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Controller finds inconsistencies in SFPD CompStat; department to centralize crime reporting with new data warehouse
Summary
A Controller's Office audit presented Jan. 25 found divergent crime totals between SFPD's CompStat profile and DOJ UCR reports caused by multiple data sources and manual processes; the SFPD described a new crime data warehouse and short-term fixes to align counts and reduce errors.
On Jan. 25, 2012, the San Francisco Controller's Office told the Police Commission that the San Francisco Police Department's CompStat profile and the figures the department reports to the U.S. Department of Justice (UCR) have been inconsistent because the department lacks a single system of record and relies on manual processes to assemble CompStat.
Heather McDonald, a performance analyst in the Controller's office, said the audit identified three drivers of inconsistency: multiple disparate data sources, labor-intensive manual steps that introduce human error into the CompStat profile, and a mismatch in the method used to count some crime types (notably aggravated assaults/domestic violence) for CompStat versus UCR. "The department does not have a single system of record for reporting crime statistics," McDonald said, adding that those factors can create both different totals and differing trends between the two reports.
Why it matters: CompStat is used publicly and internally to track crime trends and guide resource decisions. Differences between CompStat and UCR can confuse policymakers, undermine public confidence, and make comparisons over time or across jurisdictions unreliable.
The Controller's office proposed several short-term fixes: connect homicide, shooting and other critical logs directly to the CompStat database; generate the CompStat profile automatically from the CompStat database instead of assembling it manually; use the same counting method for UCR and CompStat profiles; and delay CompStat publication by four days after the reporting period to reduce timing errors.
The department described a longer-term technical solution already under way. Susan Giffen, the Police Department's chief information officer, described the Scribe crime data warehouse as a new, single Oracle-based system that will consolidate 24 plus criminal justice data sources. "It will be the single and only place where we have scribe data in San Francisco," Giffen said, noting that a pilot at Ingleside Station was live and that officers had begun entering incident reports directly into the warehouse on Jan. 17. Giffen said the system will allow immediate reclassification of miscategorized incidents and provide versioned audit trails showing who changed what and when.
Chief leadership signaled support. The Chief said the department will implement the Controller's recommendations and take advantage of the warehouse to produce consistent, computer-generated statistics. The Chief also noted short-term "band-aid" process improvements the Controller's office proposed to reduce errors before full warehouse rollout.
What's next: The Controller's short-term suggestions are intended for immediate implementation; the department will continue a staged rollout of the crime data warehouse beyond the Ingleside pilot. Commissioners pressed for clarity on how reclassification, auditing and public release will work; department staff said the system creates versioned records and that public-release procedures remain under discussion. The Controller recommended aligning encodes used to bucket crime types so UCR and CompStat report the same incidents in the same categories.
The audit and the department's presentation together aim to make San Francisco's crime reporting more accurate and more comparable with DOJ figures. The Commission said it will track implementation of the Controller's recommendations and the broader warehouse rollout.
