PSFSS COMMITTEE AGENDA: 10/17/24
ITEM: (d)2.
10/9/2024
TO: Public Safety, Finance and
Strategic Support Committee
FROM: Paul Joseph
Acting Chief of Police
SUBJECT: Monthly Crime Statistics by
City Council District Status
Report
DATE: October 8, 2024
Approved Date:
COUNCIL DISTRICT: Citywide
RECOMMENDATION
Accept the status report on the Police Department’s plan and timeline for publishing monthly crime statistics by City Council district.
BACKGROUND
On October 2, 2024, the Rules and Open Government Committee directed the San José Police Department (SJPD) to present a plan and timeline for the monthly publication of crime statistics by City Council district and to provide a status update during the October 17, 2024, Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee meeting. The Committee also directed that these statistics should include the same statistics currently published on the SJPD website.
Developing a new data extraction method through which citywide crime statistics can be separated and sorted according to City Council district will allow Department staff, staff from other City departments, City leaders, and the public to monitor crime trends in each of the ten City Council districts. Publishing a comprehensive dashboard with crime information that is specific to each individual district will enable a more balanced and detailed view of public safety trends throughout the City of San José.
ANALYSIS
Since at least 1960, the SJPD has reported crime statistics to the Federal Department of Justice (DOJ) through the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Uniform Crime Reporting program. These statistics are reported in the Summary Reporting System, which collects information on certain offenses, clearances, and arrests. Once DOJ has accepted them, the statistics can then be reported out publicly by the Department. The
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT
October 8, 2024
Subject: Monthly Crime Statistics by City Council District Status Report
Department’s primary mode of publishing its crime statistics is its Monthly Crime Statistics Dashboard, which is available on its public internet site, SJPD.org.
On April 4, 2023, the San José Police Department transitioned from the Summary Reporting System to the National Incident-Based Reporting System. This transition resulted in substantial disruption of the Department’s crime data reporting processes, necessitating manual correction of thousands of database entries. The SJPD has now fully implemented the National Incident-Based Reporting System transition and adjusted the public website to match the new system’s data.
In this new system, the crime statistics provided to DOJ are extracted directly from the Department’s Record Management System (RMS) based on 52 data points (e.g., date of occurrence, crime type, demographics of involved parties, etc.). The only one of these data points that captures geographical information is zip code, the boundaries of which do not clearly align with current City Council district boundaries.
For the reason detailed above, the only way to sort crime statistics by City Council district is to create an entirely new data extraction method through which the Department can pull the data out of RMS on its own, sort it based on its geographical location, anonymize it, and then post it according to City Council district on its publicfacing dashboard. Currently, this process can only be done manually by members of the Department’s Crime Analysis Unit.
The new dashboard will look almost identical to the current Monthly Crime Statistics dashboard, except that it will be based on statistics in each City Council district, as opposed to the entire City. The dashboard can and will show data going back to April 2023, which was when the Department switched to the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
The process by which citywide crime statistics can be sorted according to City Council district is in the early phase of development. The Department is still researching the best method by which to extract the data. The Department’s goal is to have the new extraction process in place and the new City Council district-specific dashboard up and running by Spring 2025.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT
October 8, 2024
Subject: Monthly Crime Statistics by City Council District Status Report
COORDINATION
This report was coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office and the Office of the City Manager.
Paul Joseph
Acting Chief of Police
For questions, please contact Janet Phan, Crime Analysis Unit Supervisor, at [email protected].