Strategic Crime Analysis

Strategic crime analysis (SCA) refers to the study of crime and community safety data to help inform the understanding of both long-term and newly emerging crime issues. It uses multi-agency data sources, such as health and social care data, to provide a much richer and more holistic picture of the current and emerging landscape; assisting in understanding the narrative behind the observed trends.

The outputs of SCA help inform related policy decisions, operational strategies and priority setting to enable organisations to more efficiently and effectively match community safety service delivery to the demands for service. SCA is also utilised to assess both the appropriateness and effectiveness of implementing organisational measures and strategies to reduce and prevent crime.

Specifically, the GLA’s SCA team work closely with a range of other departments and organisations, including MOPAC, the London-based Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and London’s Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs). The team are also responsible for the management of SafeStats, a secure data platform that enables authorised users to access pan-London crime and community safety data, as well as being heavily involved in the Information Sharing to Tackle Violence (ISTV) programme.