Police strategy and operations Crime prevention, deployment, staffing, schedules, supervision, and response times. How departments use their resources and whether their choices improve public safety.
Consulting and Research
Crime policy, policing, and program evaluation.
I help researchers and public agencies study crime, evaluate programs, and use evidence to guide policy. My work combines twenty years of police experience with training in causal inference and program evaluation. I design randomized trials and quasi-experimental studies, assess existing evidence, and explain what the findings mean for practice.
I have particular expertise in New York City’s crime complaints, arrests, stops and searches, 311 and 911 calls, and police staffing records. Having worked with these data inside the NYPD and as a researcher, I understand how departmental practices shape what gets recorded. I help collaborators identify suitable data, interpret fields, link sources, and distinguish changes in crime or enforcement from changes in reporting.
Interests
Place-based public safety Crime concentration, hot spots, and the effects of lighting, maintenance, development, and neighborhood investment.
Organizational reform and accountability Leadership selection, discipline, internal investigations, and misconduct prevention. How formal policy, informal direction, and organizational incentives shape police practice.
Enforcement discretion and legal reform Who gets stopped, searched, arrested, or released. Racial disparities in those decisions and whether changes in law change what officers and agencies do.
Alternatives to traditional policing Civilian crisis response, violence interruption, and coordination between police and other public safety agencies.
Administrative data and measurement How agencies collect, classify, and revise records of crime, disorder, and enforcement, and what those practices mean for research and public claims.
Work
- Advising a nonprofit policy publication on crime strategy and urban policy.
- Helping a major municipal government develop and assess public safety and criminal justice strategies.
I welcome research collaborations, particularly involving New York City administrative data, and am available for selected consulting engagements. Contact .