This document discusses how a smarter systems approach using data analytics can help reduce crime and costs for criminal justice agencies. It defines smarter systems and criminal justice agencies. It then outlines how crime negatively impacts communities economically and quality of life. The document proposes innovations like using social media to alert communities, video analytics to disrupt crime, and risk assessment tools to reduce recidivism. It argues these solutions can integrate existing technologies to improve processes, reduce costs, and help communities in a sustainable way without requiring additional personnel.

1. © 2011 IBM Corporation
Smarter Approach to Crime Reduction
Helping customers successfully apply IBM’s Smarter Cities principles

2. Smarter Approach to Crime Reduction
Definitions for the purpose of this discussion
 Smarter System – a system that collects data from a variety of sources (sensor,
video, voice, image, other systems), analyzes it, and, based on results, automatically
responds with an action based on pre-determined instructions or parameters.
 Criminal Justice Agencies – Not only the police, but the prosecutor, the courts
probation, corrections and parole – any agency responsible for the supervision of an
offender

3. Smarter Approach to Crime Reduction
Problem Statement: Crime has a significant negative economic
impact on communities
 Evidence for the United States shows that a 1 per cent increase in a state’s relative crime
rate depresses the state's share of inward Foreign Direct Investment by 1 per cent.
 Almost universally, places with lower crime rates are perceived as having higher quality
of life
 This impacts migration decisions, for both people and businesses, who gravitate to areas
with higher quality of live.
 Public safety also affects the attractiveness of a location for visitors as the perceived
threat of crime is taken as a signal for the lack of safety and would-be visitors can choose
to vacation elsewhere.
 Pension commitments account for up to half of public safety expenses and are rising.
Current business models and staffing levels are often not sustainable.
 The potential exists to improve operational effectiveness and to reduce costs using better
data, collected, analyzed and applied using proven technologies that are integrated and
combined to build smarter solutions

4. Smarter Approach to Crime Reduction
Innovations in crime prevention
 Use the web to alert communities to potential threats and provide instructions for
protecting themselves and their property - tailor delivery and audience based on records
data (homeowners, vehicle registration, etc.)
 Reduce larcenies in tourist areas by sending instructions and images via twitter or text on
how to secure valuables
 Video analytics to disrupt crime before it escalates or to help with a rapid apprehension
– Flash mob
– Larceny from automobile
– Combined with gunshot location coordinates, put images of scene on dispatcher’s
screen

5. Smarter Approach to Crime Reduction
Using Data Analytics to Put the Right Resources in the Right
Place with the Right Information
 Information overload is white noise and gets ignored – BOLO overload
– Use analytics to identify high probability areas for crimes to occur and the best
potential suspects, including their release status
– Queue up location information based on address regarding road work en route,
residents, weapons in home
 Next Generation 9-1-1
– Incorporating digital content into calls for service operations is a game changer
– Volumes of incoming messages could increase exponentially
– Use analytics to evaluate, categorize and organize it for presentation to dispatcher
or call taker (whose roles will need to adapt) and to acknowledge receipt to the
sender. Then store it for retention according to policy

6. Smarter Approach to Crime Reduction
Reducing Recidivism to Reduce Crime
 Repeat Offenders (Recidivists) account for a huge percentage of crime – less than 10%
of a community population can be responsible for 70% of its crime
 Supervised release costs less than 5% of incarceration. Caseloads are increasing and
increasing staff may not be affordable.
 Use risk assessment tools (analytics) that evaluate the offender for supervised release
and to recommend appropriate conditions of release
 Use GPS, video conferencing and sensors (proximity or substance) to generate alerts
and to make contact when potential violations of conditions of release or threats to the
community are detected
– GPS monitors both negative and positive behaviors (i.e., offender did not go to work
or to a required program; the offender did go to work and complied with curfew
– Alerts can be generated automatically based on behaviors, sending text or voice
messages to alert supervising officers, police and potential target or victims
(restraining order, proximity to a school or playground) of the offender’s whereabouts

7. Smarter Approach to Crime Reduction
Smarter solutions can reduce crime and operational costs
 All of these technologies exist today and can be integrated into the systems we
have described
 All of these potential solutions use data and proven technologies to improve
process performance and to reduce costs
 They do not require additional personnel and can help Communities reduce crime
using sustainable and affordable resources.