OKCPD hiring analyst to comb through data
The Oklahoma City Police Department has created a new position that will analyze mountains of data with the goal of making the department more efficient.
When hired, the business intelligence specialist will look at internal data in a whole new way, said Capt. Daniel Stewart.
The position is the brainchild of Stewart, who recently spent three years visiting other departments around the country learning best practices as a part of the National Institute of Justice's LEADS Scholars Program.
“It just got me thinking, OK, we can use data, we can do better,” Stewart said.
OKCPD has data analysts, but the focus is on crime statistics. This job instead would sift through the millions of lines of information produced in the administrative side of the department, like fleet management, computer-aided dispatch, records management system and investigator caseload.
Some might argue the department should have been looking at this data for a long time, Stewart said. OKCPD has ordered things like a staffing analysis, but those results came from an outside contractor.
Every time an officer does anything in their car, the dispatch system collects data. A statistical analysis could factor in how many traffic stops are made, how long officers spend on stops and where they go throughout their shift.
“It's kind of endless what we would do with it, because we have so much data,” said Stewart.
And it's not just about finding ways to save money. It's about supporting police officers and finding ways to let them do their jobs more efficiently, he said.
“We know that's a benefit to the city, to the citizens, if we can do something to save money,” he said. “But you know, we really want to take care of the people that are doing the job.”
Stewart tried to get the position approved last year, but wasn't able to secure funding in the budget against several other positions the department needed to fill. If the project successfully meets its goals, he envisions being able to hire more.
“If it proves itself like I think it will, it will be no problem getting another one,” he said, adding that it's premature to discuss an expansion.
Even though it's a new position, he said, the data should be ready to analyze without needing to be cleaned or standardized.
“Where the issue would be is he's going to have to learn it,” Stewart said. “For that, we'll put them in a car with police officers, we'll send them with dispatchers, we'll do whatever it takes.”
Stewart also wants to evaluate the systems OKCPD uses to make sure they are accurately collecting data, and whether the data being collected is appropriate.