Evidence-Based Policing Hall of Fame
Jeffery Egge
Inducted June 2018
Nominated by Christopher S. Koper, George Mason University
Biography:
Jeffery Egge is a sergeant in the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) where he has served for 21 years. He is currently the director of the Crime Analysis Unit, which he has led since 2007. Sgt. Egge has also served the MPD as a beat officer, a community response team officer, and as the leader of many strategic projects undertaken by the department. Over the years, the MPD has recognized his contributions through several Chief’s merit awards and a unit citation award for the performance of his crime analysis unit. He is currently a LEADS Scholar in the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice’s Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science program, and has served as a research fellow at the Police Executive Research Forum. Sgt. Egge holds a Master’s degree in Police Leadership, Administration, and Education from the University of St. Thomas (Twin Cities), and a Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Management and Communication from Concordia College in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Evidence-Based Research and Practice:
Professor Koper writes that Sgt. Egge is a “tireless champion of evidence-based policing” whose many day-to-day efforts enhance research and the translation and institutionalization of evidence-based approaches in his agency and throughout the field. His efforts span the trifecta of evidence-based policing: contributing to research and the generation of knowledge to improve policing; creating organizational change to institutionalize evidence-based approaches; and educating police practitioners, public officials, and the general public about evidence-based practices in policing.
Sgt. Egge has conducted or contributed to research and analysis on a range of topics including hot spots policing, gun violence, problem-solving, community policing, technology, police legitimacy, weapons guidelines, and the role of planning and research in policing. His work has been instrumental in guiding a number of strategic and tactical interventions for his agency. For example, in collaboration with Koper, he applied a Case of Place approach to systematically study the environmental and social characteristics of long term gun violence hot spots in Minneapolis using twenty five years of gun violence data (Koper, Egge, and Lum, 2015). His research on gun violence in Minneapolis has also illuminated important new patterns in gunshot victimizations stemming from high-volume gunfire incidents (Koper, Johnson, Stesin, and Egge, 2018). He has collaborated with Drs. Bruce Taylor (NORC) and Rachel Boba-Santos (Radford University) on a COPS Office (U.S. DOJ) publication on integrating crime analysis into patrol work (Taylor, Boba, and Egge, 2011). Sgt. Egge also assisted Taylor and Koper to develop a typology of problem-solving efforts for the Jacksonville Hot Spots Experiment that contrasted problem-solving and saturation patrol in crime hot spots (Taylor, Koper and Woods, 2011). With Professor Cynthia Lum, he also helped to facilitate a major research project in Minneapolis related to investigative practices and is currently working with her to design a randomized controlled experiment testing an intervention to improve robbery investigations. Over the years, Sgt. Egge has been a contributor, subject matter expert, or partner for more than a dozen research and translation projects by George Mason University, the Police Executive Research Forum, the COPS Office, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Urban Institute, the Minneapolis Council on Crime and Justice, and other organizations.
Since taking over the MPD’s crime analysis unit in 2007, Sgt. Egge has established and institutionalized new methods for tracking and evaluating geographic and person-based crime patterns, criminal networks and routines, problem identification and diagnosis, police activities and dosages, and quality of life indicators in the community. Sgt. Egge has played a key role in integrating crime analysis into the regular management of the MPD, incorporating evidence-based policing principles into the agency’s business plan, and carrying out other strategic analyses to guide agency policy and reorganization.
Finally, Sgt. Egge’s efforts to disseminate knowledge about crime analysis, research, and evidence-based approaches in policing have been extensive. He has presented at numerous professional conferences including those held by the Police Executive Research Forum, the International Association of Crime Analysts, the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing, the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, and the American Society of Criminology. He teaches classes at the MPD’s training academy and has been a key figure in organizing and presenting at conferences for local and regional groups of criminal justice practitioners in Minneapolis and the wider region. He has been a regular advisor to mayoral administrations in Minneapolis and a regular presenter and resource for community groups, local college classes, the MPD’s citizens’ academy, and even companies in the private business sector. He is also an advocate for the Urban Scholars Intern program, which seeks to provide college students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds with distinctive professional experience in the police department.
Statement from Inductee:
This is an important recognition for practitioners in our field, and I want to thank the CEBCP, and Drs. Koper, Lum, and Weisburd.
If leadership is the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation, then studies, experiments, and assessments are the foundation for improving the organization and accomplishing the mission.
Starting out in private security exposed me to extensive uses of data to work better, focus, and achieve measurable results. Being a part of CompStat from its inception in Minneapolis as a deployed police resource, an intelligence gatherer, tactical leader, and analyst, I was able to determine how the components could work better together. In the 18 years since we started using a data-driven approach in Minneapolis, the overall crime reduction throughout the city has been 36.72 percent.
Starting with my collaborations with the Police Executive Research Forum, where I served as a research fellow, I was given an opportunity to bring my agency back to its roots in the 1980s as a laboratory for research. I saw the need and benefits of research translation and embraced the Matrix Demonstration Project here at the CEBCP. And now as an NIJ LEADS [National Institute of Justice Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science] scholar, among so many young, talented, and smart police practitioners advancing data and science, I’m fortunate to have a seat at the table as we challenge outdated, conventional policing paradigms with data-driven solutions and practices.
Amid the daily chaos of calls, crimes, and conflict, it is critical for police leadership to have a solid foundation of factual knowledge from systematic truth. As a profession, we are still mired in individual incidents and events. From top to bottom, the tendency to handle one 911 call after another prevails. Research has been easily discarded because it’s too complex and time consuming. But we should never lose sight of the bigger picture and what we can build and achieve with data and science.
When practitioners are given an opportunity to focus on policing problems through the lens of science, it can foster an aptitude for making further discoveries and innovations. When research and evaluation are relevant to the agency mission, the work benefits from greater urgency, mandate, integration, and sustainability within the agency. Crime analysis plays an integral part. In collaboration with some of the leading criminologists of the day, for example, we learned that roughly 8 percent of all city blocks in Minneapolis accounted for about two-thirds, or 64 percent, of the city’s shootings, reinforcing our belief in and informing our strategies for a more proactive, place-based, problem-solving focus.
The transformational aspects of research are sometimes short-lived in a police organization. But when sworn police and civilian employees have personal ownership and involvement in studies, experiments, and assessments, it improves their skills and abilities to carry forward and transform the culture in their organizations through changes in policing leadership and societal norms.
For the better part of 30 years, I have believed that the best way to make progress in my profession is from within. I have had the pleasure of working with colleagues strongly dedicated to this pursuit from the CEBCP and PERF [Police Executive Research Program], as well as NIJ LEADS scholars, crime analysts, and criminologists from across the world. Their efforts inspired me to pursue evidence-based policing with a passion for improving police efficiency and advancing public safety.
I’ve dedicated my life’s work toward crime fighting and discovered the value of data, science, and research translation in improving police initiatives and strategies. However, this recognition came as a surprise and is humbling and motivating. It would not have been possible without the hard work of the sworn and civilian employees of the Minneapolis Police Department. I want to thank the chiefs I have worked for: Robert K. Olson, who hired and promoted me, Tim Dolan, Janee Harteau, and Medaria Arradondo and Mayor Betsy Hodges have all supported, recognized, and encouraged the work of my team over the years.
Articles:
Egge, Jeffery, “Experimenting with Future-Oriented Analysis at Crime Hot Spots in Minneapolis,” Geography and Public Safety, Vol 2, No. 4, National Institute of Justice, March 2011.
Hughes, Ryan and Jeffery Egge. 2011. “Advanced Analysis using GIS at the Minneapolis Police Department, Minnesota.” GIS/LIS Consortium, Spring 2011, Issue 64.
Koper, Christopher S., Jeffery Egge, and Cynthia Lum. 2015. “Institutionalizing Place-Based Approaches: Opening ‘Cases’ on Gun Crime Hot Spots.” Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice 9(3): 242- 254.
Koper, Christopher S., William Johnson, Kenneth Stesin, and Jeffery Egge. 2018. “Gunshot victimisations resulting from high-volume gunfire incidents in Minneapolis: findings and policy implications.” Injury Prevention DOI: 10.1136/injuryprev-2017-042635.
Taylor, Bruce, Rachel Boba, and Jeff Egge (2011). The Integration of Crime Analysis into Patrol Work: A Guidebook. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
Taylor, Bruce, Christopher S. Koper, and Daniel J. Woods. 2011. “A Randomized Controlled Trial of Different Policing Strategies at Hot Spots of Violent Crime.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 7:149–81.
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