metcj612 Lab #1 – Strategic Crime AnalysisJava

Java Python metcj612

Lab #1 – Strategic Crime Analysis

Our audience is LAPD police command staff, including the chief of police, other high-ranking city-wide staff, heads of specialized units, and division commanders.

Our primary aim is to identify problems, prioritize the department’s efforts, begin to inform. problem-solving and strategy development.

We are working with hypothetically “live” data, with the same start and end date as your preparatory lab.  We are working close to the end date and looking back at available data.  Our analytical window will most often be the full period unless specified in the question.  

Below are some guiding questions to answer for this lab. They require you to apply the skills you learned through the step-by-step guides provided in your course.  There is nothing new here–you only need the skills that were taught to you in the module.

You will have to make some judgements about how best to present the data. For certain questions, a single visual (graph, table, etc.) will answer the question; in other cases, multiple visuals will be necessary to address the question.  There are many ways to get to the “right” approach.   

The product will be entirely completed in PowerBI.  All results should be interpreted with textboxes that are embedded right into the Power BI pages.  The interpretations should be very brief and highlight the key conclusions that your audience should take away from the analysis.  Yes, the visuals show them, but we want to both “show and tell.”

Guiding Questions

1. Help your audience get a broad understanding of the relative frequency of different kinds of crimes in the city.  What crime types of crime occur with the greatest frequency in the city for a whole?

2. Examine temporal crime pattern for the city.  How metcj612 Lab #1 – Strategic Crime AnalysisJava does violent crime vary over time (on a sequential monthly basis) throughout the full period?   How does property crime vary over time (on a sequential monthly basis) throughout the full period? How does crime vary over time for 1 or 2 specific crime types of interest (pick your own to examine).

3. Compare relative changes from the current year to the prior year correctly across police divisions (i.e. “area name”). How do police divisions vary by percentage change in total incidents YTD? How do they vary on this change YTD for specific crime types of interest? (Pick your own to examine.)

4. Based on your results from Question 3, provide additional visuals that show the trend over time (sequential months) for select divisions and crime types that show large changes.  What are the time trends (e.g., monthly) for specific police divisions and specific crime types of interest? Use your judgement and put yourself in your audiences’ shoes.

5. Develop and answer your own question. Try to keep it connected to the purpose of this lab and the context we are working within.  What else would our audience want to know? Consider additional follow-up questions that stem from analysis above or utilize new fields from the data.    

Grading Guidelines

It is helpful to understand the dimensions we are looking for when assessing analytical products.  The labs will be assessed on the following guidelines:

Completeness & Accuracy

Selected correct analysis technique Carried technique out accurately Set up data appropriately (e.g