Page 24 - 1Proactive Policing

Pro-Active Policing

p. 1-20) Saturation patrols have also been found to promote other safe driving behavior, such as
seat belt usage (Hedlund, Gilbert, et al., 2008).

Predictive Policing:

Predictive policing refers to the usage of mathematical, predictive and analytical techniques in law

enforcement to identify potential criminal activity. Predictive policing methods fall into four general
categories: methods for predicting crimes, methods for predicting offenders, methods for
predicting perpetrators' identities, and methods for predicting victims of crime.

Riding high in their squad car, officers Jamie Pascucci and Joe Kania are cruising the

neighborhood of Homewood, scanning the streets for trouble. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has one
of the highest murder rates among large U.S. cities, and violent crime is particularly severe in
Homewood, a 98% black pocket of aging, pock-marked Victorians on the east side. Young, white

officers from outside the neighborhood, Pascucci and Kania patrol using a mixture of police radio,
calls to their department's communications center, and instinct. They get occasional help from
Shot Spotter, a network of sensors that detects gunshots and relays the information to a laptop

mounted between the front seats.

In an age of anxiety, the words sound so reassuring: predictive policing. The first half promises an

awareness of events that have not yet occurred. The second half clarifies that the future in
question will be one of safety and security. Together, they perfectly match the current obsession

with big data and the mathematical prediction of human actions. They also address the current
obsession with crime in the Western world – especially in the United States, where this year‘s
presidential campaign has whipsawed between calls for law and order and cries that black lives

matter. A system that effectively anticipated future crime could allow an elusive reconciliation,
protecting the innocents while making sure that only the truly guilty are targeted.

Predictive policing, with roots in business analytics, relies on using advanced technological tools
and data analysis to take proactive measures to ―pre-empt‖ crime.

Predictive policing has been closely identified with the Los Angeles Police Department, who‘s
Chief of Detectives Charlie Beck defines it in these terms:

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