While working on a large campus safety assessment and evaluation project, we were struck by how a review of the incident report data from the campuses being evaluated quickly highlighted many of the same concerns noted by our analysts from the perspective of an on the ground evaluation that had already been completed. 

The analysts on the ground for this project are among the nation’s top experts in the field and can easily spot gaps from their extensive experience. At the same time, the data analysis quickly revealed many of the same concerns from the standpoint of incidents that had taken place as a result of these gaps.  

This is actually a very common situation, which is still striking to me after three decades of this type of work. The time spent responding to a large number of incidents can often be dramatically reduced by internalizing a process for regular data analysis followed by appropriate corrective action to address trends that are revealed. 

Effective evaluation of safety and security incidents on a periodic basis can yield dramatic reductions in time spent responding to incidents that can be prevented if they are recognized.  More importantly, the suffering of people who experience them can be averted with this process.

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