Suffolk County, New York

Suffolk County Police Helicopter

Suffolk County Police Department patch

Site LE Agency
Suffolk County Police Department

Site Researcher
Dr. Cynthia Lum and Dr. Christopher Koper (Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University)

Site Focus
Violent crime, community challenges

SPI Strategy
Intelligence-led policing, in-residence field operations training, early warning system

Site Cohort
2021

Site Profile
Large urban area of 912 square miles with a population of 1.5 million

Project Overview

The Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) will deploy Case of Place approaches to identify and analyze problems. They will test and implement an early warning system under development in the SCPD that identifies specific community challenges and individuals needing public safety or health responses and that prompts officers to proactivity. They also will carry out an intensive on-the-ground in-residence field operations training focused on readjusting officer use of their uncommitted time using evidence-based approaches and critical thinking skills, as well as attempt to sustain the use of those approaches for over a year. Lastly, they will create and adjust performance metrics and accountability mechanisms for patrol activities that align with these operations to institutionalize and sustain problem-solving and evidence-based approaches in patrol. The SCPD hopes to transform the way patrol officers carry out their proactive efforts during their non-committed time. They also hope to modify performance metrics and CAD systems to accommodate those efforts, as well as institutionalize the use of analytic systems into problem-solving strategies. During the SPI project, they will assess the effectiveness of all transformations. 

Methods and Findings