Police Reform Through Data-Driven Management

• Author: Benjamin Horwitz,Danny Murphy,The Honorable Susie Morgan
• Date: 01 September 2017
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• DOI: 10.1177/1098611117709785
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Police Reform

Through Data-Driven

Management

The Honorable Susie Morgan

1

,

Danny Murphy

2

,

and Benjamin Horwitz

3

Abstract

Over a 2-year span, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) transformed from

a department struggling to comply with its expansive federal consent decree to one

exploring even broader reforms through a data-driven management approach.

NOPD believes more than ever in the adage you manage what you measure. NOPD

conducts monthly audits of consent decree compliance and distributes the results to

hold leadership accountable for implementing reforms. Through frequent audits,

NOPD has produced dramatic, swift compliance improvements. Concurrently,

NOPD leadership introduced a data-driven management framework that addressed

all facets of management: MAX (Management Analytics for Excellence). This article

presents the viewpoints of two sides of the consent decree: NOPD and the federal

judge overseeing implementation of the consent decree. NOPD and its monitoring

partners use MAX’s performance metrics to monitor reform implementation and

address areas requiring improvement. This article details how to implement reforms

through a data-driven management approach.

Keywords

police reform, consent decree, police management

1

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, LA, USA

2

Compliance Bureau, New Orleans Police Department, New Orleans, LA, USA

3

New Orleans Police Department, New Orleans, LA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Danny Murphy, New Orleans Police Department, LA, USA.

Email: dpmurphy@nola.gov

Police Quarterly

2017, Vol. 20(3) 275–294

!The Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/1098611117709785

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A police department consent decree does not come with an instruction manual.

Not for the court and not for the police department. This is the quandary faced

by the target department and federal judges. Of course, a one-size-fits-all instruc-

tion manual is not feasible, as every consent decree is as unique as the police

department to which it applies. This leaves the judge, with the assistance of

court-appointed monitors and the police department, to chart a course from

entry of the decree to substantial compliance, preferably in the shortest period

of time and with due consideration for the department’s budgetary concerns.

In New Orleans, the reform process started slowly as the court and the court’s

monitors struggled with identifying and quantifying the reforms mandated by

the 492 paragraphs of the decree and determining how to measure incremental

compliance over time. The first measurable progress was noted when the moni-

tors began developing audits, often using checklists, to identify with specificity

what was expected of the NOPD in a particular area, such as photographic

lineups, and using the audit results to gauge compliance.

The NOPD Compliance Bureau replicated these audits, using the checklists

created by the monitors, in advance of the monitors’ monthly visits. The

Compliance Bureau coupled its internal audits with annotations and instructions

to be sure that supervisors and patrol officers understood what was being mea-

sured, what needed to be done to pass the audit, and why compliance was key to

reforming the department. Just as importantly, the Compliance Bureau rapidly

published to supervisors the results of the internal audits so that deficiencies

could be addressed before the monitors arrived to complete their checklists.

The original concept has morphed into individual topic scorecards and the

data-driven management system, known as MAX, which is described later. The

success of these management tools demonstrates why a strong compliance

bureau is the key to successfully implementing and sustaining reforms.

Only 2 years after the New Orleans Police Department accelerated its efforts to

implement an extensive federal consent decree, NOPD has built the infrastructure

to manage change effectively. Now, other police agencies are looking to the New

Orleans Police Department for guidance on implementing reforms(Crocket, 2017;

New Orleans Police Department, 2016; Police Executive Research Forum, 2016;

Texas A&M University, 2016). No one could have predicted this would happen.

Where once full compliance with the consent decree seemed a near impossibility,

NOPD is now pursuing reforms even beyond the scope of its comprehensive

consent decree to ensure that it becomes the department its community deserves.

How Did This Happen?

The New Orleans Police Department embraced a data-driven management strat-

egy that delivered significant, rapid change (see Demir, 2009; Rousseau, 2006).

As a result, NOPD now believes more than ever in the adage you manage what

you measure. The New Orleans Police Department is continuously instituting

276 Police Quarterly 20(3)