How Do You Go About Organizing Crime Incident Reviews?
Different communities and different agencies may take different approaches. You may want to consider visiting someplace currently using crime incident reviews. When we started in Rochester we first observed the reviews being done in Indianapolis. For a further discussion of Crime Incident Reviews in Indianapolis, Click Here. Beyond observation, here are a few steps to consider:
1) Put together a task force on Crime Incident Reviews
The major agency for developing Crime Incident Reviews will probably be the local Police Department. They have the information needed to review cases and the expertise at analysis. But it is important to engage other agencies from the start. One way to begin is with a multi-agency task force that can be responsible for the Crime Incident Review program. At the minimum, police, prosecution, and probation and parole should be involved in the planning.
2) Select a time frame and cases to review
Some agencies have jumped right in to review recent cases and others have conducted grand reviews of all of last years' cases. For example, in Rochester we spent a full day with nearly 100 people reviewing a years worth of homicide cases. It was a helpful beginning, but grand reviews require a significantly higher level of preparation than a regular review, so grand reviews may not be effective for everyone.We also decided to review only homicide cases at first. We were interested in reducing our high rates of homicide. These cases are also the ones that are most thoroughly investigated and documented. You can always move on to other cases in the future as we did in Rochester.
We also choose to review both open and closed cases. We recommend others do the same. If you limit yourself to open cases you may be focusing on the most difficult to solve. They may also not be representative of other cases. If you do only closed cases you may miss important elements useful to understanding all cases. With open and closed cases you can pursue the goals of learning information that can be helpful at preventing violence and coincidentally learning information that may help close open cases.
3) Give Crime analysis and/or Research a chance to put cases togetherA big step involves preparing useful presentations of material in order to stimulate thinking and discussion. Several example of case presentations from Rochester are included on this CD. But you don’t need to be that elaborate unless you wish to. Either way, the crime analyst or researchers working with your task force will need time to develop basic case information working with the investigators.
4) Send out homeworkTo get good discussion, participants in the review need information in advance. A week before a review we send all participants a list of the cases we will discuss. The list includes names of victims, suspects, locations, and any other relevant information. That way the participants can check their records to see if they have any relevant information. For example- is the suspect on probation or is the victim a member of a known offender group? Click here to see a sample of the information we send out to all participants in advance of reviews. We also send out questions the participants should consider. Click here to see the questions.
5) Appoint a director for the Incident Review Meetings
Someone needs to run the meeting. In Rochester it is the Captain of the police Department's Central Investigations Division. He does a great job encouraging others to provide information and helping move the conversation forward.
6) Find the Right spaceIn Rochester, we use a large corporate conference room. It works well because it gets the participants out of their usual surrounding. Conference tables organized in a large U-shape keep everyone facing each other and engaged. The room also has good technology for running the presentations. After trying several venues we are convinced that finding the right setting is essential.
7) Send out invitations or orders
We started by sending out “invitations.” An invitation from the Chief of Police, United States Attorney and District Attorney can be quite compelling. It was also important for us to be clear on the goal of these reviews. Our goal was to share information that might be useful in preventing violence. We also pointed out that an additional consequence of the reviews might be to share information that may help close some cases. Click here to see a copy of the invitation letter we used.
8) Help investigators prepare and moderate the meeting to ensure discussionWhenever possible the investigator working a case presents that case at the review meeting. We have found that this ensures good and detailed presentations. Furthermore, the investigators are able to encourage useful contributions to their efforts.
The discussion never involves criticism of the investigation. No one second-guesses the investigators. The moderator assures good quality discussion that is aimed at adding new information.
9) Prepare for the next meeting
The analyst or researcher should be able to summarize the review and document information across cases that will be useful for preventing crime. See the section on analysis for further discussion.
Once the meeting is completed the Crime Incident Review Task Force should debrief. They should continually assess the progress and value for the process and they should make suggestions and revisions as needed.