Prodictive Policing Essay

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Predictive Policing Dr. Robert Joseph CIS 500 “You are being watched. The government has a secret system: a machine that spies on you every hour of every day.” This may not be totally true, from what we know, but there is such a “machine”, COMPSTAT (COMPuter STATistics) that can predict where a crime is about to happen, within a 500 by 500 foot radius. Unlike the machine in “Person of Interest”, these types of machines don’t call pay phones to contact its handler nor does it utilize cameras around the world to spy on citizens. What it does do is utilize statistics and analytical data to predict criminal activity before it occurs. The information that it outputs is then used by some police departments across the United States to prevent or interrupt crimes. These methods of policing techniques are referred to as, “Predictive Policing.” Predictive policing refers to any policing strategy or tactic that develops and uses information and advanced analysis to inform forward-thinking crime prevention (Morgan, J 2010). Basically it’s the efforts to systematically anticipate when and where crimes will occur, and to deter the criminals or catch them in the criminal act. What makes predictive policing work is the integration of data analysis with that of law enforcement expertise, in such a way that makes understanding why a problem arises and ways to avoid that problem and other problems in the future (Pearsall, B 2010). Police department’s use of computers and advanced information technology in today’s fight against crime has come a very long way from how policing was executed in the early 1960’s. A century ago, citizens relied on police walking the beat to keep their neighborhoods safe, often flagging down an officer when one was in need of help or running to the police station to report a crime (Friedman, D 2010). As crimes became more advanced and

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