May 29, 2025

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Leading in Real Time: The Command Staff Evolution Powered by FMStat

By Jason Truppi, CTO, ForceMetrics

Public safety leaders don’t just need access to data—they need to know it’s reliable, current, and actionable. Too often, data is buried in disconnected systems, collected inconsistently, or only usable after hours of cleanup. FMStat was built to solve for something bigger: Can data actually drive better conversations—and better decisions—in the room where it counts? 

At IACP Tech, I had the opportunity to speak about that shift. I didn’t start with dashboards or trendlines—I started with what it feels like to lead a room when something big is on the line. Because FMStat wasn’t built just to modernize CompStat. It was built to change what happens in the moments where decisions are made.

CompStat Was Designed for Accountability. FMStat Is Designed for Action.

In the 1990s, CompStat introduced a culture of accountability to public safety. Weekly meetings helped commanders stay informed and focused. But today’s challenges—faster-moving threats, tighter resources, and a heightened need for public trust—demand more than static stats in a PDF.


Traditional CompStat reports often require hours of manual prep, offering a rearview mirror instead of real-time insight.

Most departments still walk into their CompStat meetings with numbers pulled from siloed systems, formatted in Excel, and already days (or weeks) out of date. By the time a commander is asked, “What’s going on in that district?”, the only honest answer is: “Let me check and get back to you.”

FMStat changes that. It brings live data into the room—filtered, analyzed, and ready to drill into at the speed of conversation.

For a deeper overview of FMStat’s features and how it builds on the ForceMetrics Velocity™ Platform, check out this post by Jacob Cramer PhD, Director of Data Innovation at ForceMetrics. 

What Happens When You Can Answer the Follow-Up Question in Real Time

In a traditional CompStat meeting, you might spend half your time reciting incident counts or flipping through maps. There’s pressure to present, defend, explain—sometimes with only part of the picture in view.

With FMStat, the conversation shifts. Instead of summarizing what happened, you’re asking better questions:

  • What about this area is causing it to be a hotspot?
  • Why did that hotspot go cold?
  • Which people are driving the crime problems in this area?
  • “Did our last enforcement operation actually reduce crime?

And instead of writing those questions down to “look into later,” you’re answering and discussing them live—right there in the meeting. FMStat gives you the power to zoom from trend to location to individual, surfacing patterns that drive smarter, faster decisions.

How Real-Time Insights Are Changing the Way Leadership Works

Command staff meetings shouldn’t feel like performance reviews. They should feel like collaborative sessions where the team uses analytics to unpack complex issues and plan what to do next.

That’s the real evolution FMStat enables. Not just better data. A better use of leadership time.

We’ve watched agencies go from spending several days compiling reports to walking into meetings with zero prep time, and leaving with an actual strategy in hand.

One commander told us, “I didn’t realize how much we were reacting until we saw what it felt like to lead with real-time context.”

What FMStat Means for Your Crime Analysis Team

While FMStat is designed to support high-level decision-making, it also delivers meaningful time savings and workflow improvements for analysts and support staff. Instead of spending hours pulling incident data from RMS, formatting spreadsheets, generating visuals, and preparing reports for weekly briefings, analysts can now focus on interpreting trends and delivering highly impactful insights. Automated, real-time data integration means less time spent wrangling information and more time dedicated to proactive analysis. 

FMStat also improves interdepartmental coordination by aligning data across systems and teams—supporting regional collaboration, shared investigations, and unified strategic planning without duplication of effort.

From Insight to Outcome

FMStat also helps departments move from instinct to evidence. The tool connects data across CAD, RMS, jail systems, and more—making it easier to validate assumptions, spot early signals, and support decisions with confidence.

But what we’re most excited about is how this translates into actionable follow-through:

  • When a trend is spotted, the deployment strategy happens that same day.
  • When a new pattern emerges, it’s understood before it becomes a headline.
  • And when a commander takes action, they can track what worked and what didn’t—not just next week, but right now.

A Platform That Moves With You

FMStat builds on ForceMetrics’ commitment to helping agencies modernize how they operate—without adding more burden to the people doing the work. We designed it to eliminate reporting bottlenecks, reduce prep time, and keep decision-makers focused on strategy, not spreadsheets.

To learn more about how FMStat was launched and received by the public safety community, read the official FMStat press release on Police1.

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