Yonkers Police Technical Assistance Response Unit
Commanding Officer - Lieutenant Meredith McLaughlin
(914) 377-7227 

The Technical Assistance Response Unit (TARU) consists of the Planning Unit, Information and Technology Unit, and the National Incident-Based Crime Reporting Unit.

Some of the current duties of the Planning & Technology Unit are to oversee the daily operations of over 300 desktop computers, 90 mobile computers, 14 blade servers (Windows server), 10 stand alone servers, the Computer Aided Dispatch System (UNIX server), several SQL databases, the Department network, the intranet site, the Department website, weekly crime statistics, NIBRS monthly statistics, the crime databases (2004-current), the field interview database (2005-current), Compstat meetings, support all desktop installed software, manage PowerDMS software, manage IAPro software, Tracs software, maintain and manage the License Plate Readers, manage the department surveillance cameras, the Records Management System, and more.

Yonkers Police Crime Reporting Methodology

Up until the end of December of 2011, the Y.P.D. used an incident based method for recording crime statistics. For example, if there was an assault committed at a specific location and 5 people were assaulted during the event, it was recorded as 1 incident of assault.

In January of 2012, the Y.P.D. began to record crimes using a victim based method, particularly in the recording of assaults. In using this method each victim is counted as a separate crime. Using the same example, if there was an assault committed at a specific location and 5 people were assaulted, it is now being counted as 5 separate assaults.

This switch in recording methods was a result of integrating our new Records Management System (R.M.S.), and it inherently causes a rise in statistics, particularly assaults.

In January 2021, the Y.P.D. transitioned to the National Incident Based Reporting System that is being implemented across the Nation. NIBR was implemented to improve the overall quality of crime data collected by law enforcement. NIBRS captures details on each single crime incident—as well as on separate offenses within the same incident—including information on victims, known offenders, relationships between victims and offenders, arrestees, and property involved in crimes.

Unlike data reported through the UCR Program’s traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS)—an aggregate monthly tally of crimes—NIBRS goes much deeper because of its ability to provide circumstances and context for crimes like location, time of day, and whether the incident was cleared.