Predictive Policing in Santa Cruz: How it Works

PredPol’s secure, cloud-based software applies well-understood criminal behaviors, advanced mathematics, and computer learning to generate predictions about which places and windows of time are at highest risk for future crimes including property crimes, gang activity, gun violence, and traffic accidents.

Only three pieces of data are used to make predictions – type of crime, place of crime, and time of crime. No personal data is utilized in making these predictions, and the predictions are updated as often as a law enforcement agency updates its own crime database.

PredPol is hiring! Click here to see current openings on our career page.

Predictions are for small areas – 500 feet by 500 feet boxes on maps – that are automatically generated for each shift of each day. Typically, patrol officers spend a few minutes in these PredPol boxes to create a deterrent effect when they’re not responding to calls for service or performing other duties. Some of these boxes will be places that officers already routinely cover, but many others will be places that might not otherwise receive attention.

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PredPol at the Santa Cruz New Tech Meetup

PredPol will be presenting at the Santa Cruz New Tech Meetup Wednesday, November 5th at 6PM at the Cruzio & Ecology Action Building.

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What Our Partner Agencies Say About PredPol:

“Our goal today is not to arrest a lot of people, it’s to prevent the crime from happening. I’m exceptionally proud that we were the first ones to do this.”- Santa Cruz Police Department, Chief Kevin Vogel, Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 2013

“It has made our officers more visible within the residential areas than they have been in the past…Crime prevention is what we’re looking to out of this. I don’t think we’ll see a rise in arrests.” – Alhambra Police Department, Chief Mark Yokoyama, LA Daily News, May 2013

“We found that the model was just incredibly accurate at predicting the times and locations where these crimes were likely to occur…at that point, we realized we’ve got something here.” – Santa Cruz Police Department, Deputy Chief Steve Clark, American Aljazeera

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Predictive Policing Technology

PredPol is an innovative and proven predictive policing tool that helps law enforcement predict and prevent crime. With first-of-its-kind predictive, emerging technology in law enforcement, it produces significant crime reduction for departments using it after only a few months, the predictions provide tremendous economic benefits and – most importantly – mean fewer victims.

PredPol’s new law enforcement technologies advance law enforcement & enables departments to enhance and better direct the patrol resources they have. It does not replace, but requires, the insights of veteran officers and crime analysts. While crime reduction statistics differ from community to community, a jurisdiction that experiences a 20% crime reduction translates to 20% less time filling out reports and 20% less time in court, freeing officers up to spend more time policing on the beat and engaging in their communities.

PredPol is hiring! Click here to see current openings on our career page.

Analysts and command staff using PredPol are 100% more effective using new technologies in law enforcement than they are with traditional hotspot mapping at predicting where and when crimes are likely to occur. That means police have twice as many opportunities to deter and reduce crime.