Chief Morales, Fitchburg (WI) Police Department

Following 9/11, the nation identified the need to share and analyze the information as fundamental to prevent terrorism and threats to national security. Today, our communities find themselves in a similar situation, with a need to analyze and share information regionally to effectively address concerning trends in crime and disorder. Unfortunately, as many communities struggle to adequately fund and staff public safety, data analysis, and information sharing suffer. This is a good time to bring in crime analysts and the need to understand regional crime patterns is pressing.

Anonymous

I learned more about how to use MS Excel from the CAR Program than in a formal MS Excel training!

More Sites are joining the CAR program

This is under development and we look forward to more postings here as additional sites join the CAR program.

Chief William Jessup: South Milwaukee Police Department, South Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Many smaller law enforcement agencies struggle to make good deployment decisions based on limited information, and when I joined the South Milwaukee Police Department, I noticed that this lack of actionable intelligence was a weakness we needed to address.  In January, 2023 we were accepted into BJA’s Crime Analyst in Residence Program (CAR) and for the first time we received the training we needed to make use of our existing data.  With the assistance of our embedded analyst, Amanda Bruner, and with the support of Project Manager, Kaitlin Moloney, our agency is now able to extract data and create reports that help us make better tactical and strategic decisions.  And, this program did not require the purchase of expensive software products; they simply taught us to leverage existing data and trained our members to make sense of this information.  I would highly recommend this program to departments that want to be more effective and efficient in identifying crime patterns and trends.  Thank you to the CAR team for this exceptional training opportunity!

Andrea Linson, Phoenix City, Alabama Police Department

My experience with the CAR Program is one that I will not forget. I was able to work with some amazing people and learn first-hand from some experts. My trainer was Amanda and she was extremely knowledgeable about the program and tools of the program. Even if the systems were different or new, she went and learned what she needed to know to be able to support us through the process. The program was informative and worth every challenge that may have come down the road. She was supportive during the program and have been even more supportive and available since she has left the agency. Because of her, I am able to do what I do. She taught me so much and provided the tools that I need to complete my day to day tasks. CAR would be my first recommendation to other agencies that are not already working with crime analyst.

SMPD Investigator

The South Milwaukee Police Department is a medium sized suburban department within the greater Milwaukee metro area.  As a part of the largest metro area in the State of Wisconsin, communication with other law enforcement agencies can be good and thorough, but also can simply not reach as far as an individual investigation requires. The CAR program taught our department additional skills for analyzing our own internal data by pulling from reports and computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) info and then using Excel to learn what the data said. We learned how to organize large amounts of crime data, disseminate that data with the corresponding analysis. South Milwaukee PD also learned to better utilize avenues of communication we already had with other law enforcement agencies. We also learned how to create clean and polished products to get buy in from our own officers and investigators at other agencies.

Lt. Ian Weaver, Madera County Sheriff’s Office

The Madera County Sheriff’s Office recently began utilizing the CAR Program.  This technology has benefited our office, as well as our community, by enabling us to accurately capture crime data, as well as map crime locations within our county.  The program also allows us to share information more efficiently and effectively within our office and with members of the community. The program falls in line with our Vision, which is listed below:

“We aspire to be a premier law enforcement agency that provides excellent service to our community by increasing resources, utilizing the latest technology coupled with a proactive, innovative approach”

Our experience with Amanda and her team was great.  They took the time needed to make the transition to the program as easy as possible.  They were flexible, available, and answered any and all questions.  Thank you for taking our office to the next level and your continued support as we move forward.