Richwood Police Department
“As a chief of police, you should never take credit for crime going down. Fact of the matter is you have no control over crime going up or down. Taking credit for crime when it goes down means you must take credit for crime when it goes up. Just don’t do it!” Twice, I have been in attendance, in a training environment, when this statement was vocalized. Each time, I lamented the fact there were others in the room who were perhaps led astray by the statement. For a while now, I have known a powerful truth and that truth is; a police administrator has significant control over social harms and whether they are reduced or permitted to increase within a community. I know this as, several years ago, it was my good fortune to receive training from IADLEST in the Data-Driven Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS) model. As a result of that instruction, and its subsequent practical application, in two separate police departments, I have found DDACTS to be the most powerful tool a police administrator can employ in the fight against crime, crashes, and social disorder. In addition, I believe IADLEST to be the leading experts in DDACTS instruction.
If you’re a chief of police, and you truly wish to have a positive effect on social harms in your community, DDACTS is the answer to that desire. Moreover, if you are fortunate enough to receive IADLEST training on the model your chance of success just went through the roof.
Chief Stephen Scot Mayer, City of Richwood, Texas (2019)
Corpus Christi Police Department
The Corpus Christi Police Department participated in a series of free DDACTS workshops in June 2018 which allowed more than 100 of our personnel to attend. The workshops prepared us for what to expect when planning, launching and monitoring our field operations which were designed to follow the DDACTS model. IADLEST group has been an important part in guiding us in getting our operations off the ground. They have also provided our Analysts with training that is critical to the success of planning, monitoring, and evaluation of our operations. The staff has been very responsive to our requests, and follow up conversations along the way answer questions to help ensure our success with DDACTS. We launched our field operations portion of DDACTS on November 12, 2018. We have high hopes that these operations will have a positive effect on reducing crashes and crime in the predetermined zones.
Captain Russell Sherman, Corpus Christi, TX. Police Department (2018)
City of Allen Police Department
In today’s world, law enforcement must use data to be efficient, proactive, and sometimes as a justification to the actions it takes. The City of Allen is no exception to this. As the City and Police Department continue to grow we must base our decisions using imperial data to maximize the limited resources we have. The Data Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS) was our means to critically evaluating where crime and traffic issues were occurring in our community. The DDACTS model works regardless of the size of the jurisdiction, population density and demographic of the area. The DDACTS model helped us identify our “problem areas” in the community and provided a systematic approach to addressing these issues in a strategic long-term ideology.
The International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) was instrumental in helping establish the DDACTs program in our community. With the help of IADLEST, the Allen Police Department specifically identified property crimes in a specific retail / commercial dense area of town as a major contributor to both crimes and crashes in the area. A DDACTS Zone was established using historical data to identify and justify law enforcement efforts in this area. Departmental resources continue to be focused on this area resulting in numerous arrests of dangerous criminals, recovery of hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen property, decreasing crashes and traffic stops in the area and establishing police legitimacy with our community and retail businesses.
Deputy Chief Kenneth Myers, Allen, TX Police Department (2018)
Weatherford Police Department
Before adopting DDACTS, we faced public safety challenges similar to most growing communities. We found ourselves combating increases in traffic collisions and property crimes with the same level of resources the agency had twenty years ago. We were experiencing more mobile crime from perpetrators coming into our city specifically to commit offenses and then fleeing back to the larger cities in our area. Our officers were exceptional at knowing our local perpetrators and keeping up with them; but we lacked the skills and data to conduct effective location-based patrols rather than just perpetrator oriented patrols. To exacerbate our challenges, we were using an aging and inferior records management system and we didn’t have anyone versed in crime analysis. Fast forward to a year after our DDACTS implementation. We have experienced a 25% reduction in Part I crimes, a 50% reduction in burglaries of motor vehicles, and a 40% increase in traffic stops. We were able to leverage our goals and implementation of DDACTS to purchase a better records management system. Through IADLEST and TxDOT, we sent two people to the no cost crime analysis training and we are now drilling deeper into our data to refine our efforts and resource allocation. In addition to the training, both IADLEST and TxDOT have provided tremendous support to further our program. We are finally working smarter and not harder and although we have a lot left to do, we are certainly on the right track and are reaping some of the rewards of DDACTS.
Chief Lance C. Arnold, City of Weatherford, TX Police Department (2018)
Cleburne Police Department
The Cleburne Police Department is proud to work with IADLEST as a participant in the TX-DDACTS project. The DDACTS model has proven to be very successful in helping to make our community a safer place. In 2018 alone, we reduced crashes by 8.4% from 2017 and we have seen a statistically significant decrease in Part I offenses since implementing the model in our community in 2013. Most recently, QuoteWizard named Cleburne the tenth safest driving city in Texas.
Chief Robert Severance III, Cleburne Tx. Police Department (2018)