Success in predicting crime
This year marks half a decade since predictive policing was launched in our county in a bid to pre-empt crimes using algorithms produced by revolutionary technology.
Predictive Policing is a computer programme that analyses data and calculates where crime is most likely to take place, and is used on a daily basis to help reduce the number of offences committed in an area.
It is reminiscent of the plot of 2002 Hollywood blockbuster Minority Report, set in the year 2054, where Washington DC’s PreCrime police stop murderers before they carry out their killings.
But in reality the computeraided programme was introduced to Kent Police in December 2012 and resulted in a 6% reduction in street violence during a four-month trial in the north Kent division.
The programme was rolled out countywide in April 2013 and is still used today.
One incident that convinced officers was in Medway, when the sergeant asked his PCs to print off a map when they went out on patrol and, when they had a quiet moment, to drive to the red location box nearest to them, even if their local knowledge told them it wasn’t one of the usual crime hotspots.
That night, in an area they would not normally visit, they found a mother and her child in the street who had both jbefore been sexually assaulted. The suspect was arrested nearby later that night.