Thank you for your interest in the Orange Police Department. The Chief's Corner will be a regular feature on our website and part of my way of communicating with you, the public we serve.
After being appointed as Chief in August of 2004, a strategy was implemented to encourage every employee to pursue excellence in law enforcement by placing an emphasis on behaviors that enhance our effectiveness. The result of this emphasis is our organization's "Five Pillars of Success," which are:
Exercise leadership within the department and the community.
Exemplify professionalism in every facet of our job.
Use technology to enhance our crime-fighting ability.
Arrest high-risk and repeat offenders who pose a risk to our citizens.
Work to reduce crime.
The pillars represent the department's foundation for success and in a broad sense, the goal of making the City of Orange the safest city in Orange County.
These are lofty goals and we take each one very seriously. To assist in their achievement, particularly towards our goal of reducing crime, the COMPSTAT model of crime fighting and reduction was introduced to the Orange Police Department several months ago.
COMPSTAT (an acronym for computer statistics) is a crime analysis system and police management process pioneered by the New York City Police Department and has been linked with that city's dramatic reduction in crime. The system was created to collect, analyze and map crime data, and other essential measures of police performance including resource allocation.
The department's management staff regularly attends COMPSTAT strategy meetings wherein information development during the previous month and year is analyzed. The process ultimately leads to a better understanding how and where crime is occurring, which is key to the development of effective crime fighting approaches. Another organizational benefit of the COMSTAT process is enhanced communication between divisions and bureaus of the department as well as increased accountability for individual, divisional, and departmental performance.
While COMPSTAT was developed in New York City, our use of this process has been tailored to satisfy the needs of our department and community. The full impact of COMPSTAT will take several years to achieve, however we are already beginning to realize the benefits of this crime fighting strategy and organizational approach. Our ultimate goal is to make Orange, already a wonderful place to live and work, an even safer city.
