Comstat, which began in New York City, gets results and reduces crime. Now its catching on in many other cities.

Raymond Dussault | Editor

Comstat gave cops hope. For nearly three decades, police work as a noble calling had fallen on hard times -- you couldnt really curtail crime, the sociologists explained, you could only pick up the pieces. Economic conditions, television and violent movies made crooks; the threat of punishment would not change their behavior. The sense of futility extended beyond the profession, leaving everybody cynical, believing that the heavy influence of rising crime was inevitable. Eventually, we would all be a victim of one sort or another. Cops, it seemed, were glorified janitors, sweeping up body parts instead of cigarette butts, catching a small percentage of the bad guys and locking them away in increasing numbers while crime statistics soared as quickly as the worlds population. It is difficult to fault those who accepted this prevalent view, but it is easy to admire those who refused to give in. It was from them, mostly a core group in the Big Apple, former crime capital of the world, that a re-thinking of police work began.

The story has been told again and again-most recently in Jack Maples book, The Crime Fighter (Doubleday, 1999) -- but if the success had ended in New York City, the Comstat tale would already be old. Instead it has moved outward like an advancing army, turning back numbers in its path. You can start in Gotham, where a double-digit reduction in every aspect of crime has people jogging in Central Park without fear. That alone would be worth a movie, but the stars have moved on and, more importantly, their story has been told and retold in squad rooms everywhere. Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Albuquerque, Sacramento and more are building versions of Comstat.

If past experiences are any indication at all, it doesnt take a fortuneteller to predict what these changes might do for cops and the people they are tasked with protecting if Comstats core management principles are adopted in every major police department in the country. In 1993, New York City saw 1,946 murders committed. By 1998, after several years of Comstat, there were 629. While the rest of the country saw a 23 percent decline in this most serious of crimes, the city posted statistics three times as good.

A fluke? The answer would appear to be a rather resounding, "No." Comstat was instituted in Philadelphia a mere 1 1/2 years ago; the city watched as murders and auto theft rates plummeted by more than 15 percent the first year. The first year it was instituted in New Orleans, with the help of Maple and a committed police chief, the perennially troubled department saw its homicide clearance rate more than double to 72 percent. The city saw that translated into an unprecedented 24 percent decline in violent crime. The pattern continues to repeat itself in every jurisdiction in which the model is correctly implemented. For many departments, that doesnt mean slavishly duplicating New Yorks approach, but in the end most agree that the four core principles that the NYPD evolved and continues to follow -- accurate, timely intelligence, rapid deployment of resources, effective tactics and relentless follow-up and assessment -- are the mandatory keys to success.

WHAT IT IS

Though probably the most written-about law enforcement trend in American history, Comstat is often misunderstood. It resists easy sound bites and tidy explanations. Some people claim it cant be done right without computerized mapping technology; others point out that it all began with crayons and butcher paper in a small New York City apartment. Still more look beyond the stats and assume that the Big Apples success is largely due to heavy-handed enforcement of the so-called quality-of-life crimes, like loitering, drinking in public or jumping