National Research Collaborative Awards $7.5 Million in Grants To Study Gun Violence
Jul 30, 2020
Our Grants
This study will estimate the cost and impact of the Chicago Police Department's Area Technology Centers (ATCs) on arrest rates for homicide and nonfatal-shooting investigations. A related study will consider alternative measures of police performance in shooting cases, including variants of the 'clearance by arrest' rate.
In Progress
The first purpose is to determine whether improved technology and special technical staff in the new Area Technology Centers have assisted Chicago detectives in solving homicides. The second purpose is to provide a data-based guide and set of recommendations concerning alternative measures of police performance in shooting investigations.
The Chicago Police Department created three Area Technology Centers (ATCs) in 2019 to assist detectives in obtaining and processing video and other digital evidence related to shooting cases. The first ATC, in Area South, operated for five months before the creation of other ATCs. A quasi-experimental impact evaluation will compare investigation success rates in Area South with the rest of the city before and during its initial operation. This analysis will be supplemented with data on case processing, and interview data with detectives on their use of ATC inputs. A second project will utilize 20 years of data from Chicago and other large cities to develop a best-practice guide for representing police performance in gun violence. The analysis will consider alternative investigative endpoints (arrest, felony review, conviction), alternative cutoffs (end of year, open ended), and adjustments for changing case mix to determine the effect on observed patterns over time and across communities.
Improving success rates for police investigations of firearms violence in Chicago and other large cities could help curtail violence. The Police Department's ATCs are a promising innovation. A systematic evaluation will help determine whether they are cost-effective and why. This work will also provide broader guidance on measuring police performance.