Student profile: Marjolijn Bruggeling, Evening Master’s Program Class of 2021

Can police organizations do a better job of problem solving by using data more appropriately? Marjolijn Bruggeling, Evening Master’s Program Class of 2021, believes they can. “Understandably, the role of data in policing has been hotly contested—using data alone is problematic,” she said. “But when combined with community input, data can help police officers make better decisions in the field.”

Bruggeling, who is Associate Director of Policing Innovation and Reform at the University of Chicago Crime Lab, started her career as a police officer in 2007 in The Netherlands. During her ten years as an officer, she served with the country’s “peace unit,” where she learned how to defuse tense situations through conversation and honest dialogue with protestors. She also worked patrol and crime analysis assignments as an officer, a sergeant, and eventually lieutenant. Based on her experience she thought that there may be a way to prevent or disrupt crime through the use of data and forecasting.

 “The police are normally very reactive. And I wanted to create something that would allow us to anticipate what was coming in order to prevent it,” Bruggeling said.

She ended up being a subject matter expert for the Dutch police on the use of data in policing and started working with data scientists in the police department. “You get a team of people. You pair someone from the community—or a community group—that knows the streets and an experienced police officer with an analyst who can use data to anticipate crime,” she said. “For example, we know there are observable patterns in the data that can help us anticipate crime, and we know community members often have good information about victims and perpetrators of crime. So instead of waiting for the crime to occur, we could use all of the levers of government and social services to intervene before the crime happens.” 

As a result of her work for the Dutch police, Bruggeling would meet and work with police forces around the world. The United States Department of Justice noticed her work and reached out to her in 2016 to do an assessment of the Chicago Police Department (CPD). After relocating from Amsterdam to Chicago, Bruggeling embedded in CPD to see what reforms needed to be made. “While there was a lot of knowledge in the department, they were not using a lot of data-analysis to solve crime problems.

“The plan was to do the assessment and then return to our day jobs, but the city asked us to implement some of our ideas. And that is when we reached out to the University of Chicago Crime Lab," she said. “They were already working with CPD on different projects, and we wanted to work together to implement possible solutions based on research. Once the assessment was complete, I was fortunate enough to join Roseanna Ander and Jens Ludwig at the Crime Lab to work on long-term policy and process improvements."

Bruggeling said the UChicago Crime Lab is special because they test ideas and then work with city agencies and nonprofits to scale ideas that work. “The Lab doesn’t just work with police departments; they work with various stakeholders that are trying to reduce crime and mitigate the harms of the criminal justice system.”  

And although many people seek a graduate degree to pivot their career, Bruggeling says she is exactly in the field she wants to be in. “While I am grateful for the experience I gained as a police officer, being able to work with the University of Chicago Crime Lab on real-life problems here, is where I want to focus on long term. Chicago is a beautiful city and has been good to me.”

As to why she chose the Harris Evening Master’s Program, she said, “I wanted to learn data analytics and statistical modeling from the best, and people I work with, some of whom had been through the Harris program, spoke highly of their experience. I knew Harris would be the place to do it.”