IACA Testing Candidate Question Prep

This flashcard set includes recommended knowledge from Professor Hoffman a former crime analyst in Florida who is highly respected and all of the IACA's testing portion for the "hiring an analyst" section of their website which can be accessed here: https://www.iaca.net/hiring-an-analyst

Given a set of numbers, what is the mean?

• Sample: 9, 4, 2, 5, 7, 4, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 8, 6, 7, 8

Mean = 5.067

Given a set of numbers, what is the median?

• Sample: 9, 4, 2, 5, 7, 4, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 8, 6, 7, 8

Median = 4

Given a set of numbers, what is the mode?

• Sample: 9, 4, 2, 5, 7, 4, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 8, 6, 7, 8

Mode = 4

What is the percentage change in Robbery between 2018 and 2019?

-23%

What is the percentage change in Residential Burglary between the last 6 months of 2018 and the last 6 months of 2019?

42.5%

Analyze the Robbery crime category and discuss what you see.  What inferences can be made from the data?

• Robbery cases should be reviewed to determine what types of robberies are happening (bank, street, convenience stores, etc.) in order to see if there is an increase in one specific sub-type that is accounting for the overall rise.

• Possible theory – Increase in Robbery in Nov. and Dec. of 2018 may be due to the holiday season.  More people walking around with gifts and money provide more targets for offenders.

• Possible theory – A known offender may have been released from custody in the fall of 2018 and/or arrested in early 2019 accounting for spike in Robberies in between.

Determine the crime rate per 100,000 (the standard for UCR comparisons) given the following statistics:

• Robbery: 45, Population: 50,000

90

Determine the crime rate per 100,000 (the standard for UCR comparisons) given the following statistics:

• Auto Theft: 140, Population: 200,000

70

Determine the crime rate per 100,000 (the standard for UCR comparisons) given the following statistics:

• Assault: 114, Population: 250,000

45.6

Which type of analysis describes the daily identification and analysis of emerging or existing crime patterns, including series and hot spots?

Tactical crime analysis

Analyzing long-term crime trends, problems, and their causes is the focus of which type of analysis?

Strategic crime analysis

The study of demographic changes in a jurisdiction, preparation of Uniform Crime Reports, and the creation of crime information for presentation to City Council all fall under which type of analysis?

Administrative crime analysis

Which type of analysis describes the study of a police department’s own operations and policies, including its allocation of personnel, money, equipment, and other resources?

Operations analysis

Which type of analysis concentrates on the collection and dissemination of information about criminals, particularly organizations and conspiracies?

Criminal Intelligence Analysis

Two or more related crimes believed to be committed by the same offender or group of offenders is a:

Series

A statistical procedure designed to determine if there is a relationship between two variables is:

Correlation (this will always be a value between -1 and 1)

What is the process of translating addresses or numeric coordinates into points on a map.  In law enforcement, this is mostly referred to as “address matching”:

Geocoding

The acronym, “GIS” stands for:

Geographic Information System

An area of high crime, events that form a cluster, or a single place with many crimes all describe a:

Hot spot

The process in which an analyst reviews police reports with the aim of identifying and analyzing a pattern of crimes that is believed to be committed by the same offender or offenders is called:

Crime series analysis

The acronym, “SARA” stands for:

Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment

Which of the following is NOT a NIBRS Group A data segment?

Summary

Which of the following is NOT a Part-I Crime?

Kidnapping

What can you never divide by?

Zero

When looking at things to see how they might be related, what should you look at?

Look at the time of the event, location, victim/target characteristics similarities, behavioral signatures (maybe a criminal always leaves a symbol behind), physical evidence (DNA), similar or vehicle suspect descriptions.

What does CAD stand for?

Computer-aided dispatch (essentially a fancy term for 911 call)

What does FI (sometimes known as FIR or FC) stand for?

• FI = Field interview

• FIR = Field interview report

• FC = Field contact

  • When there is no criminal activity but suspicious behavior, law enforcement talks to someone and takes note of the interaction.

What is the first thing that an analyst should do after hearing about crimes in an area?

They should look at field reports and traffic tickets in the area from the previous weeks to see if anything matches the crime that happened.

When a district commander asks you why there is an uptick in motor crimes, what is the first thing that you do?

The first step is to determine the reason behind his belief in the rise in crimes. For example, an analyst should initiate collaboration and seek data to support or dismiss his claim.

What does NIBRS stand for?

National Incident-Based Reporting System

What does UCR stand for?

Uniform Crime Reporting Program

How does NIBRS differ from UCR

UCR (the FBI’s traditional summary reporting system) is an aggregate, monthly tally of selected crimes, so it mostly tells you “how many” offenses a jurisdiction recorded, with limited incident detail; NIBRS is a newer, incident-based system that reports details about each crime event (e.g., circumstances, victims, known offenders, location, time) and counts multiple offenses within the same incident rather than applying UCR’s hierarchy rule that typically records only the most serious offense.

What should you do if you catch a co-worker stealing or misusing agency hardware/software?

You should give them an opportunity to take responsibility tell the chain of command and if they do not then make sure that you do.

What does ILP stand for?

Intelligence led policing

What does RTCC stand for?

Real-time crime centers