Data Analysis
The Data Analytics Pathway provides a comprehensive foundation for public safety professionals to develop critical data analysis skills across multiple platforms and contexts. From mastering Excel-based data cleaning techniques and introductory crime analysis fundamentals to tackling complex digital evidence like call detail records and social media data, this pathway empowers students to extract actionable intelligence from raw datasets. Each course builds on practical, real-world scenarios, equipping participants with the tools needed to make data-informed decisions, uncover investigative leads, and improve strategic outcomes in criminal justice environments.
Crime Analysis Fundamentals Using Data Driven Modalities
In today's era, data have become an integral part of our lives. From everyday activities to critical administrative tasks, vast amounts of sensitive and vital information are generated incessantly. Public safety agencies are no exception to this trend, managing a diverse range of data that includes police crime incident reports, traffic accidents, narcotic overdoses, 911 service calls, and various internal administrative procedures.
Organization-specific software provides a certain level of data management capabilities, but the real power lies in the knowledge and expertise of skilled, trained, and professional public safety analysts. With the right skillset, these analysts can decipher order from disorder, balance demand and workload, and enhance planning and research practices.
This course is designed to equip public safety practitioners with industry-standard best practices in crime analytics, data manipulation, and information visualization. Using Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and Access) and various free open-source software, attendees will learn to create, publish, and understand statistical implications of data-driven products in the realm of public safety. Hands-on practical exercises and problem-solving scenarios are designed to ensure that learning is immersive and impactful.
This course is for anyone interested in crime analysis. It's not a traditional math class, but it does incorporate essential elements of descriptive statistics, providing a crucial understanding of mathematical principles required for successful data analysis.
Introduction to Data Cleaning using Excel - P48773
Effective data cleaning is a crucial prerequisite for ensuring the accuracy, validity, completeness, and consistency of your data. Flawed or inconsistent data can lead to erroneous conclusions and compromise the integrity of your analyses. The quality of your results directly hinges on how well you cleanse your data.
This comprehensive two-day course is thoughtfully crafted to provide participants with the necessary skills and knowledge to proficiently utilize Microsoft Excel and Power BI as powerful tools for data cleaning. Through engaging hands-on activities with real-world datasets, attendees will be guided to:
- Identify and rectify data inconsistencies efficiently.
- Master the use of basic functions and formulas in Microsoft Excel to streamline the data cleaning process.
- Leverage the visualization capabilities of Microsoft Power BI to detect and address outliers.
By the end of this course, participants will have gained the expertise needed to prepare their datasets for robust analysis, thus enhancing the reliability and accuracy of their data-driven decision-making processes. Join us to acquire these invaluable data cleaning skills and elevate your data analysis proficiency to new heights.
Leveraging Call Detail Records for Criminal Investigations
Presume you are given call detail records from three phone companies, spanning two crime scene locations including five cell towers. A day later, you are given social media data from a popular social media account and the GPS locations (spanning 30 days) for a vehicle connected to your investigation.
How do you put it all together? Are there limits to combining these data? Is there a local resource within your agency to help you? How can you be sure the data you put into a software program is not being saved by a vendor? Do you already feel overwhelmed? Did you mentally put the files into the back section of a case binder and tell yourself that you will go through them … ‘later’?
If you said “yes” to “later”, this course is for you. After completing this course, you will jump at the opportunity to go through hundreds of thousands of lines of data, all with ease, excitement, and anticipation knowing there is a very good chance a viable suspect is contained within.
This course is designed for law enforcement investigators who encounter cell phone call detail records and cell tower downloads in connection to criminal cases. This course is software agnostic and provides attendees with the skills necessary to understand cellular records independently without reliance on third party vendor specific cell analysis software.
Note: This course is a pathway course to becoming a CDR Subject Matter Expert.
This is an advanced class.
It is recommended that attendees have:
- High level of comfort with moderate to advanced functions of a Windows computer
- Requested, and been granted, either Call Detail Records or Cell Tower Download records through a court order within the past year (from the course start date)