With more than 400 police officers evaluating crime patterns, Charleston, South Carolina, is no stranger to complex data analysis. The addition of new software will help the city's police harness the geospatial intelligence they have at their fingertips to predict where crime is going to happen next, according to Reuters.
Large cities such as New York, Las Vegas and Memphis, among others, already employ predictive data analysis software to combat crime. Memphis attributed a 31 percent drop in crime from 2006 to 2010 to its program, according to InformationWeek. Reuters reports that Richmond, Virginia began using data mining technology in 2005, and has since dropped from the fifth most dangerous city the the 99th.
The system works by gathering data on the type of offense, time and even weather conditions to locate hot spots in the city where crime is most likely to occur. InformationWeek reports that Memphis' program also employed the use of two million citizen calls to further improve predictive locating of crimes, as not all incidents will be logged in a police report.
The system has helped with all types of street crime in Memphis and other cities, but police in Charleston will first target robberies under the improved program.
