Police departments across the country are modernizing technology to make processes more efficient, reduce manual errors, and increase transparency. While crime is down nationally, it can be different at the state or county level. Between burglaries, robberies, grand larcenies, assault, and property crime, there is a lot of data to sift through. Using data and analytics, law enforcement leaders can get a better grasp of what is happening inside their communities and make data-informed decisions, better allocate resources, and reduce manual processes and errors. Here are four ways data and analytics are enabling police departments to add more precision to policing.
Using Predictive Analytics for Resource Allocation
Tools like Alteryx provide automated and predictive analytics capabilities, reducing the time it takes to run reports while also mitigating manual errors. By reducing the time required by investigators and analysts to compile data and prep it and blend it, investigators are able to spend more time reviewing where resources are being underutilized or over-utilized and implement actions that reduce response time, improve officer safety, and enhance public safety.
Visualizing Law Enforcement Data with the Community
The ability to share crime and arrest data with the community gives residents a better understanding of what is going on around them. Data visualizations can reveal crime patterns and hot spots and provide residents with transparency into how their tax dollars are being used. Law enforcement data visualizations help residents make decisions for their families, and helps leaders within law enforcement to make data-informed decisions that support more effective strategies for crime prevention.
Data-Sharing for More Comprehensive Views of Crime
Law enforcement agencies have access to many data sources from dashboard camera footage to digital forensic files and electronic records. With the right standardization and data sharing, law enforcement agencies can improve community outcomes and build trust with the communities they serve. For example, data sharing across multiple agencies can improve coordination and collaboration in addressing crimes and issues that span different jurisdictions. Breaking down silos can help officials develop strategies to apprehend serial criminals who commit crimes in multiple places.
Warrant Data Matching and Management
Managing warrant data using advanced analytics is critical for technology-forward thinking police departments. Outstanding warrants are a safety issue for residents and a major challenge for police department officers and staff tasked with managing warrant data. Warrants can often have inaccurate addresses, misspelled names, or are for people already incarcerated. A data lake solution can help operationalize ingestion of external datasets for warrant data matching and clean up, helping to automate warrant data processes and make the entire process more efficient for police departments.
Whether it is understanding patterns, allocating resources effectively, anticipating future events, or improving transparency, data-driven strategies and modernizing data and analytics can enhance the connection between law enforcement agencies and the communities they are working to protect. Connect with Avaap to learn how your law enforcement agency peers are using data to solve community problems and amplify the impact of its police department’s efforts.