US-style crime mapping helps catch UK thugs
POLICE are trying to stay one step ahead of villains by using a computer program to predict where they will strike next.
It sounds like an episode of hit Channel 5 series Numb3rs in which FBI agent Don Eppes recruits his mathematical genius brother Char lie to help him catch crooks. However, the Predictive Policing method is real and having great success in America.
Los Angeles police say it has cut crime rates by 25 per cent while their colleagues along the coast in Santa Cruz say their figures are down 19 per cent.
Last week Kent police officers began a pilot study, using a com puter to draw up maps of those areas in which crimes are most likely to be committed.
we have to deploy our resources in a more effective way
Predictions are made using a complex algorithm to process crime details such as the time, place and method. The software is similar to that which predicts after shocks following earthquakes.
Kent police are using the method in secretly selected areas. Detec tive Chief Superintendent John Sutton said: "We are looking at all types of crime and antisocial behaviour. Two staff went to Los Angeles to learn about it and we have rolled it out in the north of the county for three months and after that it will be used countywide for 12 months."
Zach Friend, a crime analyst with the Santa Cruz Police Department, said: "We have 30 per cent more calls for service but 20 per cent less staff than in 2000. So we have to deploy our resources in a more effective way. "
Los Angeles police say the pro gram has saved over £3million. Captain Sean Malinowski said: "We've prevented hundreds of homes being robbed."
LA police chief Charlie Beck said: "I'm not going to get more money. I'm not going to get more cops. I have to be better at using what I have, and that's what predictive policing is about.
"If this old street cop can change the way he thinks about this stuff then I know my officers can do the same."