Fighting crime with analytics technology

Canada’s Edmonton Police Service is relying on business analytics technology to reduce crime, improve force effectiveness and increase public safety.

It has been highlighted that the initiative is paying off. By quickly comparing new information with data from previous years, the police service was able to ascertain that the trend was likely to increase from March to July. Police efforts were ultimately successful in nearly eliminating arsons in that particular area during this period.

The police departments, which are working with IBM, are looking at critical information and based on that they inform police officers so that they can prevent criminal activities.

Significantly, according to IBM, the law enforcement agencies like Edmonton are using analytics technology to act even before a crime may have been committed. The focus is on identifying crime hot spots and reduce crime rates.  In case of Edmonton Police Services, which primarily focuses on preventing and reducing crime by providing public safety services in Western Canada, it chose technology to spot crime trends and link performance goals from the executive to the constables on the street.

Users are able to see data in near real time. They put crime information directly into the hands of front-line patrol officers so they can use it to quickly identify problems, associated trends and locations of crimes to determine their response and problem-solving solutions. The police service has also been able to look at the components of response times -- such as dispatch delays and travel time -- to identify the issues that play a role in overall response time.

In the future, the force hopes to take advantage of mobile devices to directly disseminate relevant information to officers, regardless of location.