There is no shortage of written material on community policing, and the topic occasionally surfaces in the domain of crime analysis. But how often do you find real focus on the role of the analyst in a community policing program?

Of primary concern to the analyst, we suggest, would be discussion of specific analytical, reporting, and monitoring activities which are, or could be, performed in support of community policing.

Sgt. Mark Stallo and Lt. Wayne Slaughter of the Dallas Police Department describe the design and implementation of a community policing effort in Dallas, giving some attention to the role of the analyst in the process. A forum on the roles and functions of the crime analyst in community policing could well start with this article, perhaps focusing on questions such as the following:

• If a neighborhood or section of the city (or county or whatever) is to be targeted, rather than the whole area, what can the analyst do - and how - to help determine an appropriate location? Should the crime analyst be responsible for the inclusion of data from other domains, such as indicators of poverty, housing stock deterioration, code violations and the like? Alternatively, should the analyst serve on some kind of committee, or "task force," with staff of other departments who bring such information to the table? How does one use crime and disorder data in the selection of a target area?



• Once an area has been designated (or the entire community), how can the analyst provide information most useful to officers performing the community policing functions? Is this any different from the day-to-day analytical and reporting tasks of the analyst, and if so, in what ways?



• Presuming that some form of evaluation of the community policing program is required, how can the analyst best serve this need?