Charleston Police Department Aims To Reduce Crime Using IBM Predictive Analytics

CHARLESTON, S.C., June 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Charleston Police Department (CPD) in South Carolina is working with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to assist the city's more than 400 police officers to more accurately evaluate and forecast crime patterns.  The department is using IBM predictive analytics software to better allocate its resources and identify criminal hot spots to prevent crime and increase public safety.

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Over the past five years, the City of Charleston has worked to continue to reduce crime in an ongoing commitment to create a safer environment for the city's residents and visitors through a variety of initiatives, including implementing a robust crime analysis system, increasing focused patrol strategies using weekly crime meetings to identify "hot spots", and the introduction of new technology to capture and disseminate information quickly to enhance officer situational awareness and productivity.

Today, working with IBM, the CPD is broadening its commitment to create a safer environment for the city's residents and visitors by applying predictive analytics software that analyzes past and present crime records in seconds and evaluates incident and arrest patterns throughout the city.

While the initial focus of the project is to reduce robberies, the CPD plans to broaden the scope to help the department be more effective in "hotspot" policing. By centralizing of all the information the CPD has at its disposal including analyzing past and present criminal data and patterns, the department will have a more holistic view of where crime is trending and allow the department to deploy officers to these areas to prevent crimes before they occur.

For example, burglaries often cluster in terms of time and location; the individuals committing these crimes tend to have predictable patterns, and incidents usually take place near their homes or familiar locations. In addition, property crimes are not displaceable crimes, which means the criminals won't simply move two miles to another location.

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