The concept is so simple, Harford County Sheriff Jesse Bane doesn’t understand why other agencies do not embrace it, or why his own agency has not thought to do so sooner.

Put crime-fighting resources where the crime is worst.

This is one of the most basic concepts of a strategic crime-fighting model pioneered by the New York City Transit police in the 1980s — CompStat, or computer-driven crime statistics.

“It’s incredibly simple. It’s so simple that many police chiefs don’t get it,” said Phyllis Parshall McDonald, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of, “Managing Police Operations: Implementing the New York Crime Control Model — CompStat.”

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McDonald described CompStat like this: A police agency assigns full-time analysts to oversee and review all crime collection data the agency has. For the Harford’s Sheriff’s Office, an example would be its call for service.

Using this information, analysts, along with police commanders, determine the crime trends in the community, and then the commanders implement strategic plans using all resources for dealing with crime.

Simple.

But for Bane, it may not be so. He not only faces the challenge of convincing county leaders who control his purse strings to give him the money he needs to implement CompStat, but he may face resistance in his own agency.

“I not only have to educate the politicians, but I also have to change the mindset of patrol deputies who might say this is a load of crap,” Bane said.

Either way, Bane is convinced CompStat will work in Harford, and he is determined to implement it.

“I’m going to take it countywide,” he said.

Should Bane succeed, Harford could see a dramatic decrease in crime given statistics from CompStat’s first years of use in the subway system of New York.

McDonald, who, from 1989 to 1995, was an executive commander of the New York Transit police during CompStat’s trial run, said crime was reduced by 65 percent.

“It allowed the city to bounce back. Ridership on the subways went up, and the city was able to begin focusing more on crime on the streets,” she said.

Bane said the next step for him is to bring McDonald in to train his staff with CompStat.

He said he was not sure as to how much it would cost to implement the system, but his commanders were looking for grant money to fund the program.

mplum@baltimoreexaminer.com