U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Comprehensive Regional Information System Project Volume 1: Metrics for the Evaluation of Regional Law Enforcement Information-Sharing Systems

NCJ Number
219377
Date Published
January 2007
Length
51 pages
Annotation

This study, under the Comprehensive Regional Information-Sharing Project (CRISP), examined the use of metrics as a tool to assess the effectiveness of a law enforcement information-sharing system (ISS) and its impact on operations.

Abstract

Metrics are a set of measures that may be used to assess the success or failure of a system or program. Difficulties arise when trying to use metrics to assess system or program features that produce qualitative results which presents a challenge of measuring results that may not be quantifiable. The primary effort of this study (the Comprehensive Regional Information-Sharing Project (CRISP), performed by Noblis’ Center for Criminal Justice Technology in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, was to devise a detailed, automated approach for developing a metrics collection and analysis program. The plan described, based upon a mapping between information-sharing system (ISS) objectives and potential metrics, includes the following steps: (1) define ISS program objectives; (2) determine which types of metrics to collect; (3) determine feasibility of the metrics; (4) map ISS program objectives and metrics; (5) collect metrics; and (6) analyze metrics collected. Recommendations for a metrics collection program resulting from the study include: (1) institute a formal plan for metrics collection; (2) consider the benefits of a preliminary behavioral study on how best to obtain quality input from users; (3) recognize the significant value of qualitative information as metric data; (4) use a combination of metrics to assess each objective; (5) leverage the relationship between law enforcement agencies and the broader criminal justice system; (6) acknowledge that some metrics will provide an indication of the usefulness of the ISS rather than identifying definitive relationships between ISS use and meeting of ISS objectives; (7) recognize that planning for and implementing a metrics collection program is a long-term process; (8) use ISS metrics as a design tool to plan for, evaluate, or improve other law enforcement programs; and (9) consider expanding this research to examine ISS and non-ISS programs beyond the criminal justice system. Tables and appendixes A-B