The New South Wales “Compstat” Process: Its Impact on Crime

Abstract

In January 1998 the New South Wales Police Service introduced a new crime control strategy, modelled on the New York “Compstat” process. The strategy involved a series of “Operation and Crime Review (OCR) Panels” in which senior police provided Local Area and Regional Commanders with information on crime trends and patterns in their local area and asked them to devise various tactics and strategies to reduce crime. At a later point in time the same commanders returned to the OCR panels and their performance in reducing crime was reviewed by senior management. This paper examines the impact of OCR Panels on the rate of recorded crime in four offence categories that fell after their introduction. The results suggest that OCR panels were temporarily effective in reducing three of these offences. Due to the suspension of OCR panels in the lead up to the Olympics it is not clear whether these effects could have been sustained.