Ever wish the crime-prediction technology in the movie Minority Report was real? We’re on our way. One police precinct in Los Angeles tested software that was twice as good as humans at predicting where burglaries and car break-ins might happen. The software, built by a start-up company called PredPol, told the police where they should focus their patrols. Those areas experienced a 25 percent drop in burglaries and break-ins. The program makes its decisions based on previous crime reports and sociological studies and is able to detect patterns over time. It then produces maps for each patrol shift, suggesting where crimes might occur. It may be science or it may be luck, but there’s one thing is for sure: the software reduces the time officers spend on bureaucratic procedures, and helps them spend more time on the street fighting crime. Officers noticed that simply having a vehicle in the vicinity made potential perpetrators far less likely to commit a crime.
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