A Brief Note On Predictive Policing

Submitted By ebonyvee
Words: 566
Pages: 3

Ebony Vasquez May 7, 2014

Predictive Policing

For many years police have worked in a way where when a crime was committed they would catch the bad guy after the crime. The days we live in today police have improved a science created by a research team of mathematicians and social scientist called predictive policing. “Stopping crime before it happens”

Predictive policing is a program that is based off of technology that is used from the same math equation used to predict earthquakes and aftershocks. It is a designed computer model to simulate criminal behavior patterns. This program will generally cost the same of a crime analyst or even less. Given that cops today are expected to do less with more, technology is the only option to rely on based on budget cuts in all agencies through out the county.

The way the computer model PredPol works is, it will calculate the next 12 hours in the future what areas have the highest probability of a crime occurring. The software is predicting crime from the past that can go all the way back up to the previous 11 years. It is saving data of all past crimes on this PredPol system that one may be difficult saving manually the computer model will handle all inputted information. It also benefits new officers showing the history of their daily routines that they may be unaware of. On daily bases police officers are given maps via copy, smart phones, or tablets showing areas of predictive crime activity. The map will include a red highlights box that will indicate the “hotspot” in the area measure 500ft x 500ft that will require extra daily patrol. Since the officers are now aware of where to believe crime will occur patrolling the area will either disrupt crime in action or from occurring by denying the criminal the opportunity to commit a crime. Both outcomes are beneficial and will continue to benefit our cities. Why is crime predictable? It may seem unbelievable to believe crime is predictable in the first place. It has been proven that criminals tend to operate in their