Mapping of crime, solution to cases: the essential work of the FCPD criminal analysts

Fairfax County, va– Since February 2000, the Fairfax County (FCPD) police authority has rely on crime analysts to support our efforts by converting data into implementable secret services. Over the years, this role has developed to a significant part of modern police work. Today FCPD employs 16 criminal analysts – eight, which are assigned to the district stations and another eight for specialized units.

What kind of training and specialist knowledge underwine criminal analysts?

Criminal analysts complete a strict training to surpass themselves in their field. To qualify, you must have a bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year institution with course work in statistics and/or research method. Once set, you get practical training and shadow experienced analysts to learn the subtleties of your role. In addition, you will be dominated in the FCPD recording management system and the analysis software of the FCPD with which you develop reports and visualizations.

What does a criminal analyst do?

Every day, criminal analysts run a large number of critical tasks that help detectives, civil servants and commanders make sound decisions. Your responsibilities include:

• Review of police reports to identify emerging trends,
• Analysis of telephone records and other data to support active investigations,
• Investigation of bulletins from the region to identify connections between cases,
• Preparation of commanders for weekly crime discussions with the chief of police,
• Creation of maps and data visualizations to illustrate crime patterns.
• Cooperation with civil servants and detectives to combine cases and reduce crime,
• Share of intelligence with analysts from neighboring jurisdiction,
• And answering questions from the community with data informed knowledge.

Why are criminal analysts important?

Criminal analysts are an essential part of the FCPD mission. You not only analyze data – you transform complex information into clear, implementable knowledge. Their work helps to lead the patrol officials with assertive strategies, prevent and combat crimes and at the same time support the detectives in solving cases. By combining the points between incidents, criminal analysts contribute to clarifying the chaos of large amounts of data and ultimately contributing to a safer community in Fairfax County.

Interested in becoming a criminal analyst? Visit Fairfax County Career pages for future vacancies.

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