Measuring the relationship of Department of Justice, grant-funded police records management systems and criminal investigative case clearance rates

The United States, Department of Justice (DOJ) has provided over 1.3 billion dollars of grant funding to law enforcement agencies nationally through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), Making Officer Redeployment Effective (MORE) program since 1995. In 2002, select agencies received grant awards funding up to 75% of equipment and technology for law enforcement agencies' projects. Automated records management systems (RMS), was one of the primary technologies funded by the DOJ. An overarching objective of the program was to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement agencies. Automated RMS was expected to increase criminal case clearance rates. The current research evaluated the relationship between grant-funded technology and criminal case clearance rates as measured by the Uniform Crime Reporting data system maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).;Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data was analyzed for 4 years before and after the grant period using statistical methods including: 1) Unconditional means models; and, 2) Fixed and random effects models. The results indicate that there was no significant association between agencies who received DOJ funding and change in crime case clearance rates. Simply put, these law enforcement agencies did not solve more crimes after the implementation of grant-funded RMS. This was the case for each of the seven, Part 1 UCR categories analyzed including: 1) Homicide; 2) Robbery; 3) Rape; 4) Aggravated Assault; 5) Burglary; 6) Motor Vehicle Theft; and 7) Larceny.;The American public is demanding accountability from government. Given the significant amount of grant money the DOJ has provided law enforcement agencies, efforts should be made to ensure that this funding helps such law enforcement agencies solve crimes.;The DOJ should require that future RMS grant recipients implement criminal case clearance performance measurement, reporting, and improvement processes. Policymakers should support additional research to determine if and how RMS technology could be used to increase criminal case clearance rates with the ultimate goals of reducing crime and increasing community safety. Research to determine how technology can effectively be coupled with policy, training, and usage should be planned, managed, and evaluated to support essential law enforcement technology projects.