’s primarily taken on the busiest days: Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Bennett said.
    Between comp time and sick days, nearly half of the officers assigned to the busiest shift, 4 p.m. to midnight, find a reason to avoid coming in on Saturdays, accord- ing to the The Sunday Gazette’s review.
    On average, fewer than 10 of the 17 scheduled officers work the Saturday evening shift each week. Any weekday evening has better coverage — typically 14 officers are on duty on those less-busy shifts.
    But even on weekdays, nearly one-third of the scheduled evening officers don’t come in.
    That’s why police sometimes take an hour to get to a non-emergency call, Bennett said.
    “The level of personnel that you have available to work directly impacts your ability to provide a timely response to the needs of the citizens,” he said.
    He offered two possible solutions Monday.
    First, he wants to establish regular audits — performed by the city police — to look into sick time abuse, failure to respond to calls in a timely manner, and a host of other issues.
    “Every so many months, every function of the Police Department will be examined in detail,” he said “That’s the way things get done and that’s the way you keep from getting in trouble.”
    Meanwhile, he wants to convince officers to come to work more often even though the current contract allows some of them to use unlimited sick days and lets all of them take comp time.
    “People in the Police Department want to see improvement,” he said. “They’re looking for change. They know change is going to come. They know it has to come. They don’t want to continue like this.”
    He plans to explain, for example that even though 10 patrol members can use comp time on any given shift, the public will notice a big improvement in response times if police don’t take advantage of the generous rules.
    “That’s what I hope to bring awareness to,” Bennett said. “I hope that part of the change will be a self-assessment by all of the police. I won’t ask them to violate their contract, but I’ll say, ‘Folks, these are the issues. Staffing is the issue.’ ”
    He still wants to negotiate changes in the contract — including the elimination of comp time — but negotiations are at a standstill while the police union and the city prepare for arbitration.

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On average, fewer than 10 of the 17 scheduled officers work the Saturday evening shift each week. Any weekday evening has better coverage — typically 14 officers are on duty on those less-busy shifts.
    But even on weekdays, nearly one-third of the scheduled evening officers don’t come in.

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Who was in office when the contract was negotiated that allows for UNLIMITED sick time?  The accrual of comp time in lieu of overtime pay may have been agreed to in an effort to reduce near term expenditures.  There should, however, be a limit on the amount of comp time that is "banked".

Once these provisions are agreed to in contract negotiations w/ the union, they are difficult to rescind/revise.

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EDITORIALS Time for Schenectady police to get well

    Appearing before the City Council Monday night, Schenectady Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett sounded like a man interested in managing the Police Department. While that’s certainly refreshing, given the department’s prevailing culture and recent history, it will be a daunting task.
    But Bennett’s proposed methods — a combination of closer scrutiny of his officers and some sweet persuasion — seem to have at least a chance of working. He deserves the support of the Stratton administration, the Council (which gets credit for holding a series of hearings with an eye toward using its powers to make needed changes in the department), and the public.
    The problem in the Patrol Division is time — response time, sick time and compensatory time, which are all related.
    Response time, for both violent crimes and nonviolent complaints, is unacceptably slow. The reason, as Bennett pointed out, is that there just aren’t enough men on a shift. And the reason for that is simple: Officers don’t show up for work enough. They take too much sick time — especially the older officers, who have unlimited amounts of it (they average 14 sick days) — and too much comp time.
    Besides leaving shifts shortstaffed on the busiest nights of the week, the comp time actually winds up costing the city more because other officers are called in on overtime. It would be cheaper and more efficient to do away with comp time completely and make officers take overtime pay, but that’s a contract issue which must be negotiated.
    So Bennett is left to do audits of sick time and check for abuse. He wants to handle it internally, but perhaps the Council should hire lesser-paid, independent civilians for the job.
    As for comp time, what Bennett will ask his officers to do seems entirely reasonable. Take overtime pay instead of comp time. And schedule any comp time so that shifts are better staffed. If the officers are interested in improving policing, and their image, they can start here.

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The one problem with taking overtime is the fact it's going to raise the officers pay for that year and allow him to retire at a much higher pension rate that the city will have to pay for.