Columbia Integrated Data Exchange & Analysis (IDEA) Project

The Smart Policing Initiative seeks to build upon the concepts of offender-based and place-based policing and broaden the knowledge of effective policing strategies. The most convincing research demonstrates that place-based or hotspot policing reduces violent crime and neighborhood disorder. This initiative addresses the need for effective policing that requires a tightly focused, collaborative approach that is measurable, based on sound, detailed analysis and includes policies and procedures for accountability. This grant program seeks to build upon data-driven, evidence-based policing by encouraging state and local law enforcement agencies to develop effective, economical, and innovative responses to precipitous or extraordinary increases in crime, or in a type or types of crime within their jurisdictions.

The Integrated Data Exchange & Analysis (IDEA) Project is modeled after the British National Intelligence Model (NIM), which calls for the integration of data collection and analysis into everyday policing practices so that timely intelligence on criminal activity is produced. This intelligence can then be used to guide operational personnel on tactical actions and aid agency leaders in strategic decision-making. The goal of IDEA is to incorporate and institutionalize NIM components into the Columbia Police Department (CPD) to create a department-wide, data-driven process that will be sustainable beyond the life of the requested funding. The expected outcome of this new, intelligence-led policing paradigm is to produce timely intelligence on criminal activity that can be used for day-to-day strategic- and tactical-level decisions by department personnel based on intelligence-led policing practices. The CPD will engage the University of South Carolina Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice as Research Partners in the IDEA Project. CA/NCF