Nowadays, lawyers and other practitioners use various types of analysis to investigate the crime scenes, determine the behavioral patterns of robbers and murders, evaluate the long-term trends, and understand the community’s prevailing tendencies and the need to reorganize the office. Consequently, in the context of this paper, it is essential to determine the differences between tactical, strategic, and administrative types of analysis with the help of the examples from the IACA site. In the end, the conclusions are drawn to summarize the critical findings of the paper.
Tactical
In the first place, a tactical analysis is the most common approach. It usually has a short-term orientation and aims at easing the process of investigation. It offers details about the crime scene and the parties, which are involved in misconduct. It could be said that this assessment method assists in preventing similar crimes in the future and understanding the particular actions of the suspect.
In this case, one of the practical examples is North Richmond Robbery Series – Tactical Analysis. This document provides information about the series of robberies, which took place between the 2nd of March and 22th of June (North Richmond robbery series, 2007).
It clearly describes the main assault tactics used on the victims, critical information about the suspect, the common features of the victims, assessment of the location, and the patterns used to arrest the suspect (North Richmond robbery series, 2007). Acquiring these matters helps understand the main features of the crime, and these findings can be used in the future to investigate similar cases. Overall, the critical aspects of the tactical analysis are a short-term orientation, a detailed description of the crime scene, and a limited focus of the research.
Strategic
Another approach, which is actively used in the police departments, is strategic analysis. When comparing it with the tactical approach, the main differences are the scope and orientation of the study. In this case, the statistic strategy usually investigates a series of events to understand the existence of particular trends, which take place in the community, state, or nationwide. Nonetheless, the primary similarity is the fact that these concepts have a future orientation, but the strategic approach attempts to enhance the overall effectiveness of decision-making and motivates the development of new policies.
In this case, the Annual Crime Report: Theft of GPS Devices from Cars can be viewed as one of the examples of strategic analysis. It offers a profound evaluation of statistical trends and portrays an increase in the percentage of theft of GPS devices (Annual crime report, 2008). Using information from other police departments from different regions ensures the rationale for providing visuals for particular changes in trends. Simultaneously, this report gives clear reasoning for the existence of these tendencies by referring to the CRAVED theory introduced by Clarke (Annual crime report, 2008). It could be said that a combination of these factors will assist in understanding the significance of this issue and the need to introduce policies to minimize the percentage of the GPS thefts.
Administrative
Despite the substantial importance of tactical and strategic types of analysis, one cannot underestimate the role of administrative reporting. The primary similarity with the aspects mentioned above is the fact that it attempts to optimize the effectiveness of the police department and resolves the present issues. Nonetheless, it tends to prioritize the administrative needs of the law enforcement entity, as offering detailed information about the cost-effectiveness and activities of the police officers detects benefits and drawbacks. It could be said that this approach aims at enhancing the overall quality of the work internally while other tactics attempt to diminish external causes.
Jurupa Valley Station Compstat could be viewed as one of the examples of administrative analysis. This report tends to combine various aspects of this type of assessment. For instance, it describes crime statistics of every zone and area, changes in crime rates, responses to the press releases, and activities of the police officers (Jurupa Valley Station Compstat, 2010). It could be said that the primary goal of this report is to determine the efficiency of every department operating in the described areas. Simultaneously, this documentation helps understand whether the actions of the police officers are appropriate.
Conclusion
In the end, it was revealed that tactical, strategic, and administrative types of analysis serve different purposes and help enhance the overall quality of work of the police department. In this case, tactical analysis tends to reach the short-term goals of the police department, as its initial focus is investigating crime scenes and defining the common behavioral patterns of the individuals involved in crimes. In turn, it could be said that the strategic type has similar intentions.
Nonetheless, it has a long-term orientation, as its critical goal is to understand key crime trends in the community and optimize the prevention strategies to avoid the consequences. It could be stated that this analytical technique has a greater scope than the tactical one and implies that a larger segment of the population is affected. Lastly, the administrative reporting also aims at enhancing the effectiveness of the police entities, but it tends to evaluate the situation from the inside by conducting a sufficient analysis of the internal operations of departments.
References
Annual crime report: Theft of GPS devices from cars. (2008). Web.
Jurupa Valley Station Compstat. (2010). Web.
North Richmond robbery series – Tactical analysis. (2007). Web.