LAPD tries to predict crimes before they occur

The future of crime fighting begins with a story about strawberry Pop-Tarts, bad weather and Wal-Mart.

With a hurricane bearing down on the Florida coast several years ago, the retail giant sent supply trucks into the storm to stock shelves with the frosted pink pastries. The decision to do so had not been made on a whim or a hunch, but by a powerful computer that crunched reams of sales data and found an unusual but undeniable fact: When Mother Nature gets angry, people want to eat a lot more strawberry Pop-Tarts.

Officials in the Los Angeles Police Department are using the anecdote to explain a similar, but far more complicated, idea that they and researchers say could revolutionize law enforcement.

"As police departments have gotten better at pushing down crime, we are looking now for the thing that will take us to the next level," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said. "I firmly believe predictive policing is it."

Predictive policing is rooted in the notion that it is possible, through sophisticated computer analysis of information about previous crimes, to predict where and when crimes will occur. At universities and technology companies in the U.S. and abroad, scientists are working to develop computer programs that, in the most optimistic scenarios, could enable police to anticipate, and possibly prevent, many types of crime. Read the full story here.

-- Joel Rubin

Photo: Lt. Sean Malinowski oversees the Los Angeles Police Department's crime analysis unit. He has spent years immersing himself in the world of predictive technology and has advised U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder on the subject. Credit Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Cmon Son!]

Precrime?

[Jumpy Snark]

The effort will be lead by three bald-headed mute empaths. Strangely, they will fail to predict a continuation of LA's rampant police brutality.

Face down on the freeway, suburbanites! Now!!

[ColeslawPatriot]

Predicting crime is easy. Give a few incarcerated felons a knife and leave them alone. A crime will occur in seconds.

Or we could keep all criminals locked up for the full duration of their sentences and there will be a dramatic reduction in the need to predict crime.

[angela depountis]

When the ARIZONA LAW IT WILL APPLY TO CALIFORNIA ALSO....TO clean the streets of criminals and hispanic gangs....?
Most of them 80% illegal,they come to this country criminals and they continue them job to USA......

[Acetheamazingcat]

Philip K Dick would be rolling over in his grave (not to mention all the "security" cameras)...

[patrick]

I predict I'll be buying Pop-Tarts today.

[kuruc]

hire some gypsy fortune tellers, they will predict AND commit the crimes!

[All Hallows Eve]

Interesting

[Pizzedoff]

"...Predictive policing is rooted in the notion that it is possible ... to predict where and when crimes will occur.
Oh REALLY! And just what's so cutting edge about this Nazi load of BS?
Sorry boys, Spielberg got way ahead of you on this [junk] 'science'... it's called MINORITY REPORT, HELLO! 2002 flick starring Tom Cruise.
I recommend you cops think very cautiously on your little Big Bro plan or you might run afoul of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America).
This smells like a clear trespass on intellectual property rights and I'm betting you cops will wind up paying royalties to Spielberg and Phillip Dick’s estate for every pre-emptive arrest you make?
Anyway, good luck with your endeavor... or is the same said in German as "Sieg Heil"(Hail victory)?

[taz1rcr]

Nice... Does this Minority Report allow for a distinction in blue vs. white collar crimes...... or wait... is it collar blind?

[3825You]

Taxpayers can get some carnival workers
that "predict" for a whole lot less than this
bell like bunch...just another voodoo racket
to take more tax funds...
better yet...had they hired miss cleo that got
into trouble with her "predictions" this public
la department would have made more sense...
no betting or wagers on these "predictions"...
the payoff would be in the mult-millions for the
wrongful mis-use of authority...you bet !

[Jack]

Don't they already know where the high crime areas are? LA's finest using our tax dollars in the most intelligent ways....

[Charley]

Minority Report

[Sandi B]

So how much is this going to cost L.A.'s tax payers? They couldn't just concentrate all their efforts in high crime areas and step up patrols? They know where most crimes are committed; where there are high concentrations of gangs; where the neighborhoods are that gangs rule, the residents are self-jailed behind barred windows and doors, and where even the cops fear to tread.

Instead of wasting our money on sophisicated computer programs we'd be better served if got out a Ouiji board.

[Ashton]

Justin gaston