Iraq Needs Compstat

Watching the ever mounting improvised explosive device (IED) death toll it occurs to me that there is a fairly simple and effective means of combatting this primitive means of warfare. Upon taking over as mayor of NYC, Rudy Giulliani appointed Bill Bratten as police commissioner. Their tenure together was a stormy one and the perception rightly or wrongly was that Giulliani did not like the commish getting the major credit for lowering the crime rate.

People can argue whether they were cooking the books or not, but the number of homicides committed in NYC declined in every one of Rudy's eight years on the job and have continued dropping during Bloombergs tenure as well.

Perhaps Bratten's major and most lasting accomplishment was bringing on Jack Maple, a persistent violator of the ill-enforced habidashery act, but nonetheless, one hell of a cop, with thousands of collars under his belt. Maple, with the help of many others, established COMPSTAT. By tracking the incidences of specific crimes and mapping them street by street, crime patterns emerged. If there was a wave or robberies on a specific street corner, then the precinct captain, using the data obtained, would place a uniformed officer on that spot and if helpful, he would send in undercover policemen to conduct surveillance or buy and bust narcotics operations.

This method was extremely effective and gave the precinct captains a measure of accountability they had never been subjected to before. Maple referred to this as putting cops on the dots (the dots representing where crimes were taking place.)

There were weekly Compstat sessions at 1 Police Plaze where the captains would be shown their stats and their response would be analysed. These sessions would get quite heated and the captains would be told, either lower crime or we will get someone who will. On several occasions the stats were cooked and when Bratten found out, the offenders were swiftly given the boot.

My personal opinion is that this type of approach could be very effective in Iraq in fighting the IED attacks. Keep track of every attack, both successful and unsuccessful, and look for patterns. This will help the troops going out on patrol as they will know what areas are hot. They can set up surveillance, bring in predator drones, be extra vigilant in the area and track progress as well.

To my knowledge this hasn't been done in Iraq. With the technology available by drones, satellite and recons, the task could easily be accomplished and these gangs could rapidly be eliminated. In all likelihood, these gangs keep doing these attacks until they get caught. If they are caught faster, before killing people, so much the better.

If patrols can discourage them, then place Iraqi troops out there on the "dots" as a deterrent.

In this manner the insurgency can be quickly defused and order made easier to maintain.

Talking to 2 Marines over there, 2 things have come along which nearly equal your suggestion.

1. The locals desperately hate the foreigners planting the bombs, and they are eager to tell anyone about any suspicious behavior.
2. The Iraqi soldiers are very keen to separate locals from foreigners, and very keen to communicate with locals and recognize anything like suspicious behavior.
Where NYC had a population somewhat mum about criminals in their midst, local Iraqis are anything but mum. That rapport between Iraqis and their new home grown troops, and the desire to be rid of foreigners, plus training, is beginning to pay off.
Do you ever catch Bill Roggio's blog, the fourth rail?

Stop for a second and see that the plan is to empower Iraq Security forces thru-out the country...which is what has been going on.

That force structure in place, those "police-type" enforcement methods could(and very possibly are) be implemented. Recognize that these methods do not easily fall into military activities as much as they do Police methods.

Your suggestion is an excellent one that more than likely will have its "day".

If they have'nt got it on the agenda now,they will.

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