Menifee Police Department: Analysis in action
Author
Staff
Peregrine
Published
April 9, 2024
Author
Staff
Peregrine
Published
April 9, 2024
“Peregrine allows us to answer leadership’s questions quickly and accurately. It's not just about saving time – it's about enhancing our ability to serve our community.”
Nicole Epps, Crime Analyst
Menifee PD, California
When Nicole Epps joined the newly formed Menifee Police Department in 2020, she brought with her 14 years of experience and a master's degree in data analytics. As a crime analyst, Epps plays an integral role in her department’s data-informed operations.
She compiles and analyzes data that touches multiple aspects of the Menifee Police Department’s operations, from helping detectives solve crime more quickly to empowering command staff to make better decisions.
Earlier in her tenure, she spent too much time wrestling with unwieldy tools. Before Peregrine, Epps did the bulk of her work by manually pulling data from a bevy of disparate source systems and collating the data in a spreadsheet.
"I was trained in statistics, so I was able to do some challenging analysis manually that other crime analysts without my background could struggle with," Epps says. "I had to export and clean up data by hand, more or less, which was a time-consuming process due to limitations with some of our software."
Epps explained that for something like calls for service, she’d export thousands of rows of data in a spreadsheet from Menifee’s record management system, manually align the data with Menifee’s 200+ reporting districts, and then added beat districts herself – before any analysis could occur. She’d do this for traffic incidents, average response times for calls for service, arrests, and other data points each month.
"We use Peregrine to make educated decisions.”
Epps’ reports – and those developed by other crime analysts – are vital to how police departments work and ultimately serve their communities.
Leadership can’t make the best decisions without accurate data that’s specific to the operating context of their department. Command staff could guess and deploy different tactics to improve response times or augment patrol shifts to mitigate a rise in crime. They could use anecdotes to inform which crimes are the highest priorities and where the most frequent traffic incidents are occurring.
But it’s better to know.
Peregrine gives Menifee’s leadership the confidence they need to make the best possible decisions for every aspect of the department’s operations in the form of concrete information as well as helpful context and insights.
“I love to share information from Peregrine. When leadership asks me a question, I can have an answer – fast. And then we can collaborate on a solution as a department. We’re here to help people, and Peregrine empowers me to give leadership what they need to support our community.”
Make decisions with conviction. Make decisions with Peregrine.
Peregrine is built on AWS GovCloud.
[OPTIMIZATION DRAFT]
How Menifee PD uses unified data for faster crime analysis
KEY IDEAS:
- Menifee Police Department struggled with time-consuming crime analysis, limiting access to real-time insights and slowing operational decisions.
- Crime analysts relied on siloed systems, manually gathering and reconciling data before any analysis could begin.
- Data integration harmonizes disconnected data sources into a single platform for real-time crime analysis, reporting, and decision making.
- With unified data, Menifee PD accelerated investigations, improved operational efficiency, and enabled faster, more informed incident response.
“Peregrine allows us to answer leadership’s questions quickly and accurately. It's not just about saving time – it's about enhancing our ability to serve our community.”
Nicole Epps, Crime Analyst
Menifee PD, California
💡 MENIFEE POLICE DEPARTMENT (MPD) AT A GLANCE:
Location: Menifee, California
Established: 2020
Population: Approx. 117,041
Sworn count: More than 90
Total personnel: More than 120
Sources: MPD, City of Menifee (2), U.S. Census
MENIFEE, Calif. — Police departments rely on timely, accurate data to make effective operational decisions. At the Menifee Police Department, real-time crime data analysis helps personnel identify patterns, allocate resources, and effectively respond to changing conditions.
However, like many police agencies, Menifee PD previously relied on disconnected systems that required crime analysts to manually collect and clean data before any analysis could begin. These time-consuming workflows delayed insights and limited the department’s ability to act on real-time intelligence.
To address this challenge, Menifee PD implemented Peregrine to unify its data across systems and streamline crime analysis. With access to centralized, real-time data, analysts can now generate insights faster, support leadership with accurate information, and help the department make more informed, data-driven decisions.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Real-time crime data enables police departments to move from guesswork to data-driven decision-making by providing accurate, up-to-date intelligence.
Real-time crime data analysis enables police departments to allocate resources efficiently, identify patterns, and make faster operational decisions. Crime analysts’ reports are vital to how police departments work and ultimately serve their communities.
Leadership can’t make the best decisions without accurate data that’s specific to the operating context of their department. Without access to immediate insights:
🔎 WHAT HAPPENS WHEN POLICE DEPARTMENTS RELY ON OUTDATED DATA?
Agencies relying on stale data might miss emerging crime trends, investigative leads, or critical time-sensitive information for officers in the field. Without accurate, timely intelligence, law enforcement agencies can’t align their resources with community needs or develop dynamic crime prevention strategies.
But it’s better to know. When analysts have easy access to reliable police data, they can quickly create dynamic reports that help agencies:
However, for many agencies, data analysis is a cumbersome process that requires navigating siloed police systems and manually reconciling disconnected information. Without access to unified, up-to-date data, departments risk making decisions based on outdated or incomplete intelligence. This challenge is often caused by the fragmented systems that store and process police data.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Police agencies can’t make accurate, informed decisions without real-time intelligence.
Crime analysts rely on diverse data sources to provide information about their agencies and communities. But often, they spend more time manually collecting and reconciling data than analyzing it. That’s because key police data lives in various solutions, such as:
READ MORE → How to Bridge the Data Divide in Law Enforcement
Because these systems are not designed to work together, analysts must manually combine data before any meaningful analysis can begin. Each of these systems collects and processes data differently, often in incompatible formats, which means analysts can’t export that data without losing context. Without a unified data platform that standardizes information across disconnected systems, crime analysts must:
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Siloed police systems limit real-time visibility and crime analysis.
- Crime analysts spend more time preparing data than analyzing it.
- Siloed systems delay insights and decision-making.
- Manual workflows increase the risk of errors and missed patterns.
Before implementing Peregrine, Menifee PD relied on manual workflows to collect, clean, and analyze crime data across multiple systems. Nicole Epps, crime analyst at the Menifee Police Department, was all too familiar with that time-consuming workflow. When Epps joined the newly formed Menifee PD in 2020, she brought with her 14 years of experience and a master's degree in data analytics.
Epps plays an integral role in her department’s data-informed operations. She compiles and analyzes data that touches multiple aspects of Menifee PD’s operations, from helping detectives solve crime more quickly to empowering command staff to make better decisions.
🔎 HOW DO CRIME ANALYSTS SUPPORT POLICE OPERATIONS?
Crime analysts support police operations by analyzing data to improve situational awareness, identify investigative leads, and inform resource allocation. When analysts have immediate access to unified intelligence, they can quickly find the information they need and spend more time on high-impact analysis.
Earlier in her tenure, she spent too much time wrestling with unwieldy tools. Before Peregrine, Epps did the bulk of her work by manually pulling data from a bevy of disparate source systems and collating the data in a spreadsheet.
"I was trained in statistics, so I was able to do some challenging analysis manually that other crime analysts without my background could struggle with," Epps says. "I had to export and clean up data by hand, more or less, which was a time-consuming process due to limitations with some of our software."
CASE STUDY → How the Livermore Police Department Uses Data Integration to Power Real-Time Awareness and Investigations
Epps explained that for something like calls for service, she would:
Epps had to complete all of those steps before any analysis could occur.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Without unified data, Menifee PD relied on manual data exports, cleanup, and reconciliation before any analysis could begin.
To reduce manual effort and improve real-time visibility, Menifee PD implemented Peregrine as its data integration solution. Peregrine integrates and standardizes data from multiple police systems into a single platform for analysis and reporting. Peregrine:
🔎 WHAT DOES A POLICE DATA INTEGRATION PLATFORM DO?
Police data integration solutions combine and standardize data from systems like CAD and RMS into a single platform for analysis and decision-making.
With unified data, Menifee PD’s crime analysts spend less time exporting and reconciling data. They can:
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Data integration allows Menifee PD’s crime analysts to spend less energy manually collecting data, freeing up time to conduct complex, meaningful analyses.
Peregrine gives Menifee’s leadership the confidence they need to make the best possible decisions for every aspect of the department’s operations in the form of concrete information as well as helpful context and insights.
"We use Peregrine to make educated decisions,” Epps said.
🔎 HOW DOES UNIFIED DATA IMPROVE POLICE DECISION MAKING?
- Analysts can easily make connections across standardized data.
- Personnel can monitor rapidly changing conditions to coordinate effective responses.
- Command staff have a clear, dynamic understanding of community needs.
With easy access to contextualized, up-to-date data, crime analysts can respond to questions and collaborate with leadership much faster.
“I love to share information from Peregrine. When leadership asks me a question, I can have an answer – fast. And then we can collaborate on a solution as a department. We’re here to help people, and Peregrine empowers me to give leadership what they need to support our community.”
These improvements demonstrate the broader impact of unified data on police operations.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: With unified data, crime analysts at Menifee PD can:
- Answer leadership questions in real time
- Generate reports without manual data reconciliation
- Identify trends and patterns faster
- Share insights across the department instantly
Real-time insights streamlined crime analysis workflows at Menifee PD, allowing the department to make better, more informed operational decisions. With a unified data platform, personnel no longer spend hours tediously combing through disconnected systems and manually reconciling datasets. Instead, all Menifee PD personnel have immediate access to the information they need.
As a result, crime analysts spend more time:
Real-time data is essential for police departments facing increasingly complex demands. Menifee PD’s approach demonstrates how data integration can help agencies move from delayed decision making to proactive, informed operations.
To see how Peregrine can support real-time crime analysis and decision making at your agency, request a demo.
Peregrine is built on AWS GovCloud.
Real-time crime analysis is the process of using up-to-date police data to identify patterns, support investigations, and inform operational decisions. Crime analysts use historical data, such as CAD and RMS systems, and real-time inputs to provide timely insights to command staff and officers in the field.
Have a question?
Ask usFor media requests,
contact media@peregrine.io
Your Privacy Choices