REPORT RAPPORT

DATE:	12 September 2008
TO:	Executive Director, Ottawa Police Services Board
FROM:	Chief of Police, Ottawa Police Service
SUBJECT:	RESPONSE TO OUTSTANDING INQUIRY I-08-10: UPDATE ON PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS

RECOMMENDATION

That the Ottawa Police Services Board receive this report for information.

BACKGROUND

At the 26 May 2008 Board meeting, Member El-Chantiry requested an update on comparative crime/performance data, particularly clearance rates, from other similar-sized police services. Ensuing discussion and feedback from Chief White and Director Mar suggested that when available, data from the Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI) member police services would be the most current, reliable, and useful. Mr. Mar indicated that he was to take part in an Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) Expert Panel meeting over the summer to review the 2007 data from the 13 largest OMBI-reporting municipal police services in the Province and that an update could likely be presented at the September Board meeting.

DISCUSSION

OMBI data tables were released on 05 September 2008 and selected performance measures are expected to begin appearing in public documents (such as budgets) as reported results may be utilized and referenced prior to the official release of the 2007 OMBI-branded report on 28 November 2008.

2007 OMBI Results

As a result of public feedback, the OMBI-branded report will only contain three measures for each service area. For police performance, the three measures identified for public release are:

§ Number of police staff – officers and civilians – per 100,000 population is used to gauge police service levels based on authorized staffing levels. At 203 police staff/100,000 residents, Ottawa Police is marginally below the median rate of 213, essentially placing Ottawa in the middle of the group (range is 174 to 285);

§ Violent Crime Rate – is often the crime category of the most interest to residents and visitors and can provide an indication of community safety (although the perception and/or feeling of safety may differ from the statistical counts/rate). Reporting 575 violent criminal code incidents/100,000 population (down from 581 in 2006), Ottawa is below the 2007 provincial median rate of 654; and,

§ Clearance Rate for Violent Crime – criminal incidents are considered cleared when a charge is laid or recommended, or they are cleared by other means. A variety of factors impact the police’s ability to solve crimes against the person, including the public’s assistance in providing information. Clearance rates are reported in the year an incident is cleared, regardless of when a crime might have occurred. With a 63.9% clearance rate for violent crimes in 2007, Ottawa Police falls substantially below the provincial median of 76.2%. The highest reported clearance rate was 85.3%.

The OMBI Police Expert Panel notes a number of influencing factors including, but not limited to, the number of non-residents, presence of specialized facilities such as airports or casinos, along with changes in local demographic, social and economic conditions. In Ottawa’s case, its role as the capital city, its size and urban and rural geography, along with the close connection to the City of Gatineau across the Ottawa River, makes it somewhat unique in Canada.

The OMBI data-sharing protocol requires that any reference to or publication of non-publicly reported results be restricted to an individual municipality’s respective data only with comparisons to average/medians. The following table summarizes how the Ottawa Police compares to the median of the 13 largest OMBI-reporting municipal police services in the Province. Because placement below or above the median can be positive or negative, the various measures have been grouped as either ‘favourable’ or ‘not favourable’, depending on the generally perceived desirability of placement on the respective measure.

OPS Comparison to OMBI Median		Non-Publicly Reported Performance Measures
Below Median	Favourable	§ Total crime rate § Rate of youths charged/cleared otherwise § Number of civilian and other staff/100,000 population § Net policing costs/capita
	Not favourable	§ Officers/100,000 population § Other CCC clearance rate § Total clearance rate § Violent crime clearance rate
At Median	At median	§ Gross policing costs/capita § Property crime clearance rate
Above median	Favourable
	Not favourable	§ Property crime rate (nominal) § Other CCC crime rate (nominal) § CCC incidents/officers § Operating costs/Total Police Staff

While there is room for improvement in some categories, the Ottawa Police compares favourably overall to the other 12 OMBI-reporting police services in Ontario.

Upcoming OMBI Public Reports

While OMBI data has been released, a number of other supporting reports are slated for release by the OMBI Office and the City of Ottawa, including:

§ Executive Report to the CAOs (Chief Administrative Officers) - will be released to CAOs/City Managers on 30 September 2008. A synopsis of key data relating to service areas will be included, along with “performance zone” graphs on selected services and programs that use both efficiency and effectiveness measures to compare municipal results.

§ OMBI Performance Benchmarking Report – will be released by the OMBI Project Office on 28 November 2008. Like last year, some of the OMBI results will be reported publicly. The OMBI report will be similar in format and content to the 2006 report, with several enhancements, including: addition of seven new service areas for a total of 23; presentation of performance data over three years (2007, 2006, 2005); and, more information on results achieved through collaboration between municipalities.

§ City of Ottawa Report - For the past two years, the City has produced a local Ottawa report (Where We Stand in 2005 and 2006 City of Ottawa Results Dashboard) that places results released by OMBI in an Ottawa context. This report has also been used as a vehicle to release results for service areas that are not highlighted in OMBI’s Performance Benchmarking Report. The Ottawa Report is to be released concurrently with the OMBI Performance Benchmarking Report.

Other Developments

A number of items related to performance monitoring internally, nationally, and internationally are of note:

§ Clearance Rate Review – a detailed internal review and audit of clearance procedures based on Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS) guidelines was undertaken under the direction of Inspector – Quality Assurance. The review had two objectives: 1) to identify and respond to issues which have an influence on clearance rates; and, 2) to review every unsolved report for 2006 to verify clearance criteria prior to submission to CCJS. A total of 34 recommendations arose from the review that are being actioned and was part of the annual Quality Assurance Report to the Board.

Of note is that, as a result of the quality control review of 36,000 reports, there was a three-percentage point change in clearance. Further monitoring over the first six months of 2008 shows a continued improvement in criminal incidents solved by the Ottawa Police, with over 35% of cases cleared (compared to 30.4% clearance rate over 2007).

The project caught the attention of the Police Information and Statistics (POLIS) committee, which convened a national meeting of police data managers to discuss issues regarding the comparability and reliability of police-reported data to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey and to develop recommendations to address the identified issues. A data quality workshop is now held each fall.

§ Reporting and Scorecarding for Municipal Government: Citizen-Centric Performance Improvement – This recent Cognos publication, researched by Professor John Clayton Thomas of Georgia State University, examined good service performance measurement, monitoring, and improvement practices across municipal governments and proposes ‘performance blueprints’ or scorecards using business intelligence (BI) software. The scorecard maps out some of the key performance measures City Managers would want to be looking at and managing on a daily basis. The Ottawa Police Performance Monitoring Framework was developed with the assistance of a citizen’s advisory panel and contained in the current Business Plan, is cited as an example of how various performance measures may be organized under different dashboards to serve differing purposes (see Annex A). For Ottawa Police, much of this capability is already resident in our datawarehouse using current Cognos technology.

CONCLUSION

The Board will continue to receive quarterly performance information updates as part of the performance measurement framework contained in the 2007-2009 Business Plan.

Similar to the 2005 and 2006 Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI) reports previously presented to the Board, the 2007 report will also offer the Board and the public selected indicators and data with which to gauge Ottawa Police performance against a provincial median. The release of the report is scheduled for 28 November 2008.

In addition, Ottawa Police representatives will continue to serve on the OMBI Police Expert Panel, the national Police Information and Statistics (POLIS) Committee, and other venues that contribute to the ongoing discussion, improvement, and transparency of police performance measures.

(original signed by)

Randy Mar

Director of Corporate Planning

(original signed by D/C Gilles Larochelle for)

Vern White

Chief of Police

Attach (1)

This document contains information that reports on activities related to the Ottawa Police Business Plan.