NOPD News

News & Information from the New Orleans Police Department

Transparency
Add to Twitter Add to Facebook Add to LinkedIn Add to Reddit

Weekly MAX Meetings Create Greater Accountability Across the Department

by Ben Horwitz

November 4, 2016

Categories: Transparency

Topics: Modernizing Policing

Weekly MAX Meetings Create Greater Accountability Across the Department

Last month, the NOPD launched a new, holistic, data-driven approach to police management known as MAX, or Management Analysis for Xcellence.

MAX replaces the department COMSTAT meetings which were mainly focused on information sharing regarding crime trends. The new program, which is available to the public online, takes that approach even further by focusing not only on crime, but on all other topics for which a police commander has responsibility.

What does MAX look like?

MAX includes four separate components:

  • High-level dashboard
  • Supporting map
  • Detailed reports
  • Follow-up tasks

The high-level dashboard is the primary tool for meeting facilitation and is accessible to the public here: http://public.tableau.com/profile/nola#!/vizhome/MAX_0/TableofContents. Supporting this tool are a set of detailed reports that supervisors can access to address any specific problems highlighted by the dashboard. These detailed reports are available on NOPD’s internal website. The map is built in ArcGIS online and helps guide the conversation around crime. Finally, the follow-up tasks are intended to capture action items at the end of each meeting. These are recorded and managed to ensure that these follow-up actions are completed.

The meeting itself happens every Wednesday and is closed to the public to enable a frank and thorough discussion of all of the issues. Right now, two police districts attend every week with two other divisions (i.e. Criminal Investigations Division and the Training Academy). As such, each district will only attend once a month. However, when a district attends, the Commander will bring their Assistant Commander, the three Platoon Lieutenants, and possibly Detective and Platoon Sergeants. By bringing the Platoon Lieutenants and other Sergeants into the room, NOPD believes it can create greater accountability as well as ensure the message of change and expectations are conveyed further down the chain of command.

The district part of the meeting is led by Deputy Superintendent Paul Noel of the Field Operations Bureau with Superintendent Michael Harrison in attendance as well. As each district reports out, questions are directed at the appropriate person which may be the Platoon Lieutenant or Sergeant. In addition, the Deputy Superintendent is briefed prior to attending each meeting in order to better facilitate the meeting.

The result is a new way of managing police performance called MAX.