Hampshire Constabulary
"BusinessObjects XI delivers a single source of performance information enabling Hampshire Constabulary to comply with legislative reporting requirements, drive up operational efficiency, and provide transparent decision-making at all levels, from PC to Commander"
Inspector Steven Jackson
Performance Review Team
Hampshire Police
Challenge
Hampshire Constabulary's 3,800 police officers, supported by 2,800 staff and almost 500 special constables, are responsible for the safety and security of 750,000 households in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
In 2005, Hampshire Constabulary implemented a new records management system to support the force's goal of improving crime detection rates and attain greater clarity on performance across its six operational command units (OCU).
However, the new system placed new administrative demands on officers and limited performance visibility to command level. This resulted in the force’s detection rate dropping from a top quartile 22% to under 17%, taking Hampshire to the bottom of the league table in England and Wales. As Inspector Steve Jackson, Hampshire Constabulary explains, "Officers were still responding to the public and making arrests but Hampshire Constabulary was unable to demonstrate actual performance."
In addition, detailed reporting on criminal activity across the force and operational performance was not only delivered several weeks after the event but also required significant manual effort from senior personnel. "Each performance inspector was spending up to five days every month collating information," Jackson explains.
Hampshire Constabulary embarked upon a new scorecard reporting project to coordinate all force-wide reporting.
Approach
To support the scorecard and dashboard reporting project, the force upgraded its business intelligence (BI) solution from Business Objects, an SAP company. In migrating from BusinessObjects™ version 5 to BusinessObjects XI Release 2, Hampshire Constabulary is better able to analyze information from multiple data sources and leverage a platform for the deployment of performance monitoring dashboards to senior managers.
Information is loaded from the records management system into a BI platform, feeding data marts twice weekly, encompassing crime, incident, case and custody, and scorecard information. Using BusinessObjects XI, the force analyzes performance by crime type, location, and individual officer response to achieve far more effective performance management at each level.
Senior managers now have automatic insight into trends in crime and operational performance, while each police constable (PC) has detailed information on crimes occurring within each neighborhood and beat, the number of people in custody as well as operational intelligence received. This data also enables the force to be more proactive in its policing approach. Jackson confirms, "A single crime data report can provide both a top-level view and analysis at OCU level, across 16 districts, sectors, neighborhoods, and beats, ensuring the entire force is working on the same version of the truth."
Hampshire Constabulary is also using BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder to provide a command level operational view to its 250 Inspectors and above. "Combining Dashboard Builder with BusinessObjects Performance Manager will provide an excellent platform for information sharing and collaboration to support the dissemination of best practice and experience," he says.
Results
Hampshire Constabulary has deployed BusinessObjects XI to all 3,800 officers, from PC to Chief Constable, as well as the dedicated analytics team. Within a single report, each officer can now see information from multiple sources, including calls from the public, number of crimes within each category, including burglary, violent crime, and detection rates. Jackson comments, "BusinessObjects XI enables Hampshire Constabulary to use multiple data sources or multiple queries from a data source within one report, supporting far more complex performance analysis."
Over the next 18 months, the data warehouse will be extended to include up to 16 additional data sources, including human resources and resourcing. This will support further analysis of performance and costs to drive new efficiencies throughout Hampshire Constabulary. Migrating to BusinessObjects XI provides many benefits, including improved detection rates, tracking trends in crime, resource management, and local policing partnerships. In particular, BusinessObjects benefits include:
- Accurate data recording. Sergeants now have the information required to proactively manage officer performance, ensuring staff update records quickly and checking cases are closed off correctly. Simply imposing these policies on staff resulted in an increase in detection rate to 25.5%, pushing Hampshire Constabulary up the national league table.
- The ability to measure operational performance by crime type, by OCU, neighborhood, and individual officer enables far more effective performance management across the organization.
- Dashboard-based reporting provides senior officers with a command-level view of trends in activity across each crime type, supporting the development of force-wide and local initiatives and facilitating collaboration between OCUs.
- Increased insight into trends in crime types is enabling far more effective planning of resources. Allocating officers to specific areas of crime has improved productivity.
- Hampshire Constabulary works in conjunction with the local authority, fire, and ambulance services. Using BusinessObjects XI, the force can quickly email pdf reports to support information sharing across the region.
- Online provision of information on neighborhood crime statistics, including year on year comparison and performance against the rest of the county, is delivering greater performance transparency to residents.
Jackson concludes, "BusinessObjects XI delivers a single source of performance information enabling Hampshire Constabulary to comply with legislative reporting requirements, drive up operational efficiency, and provide transparent decision-making at all levels, from PC to Commander."
Quick Facts
- Industry:
Police force - Business Process:
Performance management, field services, staffing. - Business Pain
To improve performance monitoring and management across Hampshire Constabulary to meet government targets and achieve more effective resource. - Why Business Objects?
BusinessObjects XI enables complex performance analysis, while BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder delivers a command-level operational view. - Business Objects products and services:
BusinessObjects XI, BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder, BusinessObjects Performance Manager