The Warehouse Where No Crime Is Forgotten
Summary
“Analytics recently identified a neighborhood as having a spike in thefts from vehicles,” says John Warden, Manager, Business Performance Section, Edmonton Police Service. No one was arrested or identified as a suspect, but there were no further thefts from vehicles in the area for three weeks.” Data-driven crime prevention began with the introduction of CompStat (computer statistics) by the NYPD in 1993. Credited with decreasing felony rates in New York city, the program is successfully being used across many agencies in the U.S. to address spikes in crime. The CIW [PDF] adds the critical element of speed, mining data in real time to provide a holistic view. For instance, a detective looking for a person at a location could be sent data on any other people living there, their connection to the suspect, criminal history if any and previous callouts to that address.