Washington Post Highlights PredPol in Predictive Analytics Story

The Washington Post highlighted PredPol’s partnership with the Santa Cruz Police Department in a feature story today on predictive analytics.The story talks about the usage of predictive analytics in law enforcement and the successes throughout the greater Washington, DC region.

Here is an excerpt from the story:

“… PredPol was started by California researchers who helped a police department in Santa Cruz predict crime to guide the department’s dwindling resources.

“In the last decade, we had a 30 percent increase in calls for service and a 20 percent decline in staff,” said Zach Friend, the department’s crime analyst at the time, who is now a member of the county’s board of supervisors. “We knew we weren’t going to get more cops on the street.”

At the beginning of beat officers’ shifts, they now are given a map detailing which crimes might occur — burglaries, car break-ins, thefts — within an identified zone.

In the first six months of the program, burglaries declined 19 percent.”

Click here for the complete story.