Crime data is difficult and expensive, but important

As our community, and society in general, evaluates its problems and possible solutions, numbers are a big part of the process.

Businesses rely on countless data to evaluate their financial performance, and the data can be sliced in any number of ways. Analytics play a huge role in marketing and advertising. Sports championships are often rooted in an organization's ability to crunch numbers to evaluate performance and apply a value to the data, and player to acquire. We value analytics in our schools so much that our districts oftentimes cater their curriculum to those tests. Data is everywhere. Just ask Google or Facebook.

But did you know the local prosecuting attorney's office cannot provide the number of first- and second-degree assault cases by year? Why is this important? Well, if we want to evaluate just how bad our domestic abuse problem is (and the folks at the Safe House for Women will tell you demand for their services keeps increasing), it would be helpful to know if the numbers are going up or down. Police officers are required to issue reports every time they respond to a domestic call. But how many of those incidents actually result in charges? How often do charges get dropped? How often are abusers convicted of crimes in comparison to the charges? The numbers would not only help identify how bad the problem is; they would also help to determine whether certain social programs or initiatives are working. When the prosecutor's office couldn't provide the numbers, the newspaper offered to count the cases if they could provide us with the files. But many of the cases have information that is considered closed, and allowing public access without redaction to those files could open the prosecutor's office to criminal liability, according to the prosecuting attorney. So those are numbers we may never know.

The Southeast Missourian recently published a story about gun crime numbers in Cape Girardeau. Several months ago the Southeast Missourian asked the Cape Girardeau Police Department for numbers associated with certain types of gun crimes. Among the questions: How many guns were stolen? How many were returned? How many shootings were there with injuries or property damage? They don't seem like difficult questions to answer until you understand how crimes are reported. It's not as if the police department doesn't report data. In fact, it is required to report several types of crimes to the FBI. The Uniform Crime Report collects statistics on seven crimes: murder, rape, assault, robbery, arson, burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft. A gun could be used in any of those crimes. Or none of them.

But the way that crimes are coded, some simple questions turn into very complicated ones. Police chief Wes Blair is the first to admit he would like to have access to better data, but that just doesn't seem to be in the cards any time soon. When the department couldn't provide the numbers the newspaper requested, it worked diligently to dig up all such reports of the numbers the newspaper asked for. The police don't categorize crimes as "gun crimes." They categorize them as assaults or unlawful use of a weapon or murder and the list goes on. Many crimes can be completed with a gun, and not all of them have to end up with an injured victim.

The files seemed to indicate that gun thefts were a problem. But it's hard to say, because thefts aren't listed as "gun thefts" per se. The FBI requires to report motor vehicle thefts, but not thefts of guns. So it's quite difficult to know if gun thefts are worse here than anywhere else. Additionally, the data the newspaper obtained was not complete. There were certain files the prosecutor's office would not release for several reasons, one of them being when juveniles were involved. So all of the numbers we reported were "ballpark" numbers on the low side, not knowing how many were withheld.

Not having usable data must make Blair's job more difficult. Blair has to make the choices how to deploy his resources without knowing exactly where and when to employ patrols if block-by-block and type-of-crime data isn't searchable. And it's less than ideal to see whether certain strategies are working. We believe wholeheartedly that Blair's community policing strategy is a good one. But wouldn't it be productive to know if gun crimes -- and not just murders -- were trending down as a result? It's certainly not the PD's sole responsibility to prevent crimes, so there are many factors at play, but wouldn't it be affirmative to see those numbers dropping? Furthermore, wouldn't it be helpful if the chief could see crime rates over a period of time in certain neighborhoods? Maybe policing has worked so well in one neighborhood that the crime element has moved. That would be useful to know.

Just because the police department or the prosecutor's office doesn't have data, doesn't mean they're not doing a good job. We do expect that police have a pretty good idea where crimes are occurring and what they need to keep an eye on. But sometimes in other walks of life what you see with your eyes isn't the same story that the numbers describe. One need look no further than the best-seller "Moneyball" to get an indication of how analytics can put you well ahead of the eyeball test.

Crime data seems lacking. Nationally, many have lamented the lack of reporting of police-related shootings. There is no national tracking of such incidents. Data is imperative to have as the nation argues whether or not police are too trigger happy, or whether isolated incidents are blown out of proportion.

Police and prosecutors have tough jobs, there is no doubt about that. The day-to-day situations that our officers face not only put them at risk but force them to make really hard decisions in an eye-blink. They have to rely on their training and instincts. But on a macro level where things move at a slower pace, data could be used to help leadership make important decisions. The indications are Cape Girardeau needs better data processes.