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IPD analyst presents dashboard: calls for service up, violent crimes down; Asteria Building flagged as hotspot
Summary
Ithaca Police Department crime analyst Cheyenne Smith briefed the Community Police Board on a new dashboard showing total calls for service rising while Part 1 violent crimes have declined; the analyst flagged the Asteria Building as a localized hotspot with 88 responses in the last 30 days and answered board questions about data classification.
Cheyenne Smith, the crime analyst for the Ithaca Police Department, presented a new dashboard at the Community Police Board meeting that board members said helps explain why community perceptions of crime can differ from core violent-crime statistics.
Smith said the department's Part 1 violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault) have trended down over the last four years while total calls for service have increased. For a recent 30-day review, Smith reported 88 IPD responses to the Asteria Building and noted that many responses are classified as "assist," a broad category that can include noncriminal help, welfare checks, or support for other agencies.
Board members and the analyst discussed classification and data limitations. Smith explained that 'assist' is often a catchall and that further drilldowns are possible in the dashboard: users can filter by date range, beat, or call type to see arrests or specific incident subtypes. She also noted that some officer-to-citizen educational interactions may not generate a formal call for service record unless dispatch is notified.
Why it matters: board members said the dashboard can help the public and decisionmakers understand the operational demand on IPD, including that high call volume does not necessarily mean an increase in violent crime. Members asked for additional, easily accessible breakdowns so they can explain neighborhood impacts (for example, larcenies vs. violent crime) when speaking with constituents.
Specific figures cited in the meeting - Asteria Building: 88 responses in the last 30 days (drilldown presented by the analyst). - Call volume: speakers referenced roughly 19,000 calls for service in the aggregate this year as a context point; the analyst said total calls for service have been trending up year over year while Part 1 violent crimes have declined.
Questions and next steps Board members asked how to extract counts for actions such as bike stops or Commons advisements. Smith said such informal interactions are not always captured as separate calls unless dispatched; the dashboard can show arrests and call types when those are recorded. Members requested follow-up dashboards or printable summaries that show case-closure metrics, arrest counts by call type, and more granular breakdowns of larcenies and hotspot responses.
Ending: The board thanked Smith for the presentation and asked the analyst to provide deeper drilldowns and printable summaries at a future meeting so members can better communicate trends to the public.
