The Oak Creek Police Department's innovative approach to crime analytics has garnered international recognition, as its Calls for Service (CFS) Dashboard scoops up a first-place award from the International Association of Crime Analysts. Designed by Daniel Carranco, the department's crime analyst, this dashboard has been a labor of love for the past six years and is notably built on the back of free open-source software, R Studio. "Some software is super expensive, but this was free to build and distribute, so it made it ideal to utilize," Carranco highlighted in a City of Oak Creek's interview. This development marks a significant step forward for the department in terms of data utilization and operational efficiency.
With the dashboard pulling live data from Oak Creek's report management system, it presents a real-time interactive interface that helps to spot quickly where and when the city experiences peaks in service calls. "Each of the charts, graphs, and dropdowns were tailored so that we can check when and where we have the highest number of CFS; it’s all accessible and right at your fingertips," Carranco said, going on to explain the ease with which officers can strategically to be deploy to areas of high demand. This tool is more than just digital bits and bytes; it's an efficiency engine for the city's protectors.
Carranco isn't just a tech-savvy analyst; he's a scholar who pursued his master’s degree in Criminal Justice Data Analytics at Marquette University, merging academic prowess with practical application. By bringing his knowledge from academia straight into the heart of city policing, Carranco has crafted an adaptable and progressive resource. Over time, he has added, removed, and enhanced various features of the dashboard, ensuring it evolves alongside the department's needs. In fact, according to the City of Oak Creek, the dashboard currently reveals a 7.5% increase in calls for service over the past 28 days—a testament to its ability to provide a pulse on the city's rhythm.
Winning the international award was, admittedly, a nerve-wracking experience for Carranco. "It was the longest five hours of my life!" he expressed post-victory. His aspirations don't stop at Oak Creek's boundary lines, however. He is looking to seamlessly to share the dashboard with other areas in the Milwaukee metro, vastly expanding the potential impact of his work.
