By JOHN MARZULLI, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The NYPD is pouring $20 million into a dazzling upgrade of its much-heralded Compstat system that will allow cops to track crime almost as it happens. By next year, the eighth floor of gritty 1 Police Plaza will look more like a war room at the Pentagon, with a “data wall” of video display cubes and computer graphics.
Analysts will be able to monitor a round-the-clock feed of crime reports from cops around the city, according to an internal NYPD memo obtained by the Daily News.
The information won’t be exactly in “real time” because cops typically type up reports several hours after the incidents happen. But it’s pretty close. Police brass will be analyzing the data and detecting patterns like breaking news.
Eli Silverman, author of “NYPD Battles Crime: Innovative Strategies in Policing,” said the new crime center is a major development in Compstat, the department’s computerized crime-tracking system that helped drive murders to a 40-year low and lowered major crime by 68% over the past decade.
“There are less cops, so I think the NYPD is compelled to seek out new tools to bring crime down,” Silverman said.
Officials in Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s office are recruiting lieutenants, sergeants, detectives and cops for the crime center.
“The police officers will be assigned to analytical teams specializing in specific criminal activity and will be responsible for identifying, reporting and distributing crime related information,” according to another NYPD memo.