By BEN TINSLEY
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
STAR-TELEGRAM/STEWART F. HOUSEDENTON -- Denton police officers can’t read the minds of criminals -- it just seems like it sometimes.
They have a crystal ball of sorts that lets them know where and when crimes will likely happen: a computer system that combines technology and statistics to help them quickly spot crime trends. Then, they move to stop them.
The CAMstat system gives officers immediate access to city maps, addresses, statistics and 911 dispatch information.
Veteran officers also share years of knowledge with their younger colleagues on the CAMstat database.
“With this program, we can better communicate all of that information,” Police Chief Charles Wiley said. “Our officers now know many more things by virtue of attending our CAMstat meetings. In terms of our department, it’s where the right hand meets the left.”
The 2-year-old program is based on New York City’s CompStat crime mapping system. Variations of the program are being used in police departments in New Orleans, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and in Fort Worth, where the Police Department has been using it for the past two years, Fort Worth police Lt. Dean Sullivan said.
The CAM stands for consultation, adaptation and mobilization. It’s a cornerstone of the department’s community policing effort, Wiley said.
And that effort is working, police officials say.
“We have been able to catch many people and keep track of where the crimes are happening,” Capt. Scott Langford said. “If there’s a crime trend happening in a certain area, that’s where we are going to put an unmarked car. When they move to other locations, we will track them.”
Police reports tell the story:
A man putting graffiti on street signs was caught recently after police used CAMstat to calculate where he might strike.
CAMstat indicated that vandalism in a neighborhood near Denton High School last fall was probably caused by students. Officers were deployed in the area around the times youngsters were likely to be near the school. The vandalism dropped dramatically.
Earlier this month, car burglars were caught in the act by an officer patrolling in an unmarked vehicle because CAMstat information indicated that he should.
Officers can use the system in the field, although the CAMstat research is more likely to be done by supervisors, said officer Sean Kirk, a computer systems administrator for the department.
The chief said he cannot calculate CAMstat’s cost because parts of the system are used for other purposes.
Denton residents with access to the Internet can look at a modified form on the department’s home page to calculate crime trends. This version does not disclose sensitive information, such as interoffice police communications.
Jimmy Perdue, North Richland Hills’ new police chief, said integrated systems such as CompStat work.
“The use of crime statistics and crime analysis is an integral part of what we do,” Perdue said. “The larger the agency, the better the system works.”
Perdue said his department is starting to use the system.
“I will formalize that use more as the weeks and months wear on,” he said.
Sullivan said the Fort Worth system has greatly helped officers’ investigations.
“Before we had it, we were operating as a reactionary police department: A trend would emerge and become a problem for us before we were prepared to respond to it,” Sullivan said. “Now, we bring all our units together for monthly meetings and share our information. It has been tremendously successful.”
Without CAMstat, the Denton police would not be operating as effectively, said Langford, a 23-year Denton veteran.
“A lack of information sharing makes things much more difficult for us,” he said. “It would be difficult to get that kind of information back to the guys working the street. Without it, you’d have a bunch of guys drifting around. With CAMstat, we can catch the bad guys.”
Ruby Cole, 72, the president of a southeast Denton neighborhood awareness group, said she has noticed an improvement.
“It’s better because they interact with the citizens more,” she said. “They meet with different groups and receive input. And I know in my neighborhood, it’s not as bad as it once was.”
Fort Worth Star Telegram (http://www.star-telegram.com/)