The Crime Analyst Podcast

Dr. Rachel Boba Santos is a professor of criminal justice and co-director of the Center for Police Practice, Policy and Research at Radford University.

From the beginning, Dr. Santos found crime analysis to be an exciting career. She started on that path in the early 1990s while working on her graduate degree at Arizona State University.

Her hard work and dedication led her to be one of the most recognized names in the field of crime analysis. And her philosophy of doing your best work attracted the attention of David Weisburd, a well-known researcher of hot spot policing, who invited her to join him in his research.

From 2003 to 2016, Dr. Santos taught at Florida Atlantic University, where she conducted her own research and wrote her first book.

Together with her husband, Dr. Roberto Santos,  she developed the Stratified Policing Model now used by many agencies across the country. This organizational model is used by police agencies to systemize proactive crime reduction strategies.

Some other areas of research include police/researcher partnerships, police/community collaboration, hot spot and problem-oriented policing, predictive policing, environmental criminology, crime and place, police/crime data and technology, experimental research methodology, and program evaluation. She has recently co-authored the book, Stratified Policing: An Organizational Model for Proactive Crime Reduction and Accountability.

You may say Dr. Santos was in the right place at the right time when she started her career in crime analysis. For those who work with her, it is obvious her work ethics and dedication had more to do with her success than luck. She also has an affinity for data, statistics, and research.

Dr. Santos’ has made it her practice to do the best she could in the job she had at the time. That kind of work ethic helped Dr. Santos positioned herself as one of the most recognizable people in crime analysis.

In this episode of The Crime Analyst Podcast, Dr. Santos offers us a rare glimpse into her crime analysis journey.

We all know how important education is. We start learning from the time we’re born. Some say our learning begins even before then.  In any career, learning should be something we never stop doing. Glenn Granna took this idea to heart. He has understood the importance of keeping his knowledge and skills sharp and has made it a point to never stop learning. After many years in law enforcement, Glenn is now teaching at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York. He also has authored a book, “Crime and Intelligence Analysis: An Integrated Real-Time Approach.” For 21 years, Glenn worked for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Rochester, New York. For 10 of those years he was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division. His primary job was as a narcotics investigator, and he was also a member of the Narcotics Tactical Warrant Unit. Additionally, Glenn was a member of the Sheriff’s Hostage Recovery Team, where he served as a hostage negotiator. He was one of two leading negotiators and took part in the longest standoff the unit had ever encountered. He also served as a field training officer and helped train new officers. As the years went on, Glenn continued his education. He instinctively understood that doing his job properly meant keeping his skills sharp.  There’s a quote attributed to Ben Franklin that says, “If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” Glenn has made it his life’s mission to invest in his education. For crime analysts, continuous learning is one of the keys to success. 

Glenn has never been ready for retirement. After serving the people of Rochester, Glenn took a job as a contractor with the U.S. Department of State. He then traveled to Afghanistan as part of a police mentor team program that consisted of military and civilian personnel. Their goal was to train Afghanistan police in the basics of policing and investigations. He continued to use his passion for teaching in this new role. Glenn eventually accepted a position with the U.S. Department of Defense working as an adviser in Iraq. When his tenure ended in the Middle East, he returned to the U.S. and his old roots in law enforcement.

In New York, Glenn accepted a job at a law enforcement intelligence center. There he worked as a crime analyst and eventually was promoted to a supervisory role, overseeing a team of analysts. Often the love of learning translates to the joy of teaching others. As a supervisor, Glenn had the opportunity to use his teaching skills and share what he had learned. He immediately put the skills he had gained over many years in law enforcement to work.

Teaching has become one of Glenn’s biggest passions. He is currently assistant professor of intelligence studies in the Homeland Security and Applied Intelligence program at Roberts Wesleyan College. The program uses his book, “Crime and Intelligence Analysis: An Integrated Real-Time Approach” as part of its curriculum. The same passion and drive that he maintained throughout his career he continues to use to teach a new generation of crime analysts. Like his passion for teaching, mentoring outside the classroom is just as important to Glenn. Helping and coaching the new students transition from the classroom to a job is one of Glenn’s greatest joys.

In this episode of the The Crime Analyst podcast, Glenn shares the inside track on how he’s put his experience in law enforcement to work as a crime analyst, and what it takes to be successful. 

I attended the Florida Crime and Intelligence Analyst Association conference in Jupiter, Florida, in June 2019. Being relatively new to my role as a crime analyst, it was the first industry conference like it that I attended. It was an eye-opener. When I walked into the meeting room on the first day, I immediately noticed how full it was with crime and intelligence analysts from all around the state. It seemed like everyone knew what they were talking about except for me. I immediately realized how lucky I was to meet all those great and wonderful people. Daniel “DJ” Seals was a keynote speaker for the event. DJ immediately grabbed the attention of the audience. When he told a joke, the room burst into laughter. In serious moments, you could hear a pin drop. He kept us all in that rollercoaster of emotions for an hour. It felt like five minutes.

I had a chance to talk with DJ after his address. I found him to be a down-to-earth guy who is always willing to help, advise and coach others. It was easy to feel a special connection to DJ. First, we both worked our way up from patrol. Second, we both were narcotics detectives. Third, we both got into crime analysis with little idea of what we were doing. DJ had been in it for so many years that I felt I could count on him whenever I was stuck. Right away he offered to help me in any way he could. All I had to do was call him. DJ knew it was going to take some hard work. After all, he had traveled that road before. But he was optimistic. “You got this,” he said. “There is nothing to it.”

In this first episode of The Crime Analyst podcast, we hear from DJ Seals, a retired detective, SWAT operator and crime analyst in the Metro Atlanta area, about his background and experiences. DJ tells the story of how he got involved in crime analysis, in 2009, when he was tasked with creating an intelligence-led policing division at his department in Covington, Georgia.  Despite not having any crime analysis experience, he immersed himself in the job and learned as much as he could so he could successfully create and lead this new division. 

We all know how important education is. We don’t always have the luxury of education coming to us. More often than not we have to go find it. That’s exactly what DJ did when it was time to take on a new role as crime and intelligence analyst. He talks about how he dove right into educating himself and learning as much as he could about the field. DJ very quickly realized how little information there was about crime analysis. He also had to find a way to clean up the CAD and RMS system and get officers to enter the right information.

DJ talks about how challenging it can be to get the command staff to buy in. He did not let any of those challenges keep him from continuously working toward making his crime and intelligence analyst unit the best it could be. DJ also shares about the importance of connecting with other analysts, and learning from them. However, connecting with people is not always easy. We all have our own points of view, opinions and ideas. And we may not like to get out of our comfort zone and do it. Yet we know how important it is for this line of work. DJ offers suggestions for how to connect with officers and help close the gap between crime and intelligence analysts, and officers.  If you’re interested in being a guest on the show, drop a line here