Public Safety Committee
May 10, 2022
RECOMMENDATION
AGENDA REPORT
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive An Informational Report From The City Administrator Which Includes 1) A Report On The Current And Historical Clearance Rates Of Violent Crimes And 2) A Plan To Create And Implement An Investigations Management Database And A Corresponding Clearance Rates Dashboard To Track The Progress In Clearing Cases, To Ensure Accountability For Perpetrators Of Violent Acts Against Oaklanders, And Bring Closure For Violent Crime Victims And Their Families, And Deter Potential Violent Acts.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Oakland Police Department’s (OPD) current record management system (RMS) is outdated and in the process of an upgrade. The Oakland Police Department (OPD) in partnership with the Information Technology Department (ITD) are in the process of implementing a new Motorola record management system (RMS) known as P1RMS. OPD will leverage this new system for better crime investigations case management as there are many areas where a more robust data system can improve data management. For example, a new system can better assist investigators with drawing and creating linkages between crimes, evidence, and intelligence related information. It is important for investigators to have a system that analyzes pertinent information from different validated law enforcement data that connect investigative leads in the form of suspects and persons of interest across different cases. Security and confidentiality are also major factors in the current system which limits collaboration through cloud-based data systems as investigators must ensure that confidential information stays protected.
Overall, the upcoming Motorola P1RMS is built for reporting management and not case management. A gap analysis is underway with the ITD and OPD to determine what additional systems work will be required to address case tracking needs of OPD’s Bureau of Investigations.
Staff also expects to leverage a better RMS to better showcase related data on a public facing website. OPD’s current website includes a “Police Data
” page which showcases important data
such as crime mapping, stop data, and use of force reports.
City Administrator Date
Approval Apr 27, 2022
TO: Edward D. Reiskin
City Administrator
FROM: LeRonne L. Armstrong
Chief of Police
SUBJECT: Violent Crime Investigations
Management Report
DATE: April 8, 2022
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
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Public Safety Committee
May 10, 2022
BACKGROUND AND LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Internal Data Management
The biggest factor driving consideration of a new OPD investigations case management system is the need to better track data and information related to Oakland homicides. The fact that homicides have increased since the onset of the global Covid-19 Epidemic only exacerbates the need. OPD’s Bureau of Investigations (BOI) comprises of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), Violent Crimes Operations Center (VCOC), Crime Guns and Intelligence Unit (CGIC), Crime Analysis Unit (CAU), Intelligence Unit, Property and Evidence Unit (PEU) and the Criminalistics Laboratory (Crime Lab). BOI would benefit from an enhanced case management system by allowing these entities to work within an integrated system. This system would require a high confidentiality level - the information generated from each Division, Section, and Unit is highly sensitive and not releasable to the public or in some cases other employees both sworn and professional within the OPD. Additionally, the Ceasefire Division heavily relies upon intelligence and other forms of validated information from the components within the BOI.
Law Enforcement Agencies nationwide depend on their RMS – connected to the computer- assisted dispatch (CAD) systems for foundational record keeping of crime incidents and investigations. OPD relies on its RMS for day-to-day management of the tens of thousands of new cases, incidents and records created each year. OPD’s current RMS allows for basic base- level record management; however, the system is outdated based on contemporary demand for complex records management and the need to develop new types of record keeping and file collaboration.
OPD, along with ITD is currently in the middle of a large and complex integration of a new Motorola P1RMS - Motorola’s next generation RMS product. The new RMS is far more robust than the current RMS, particularly in its ability to be customized. A new case management system would need to be connected to the RMS, as the RMS is the backbone record management system and record depository; case management systems need to ultimately refer to the incident numbers for data integrity as well as the need for accurate and correct police records.
Staff have already documented areas where the current legacy end-of-life RMS is not a sufficiently capable product for tracking homicide cases/investigations. Case management needs beyond RMS is designed to include the following:
• Access and Security:
o Managing user security in RMS is cumbersome and relies on cooperation and help from staff who are not part of CID and the Homicide Section. This can delay granting access to authorized new users while also potentially exposing sensitive information to staff not in CID or Homicide.
o Homicide Section staff often keep confidential case notes manually; there are concerns that any data in RMS is discoverable, thus putting at risk the identity of key, confidential information (e.g., identity of witnesses). • RMS Data Categorization and Storage Limitations:
o There is no place in RMS to track some of information that is often part of a homicide investigation e.g., National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBN
) gun tracing links to cases utilizing identical firearms, evidence data and lab reports.
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: Violent Crime Investigations Management Report Date: April 8, 2022 Page 3
Public Safety Committee
May 10, 2022
o Linking case data from one case to another (e.g., same gun used, same suspect, etc.) is an invaluable investigative tool and RMS has no capability to automatically provide this sort of link analysis.
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
OPD’s collaborative efforts to assess departmentwide needs for better data management as well as the commitment to provide data to the public advance the Citywide priorities of 1) vibrant, sustainable infrastructure and 2) responsive, trustworthy government.
ITD and OPD are collaborating on efforts to assess departmentwide needs for better data management, as well as to develop plans to address these needs. This process is underway as the new RMS is being implemented. ITD and OPD are still in the assessment stage, ensuring a successfully deployment of the new RMS in terms of basic record keeping and connection to core data systems.
The Oakland Police Department is currently using a spreadsheet to keep track of all its homicide and shooting metrics because of the data and security issues cited above. Staff expects that the new case management system or modified P1RMS will improve data management in the following ways:
• Enable Basic Data Capture
o Capture, store and manage information about a case or incident (e.g., date, time, victim / victim information, suspect(s), witness(es), statements, investigations intel, gun tracing links, evidence, officer reports, person of interest notes); o Allow for the development of new data fields (e.g., Ghost guns, injuries, and yet to be determined fields);
o Automatically receive (import) or send (export) case information and documents to maintain real-time case information updates; and
o Enhanced search capabilities to support crime analysis and investigations. • Clearance Rate Data - Capture, store, and produce case clearance rates for all investigative functions.
• S ecurity - Ensure that only authorized personnel can access case information on a need-to-know/authorized-to-know basis with different tiers of access. • S treamline Investigative Tasks and Integrate Investigative Data o CID and Homicide Section Staff would see greater efficiency if the new RMS can eventually automatically integrate all investigative case information (e.g., shooting log, recovered gun log, NIBIN link analysis, case notes, gang or group- related information).
o Provide automated alerts based on certain investigation protocols within the system.
• Facilitate Reporting and Data Output:
o Produce various types of data exports, reports, dashboards and data visualizations and maps. Data would be based on critical homicide metrics and be useful for internal uses as well as with external stakeholders. o Greater functionality in general for creating new types of reports as needed. • Case Management
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
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o Case Transferability – Provide for simple and secure hand-off of comprehensive case data from one person to another authorized person (e.g., when taking over a cold case or as a result of a retirement or intra-departmental transfer); o A master list where the system can track all information related to a person as a victim, suspect, key witness, involved person or person of interest; o Ability to link a unique person of interest to different events, ability to create a person of interest database;
o Ability to consolidate person records and their associated events (this will reduce the number of duplications);
o Approval and review signoffs of appropriate supervisors. o Simultaneous access of multiple users; and
o Other automations:
Create template letters that can be sent out electronically or manually; Generates victims’ rights letters (over 80,000 per year) based on specified protocols;
Execute paperless disclosure of case evidence including audio and video files to defense attorneys and Office of District Attorney; and Manage and flag criminal statute of limitations prior and after expiration. Automated redaction functionality where appropriate.
External Data Access and Presentation
OPD is committed to providing meaningful police data to the public. OPD has provided timely crime incident data to the public via Oakland’s Crime Mapping site (https://www.crimemapping.com/map/agency/265) for many years. OPD has also collaborated with the Information Technology Department (ITD) in support of the City’s Open Data Policy and the City’s Open Data Portal (https://data.oaklandca.gov/) since its inception. Additionally, OPD has endeavored to improve the data and information available on the OPD sub-section of the citywide website. In particular, https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/police-data showcases the following types of data:
• The Crime Mapping site listed above;
• Calls for service data;
• OPD Stop Data;
• Personnel Hiring, Attrition and Demographic Data Reports; • Gunshot Location Detection System (ShotSpotter) Reports; • Use of Force Data Reports;
• Emergency Rescue Vehicle Deployment Reports; and
• Policy and OPD Negotiated Settlement Agreement (NSA) information.
Some law enforcement agencies have created data dashboards that visually represent these types of data with dashboards that make online viewing more navigable for city stakeholders and members of the public. “Clearance rate” is calculated by dividing the number of crimes that are "cleared" (a charge being laid) by the total number of crimes recorded. Clearance rates are used by various groups as a measure of crimes solved by the police. For example, the San Francisco Police Department and the Tempe, Arizona Police Department provide Clearance Rate Data for several Part 1 Violent Crimes as well as Part 1 Property Crimes using data Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
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Public Safety Committee
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analytics software to extract data from their data systems for public views. Part 1 and Part 21 type crimes are categorized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Universal Crime Reporting (UCR) program. UCR was created by the FBI to Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program to generate reliable statistics for use in law enforcement.
OPD appreciates the value of making more data related to crime, crime investigations and law enforcement more accessible and consumable within one online dashboard. Staff is currently exploring how the ongoing RMS integration can lead to automations that allow for pushing data to an online dashboard. Staff will continue to explore how best to develop a more robust dashboard during this concurrent integration process. Staff believes that new data management tools for internal tracking of investigations as well as external data transparency supports the Citywide priority of holistic community safety.
Current Homicide Clearance Data
Table 1 below provides data on UCR and non-UCR homicides from 2019 to 2021 (non-UCR homicides are typically cases where the homicide is accidental, manslaughter by negligence, or ruled as justified by the presiding judge). Table 2 below lists the associated clearance data.
Table 1: Oakland Homicides by Year: 2019-2021
Homicide Type 2019 2020 2021
Total Homicides 78 109 134
Non-UCR Homicides 3 7 11
UCR-Reported Homicides 75 102 123
Table 2: OPD Homicide Clearance Rates by Year: 2019-2021
Homicides Solved 2019 2020 2021
Homicides Solved in Same
Year of Homicide
33 35 42
Homicides from Prior Years
Solved in Current Year
15 15 11
UCR Homicide Clearance
Rate
64% 49% 43%
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
No outreach was deemed necessary for this report beyond the standard City Council agenda noticing procedures.
COORDINATION
No interagency coordination was required for the production of this report.
1 Part 1 crimes are: criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson: https://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/appendices/appendix_02.html Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
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FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact associated with informational report. OPD will look for funding as the gap analysis and RMS development reach further progress.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: There are no economic opportunities associated with this report.
Environmental: There are no environmental opportunities associated with this report.
Race and Social Equity: Many victims of violent crime in Oakland come from disadvantaged communities. Efforts to better support crime investigations and make data publicly available support the City’s goals of greater race and social equity.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive An Informational Report From The City Administrator Which Includes 1) A Report On The Current And Historical Clearance Rates Of Violent Crimes And 2) A Plan To Create And Implement An Investigations Management Database And A Corresponding Clearance Rates Dashboard To Track The Progress In Clearing Cases, To Ensure Accountability For Perpetrators Of Violent Acts Against Oaklanders, Bring Closure For Violent Crime Victims And Their Families, And Deter Potential Violent Acts.
Reviewed by:
Drennon Lindsey, Deputy Chief of Police
OPD, Bureau of Investigations
Alan Yu, Lieutenant of Police
OPD, Criminal Investigations Section
Tracey Jones, Police Services Manager
OPD, Research and Planning Section
Written by:
Bruce Stoffmacher, Legislation + Privacy Manager
OPD, Research and Planning Section