Predictive policing management: a brief history of patrol automation

Predictive policing has attracted considerably scholarly attention. Extending the promise of being able to interdict crime prior to its commission, it seemingly promised forms of anticipatory policing that had previously existed only in the realms of science fiction. The aesthetic futurism that attended predictive policing did, however, obscure the important historical vectors from which it emerged. The adulation of technology as a tool for achieving efficiencies in policing was evident from the 1920s in the United States, reaching sustained momentum in the 1960s as the methods of Systems Analysis were applied to policing. Underpinning these efforts resided an imaginary of automated patrol facilitated by computerised command and control systems. The desire to automate police work has extended into the present, and is evident in an emergent platform policing – cloud-based technological architectures that increasingly enfold police work. Policing is consequently datafied, commodified and integrated into the circuits of contemporary digital capitalism

Police Innovation: Enhancing Research and Analysis Capacity through Smart Policing

abstract: There has been a tremendous amount of innovation in policing over the last 40 years, from community and problem-oriented policing to hot spots and intelligence-led policing. Many of these innovations have been subjected to empirical testing, with mixed results on effectiveness. The latest innovation in policing is the Bureau of Justice Assistance's Smart Policing Initiative (2009). Created in 2009, the SPI provides funding to law enforcement agencies to develop and test evidence-based practices to address crime and disorder. Researchers have not yet tested the impact of the SPI on the funded agencies, particularly with regard to core principles of the Initiative. The most notable of these is the collaboration between law enforcement agencies and their research partners. The current study surveyed SPI agencies and their research partners on key aspects of their Initiative. The current study uses mean score comparisons and qualitative responses to evaluate this partnership to determine the extent of its value and effect. It also seeks to determine the areas of police agency crime analysis and research units that are most in need of enhancement. Findings indicate that the research partners are actively involved in a range of aspects involved in problem solving under the Smart Policing Initiative, and that they have positively influenced police agencies' research and crime analysis functions, and to a lesser extent, have positively impacted police agencies' tactical operations. Additionally, personnel, technology, and training were found to be the main areas of the crime analysis and research units that still need to be enhanced. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for police policy and practice.Dissertation/ThesisM.S. Criminology and Criminal Justice 201

A Proposed Bi-layer Crime Prevention Framework Using Big Data Analytics

The future of science and technology sounds very promising. The need to adopt new technologies while navigating towards industry 4.0 has changed the perceptions of law enforcement agency to contend against criminal minds. It is sad but true that the conventional crime prevention system followed by government agencies is not effective for long-term implications. With advanced technologies that constantly generate and exchange data, big data analytics can be applied to predict and prevent crime from happening. However, dealing with the overwhelming amount of complex and heterogeneous crime-related data is never an easy task. Additionally, there are many data analytical techniques and each of them has its own strengths and weaknesses. In order to identify the most efficient techniques, recent literature is reviewed to spotlight the trend as well as to shed light on the research gaps and challenges in various areas. The areas include crime data collection and preprocessing, crime data analysis, crime prediction and crime prevention. These techniques are further analyzed by considering the advantages and disadvantages which then provides insight to propose a bi-layer crime prevention framework. The first layer intends to support the law enforcement agency’s daily operation while the second layer serves as a countermeasure for first layer. Both layers aim to reduce the crime rate by involving law enforcement agency through the utilization of various big data sources and techniques effectively. The proposed crime prevention framework will progressively collect data to deter criminal behavior for city’s environmental design. Ultimately, a safe and secure city is molded in the near future

Shared-Use Bus Priority Lanes On City Streets: Case Studies in Design and Management, MTI Report 11-10

This report examines the policies and strategies governing the design and, especially, operations of bus lanes in major congested urban centers. It focuses on bus lanes that operate in mixed traffic conditions; the study does not examine practices concerning bus priority lanes on urban highways or freeways. Four key questions addressed in the paper are: How do the many public agencies within any city region that share authority over different aspects of the bus lanes coordinate their work in designing, operating, and enforcing the lanes? What is the physical design of the lanes? What is the scope of the priority use granted to buses? When is bus priority in effect, and what other users may share the lanes during these times? How are the lanes enforced? To answer these questions, the study developed detailed cases on the bus lane development and management strategies in seven cities that currently have shared-use bus priority lanes: Los Angeles, London, New York City, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, and Sydney. Through the case studies, the paper examines the range of practices in use, thus providing planners and decision makers with an awareness of the wide variety of design and operational options available to them. In addition, the report highlights innovative practices that contribute to bus lanes’ success, where the research findings make this possible, such as mechanisms for integrating or jointly managing bus lane planning and operations across agencies

An Exploratory Study of Patient Falls

Debate continues between the contribution of education level and clinical expertise in the nursing practice environment. Research suggests a link between Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing (BSN) nurses and positive patient outcomes such as lower mortality, decreased falls, and fewer medication errors. Purpose: To examine if there a negative correlation between patient falls and the level of nurse education at an urban hospital located in Midwest Illinois during the years 2010-2014? Methods: A retrospective crosssectional cohort analysis was conducted using data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) from the years 2010-2014. Sample: Inpatients aged ≥ 18 years who experienced a unintentional sudden descent, with or without injury that resulted in the patient striking the floor or object and occurred on inpatient nursing units. Results: The regression model was constructed with annual patient falls as the dependent variable and formal education and a log transformed variable for percentage of certified nurses as the independent variables. The model overall is a good fit, F (2,22) = 9.014, p = .001, adj. R2 = .40. Conclusion: Annual patient falls will decrease by increasing the number of nurses with baccalaureate degrees and/or certifications from a professional nursing board-governing body

AI for Social Impact: Learning and Planning in the Data-to-Deployment Pipeline

With the maturing of AI and multiagent systems research, we have a tremendous opportunity to direct these advances towards addressing complex societal problems. In pursuit of this goal of AI for Social Impact, we as AI researchers must go beyond improvements in computational methodology; it is important to step out in the field to demonstrate social impact. To this end, we focus on the problems of public safety and security, wildlife conservation, and public health in low-resource communities, and present research advances in multiagent systems to address one key cross-cutting challenge: how to effectively deploy our limited intervention resources in these problem domains. We present case studies from our deployments around the world as well as lessons learned that we hope are of use to researchers who are interested in AI for Social Impact. In pushing this research agenda, we believe AI can indeed play an important role in fighting social injustice and improving society.Comment: To appear, AI Magazin

The Kansas City Foot Patrol project : An evaluation of the effectiveness of foot patrol in violent crime micro-places

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on July 15, 2014Thesis advisor: Kenneth J. NovakVitaIncludes bibliographical references (pages 82-87)The Kansas City Foot Patrol Project is a replication of the Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment (Ratcliffe et al. (2011). The current study was conducted in Kansas City, Missouri and evaluated the effectiveness of foot patrol in violent crime micro-places. Specifically the goal of foot patrol was to reduce incidents of aggravated assaults and robberies in the micro-places. For a period of 90 days 8 pairs of rookie officers patrolled on foot in violent crime micro-places. The foot patrols operated Tuesday thru Saturday from August 1, 2011 to October 31, 2011. The number of reported aggravated assaults and robberies in four target areas were compared pretreatment, during treatment, and post treatment for within group variance. Repeated measures t-tests were conducted to determine the statistical significance of any observed differences in reported incidents. The current study found a significant reduction of targeted offenses in the target areas during treatment. During the first 6 weeks of treatment an especially significant reduction of reported aggravated assaults and robberies occurred. Then as treatment continued the reported incidents returned to pretreatment levels even while treatment continued. Policy implications and areas for future research are discussed.Abstract -- List of illustrations -- List of tables -- Acknowledgements - Introduction -- Literature review -- Methodology -- Results -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Reference lis

RITThe Contributions of Traffic Management Centers in life Enhancement

This study focuses on investigating the contributions of traffic management centers to enhancing people’s driving experiences and impacting their level of satisfaction and happiness. Data was collected in the United Arab Emirates through two distinct surveys; the first aimed at drivers (number of respondents: 155), and the second aimed at traffic management center operators (number of respondents: 15). The drivers survey aimed to collect data about drivers’ pain points experienced while driving in the United Arab Emirates and showed that slow drivers on fast lanes and sudden lane changing are the biggest challenges reported. On the operators’ side, the data collected showed that operators reported observing these challenges from their side as well. Operators also notably reported the need for advanced technology to help better manage and respond to real time traffic situations remotely from traffic management centers. Both surveys conducted showed a need and potential for the contributions of traffic management centers in enhancing and upgrading the quality of life for citizens through the application of technological solutions and the development of supporting legislation. Supplementary data from similar surveys was also used to validate, expand the knowledge and provide a holistic view of the topic. The study indicated that traffic management centers can impact the happiness and satisfaction of citizens by enhancing their driving experience, given that they are designed and equipped in a way that suits the city and society trends and cultures. Recommendations for implementation of such design choices were given along five pillars considering administration (based on best practice and Benchmarking), technology (results of local and international TMC surveys), media and communication (international survey and the expansion of technology and social media), operations and legislation (Based on results of the driver’s survey, that shows some gaps in the legislations which can be enhanced)

Crime at Convenience Stores: Assessing an In-Depth Problem-Oriented Policing Initiative

abstract: Problem-oriented policing (POP) dynamically addresses unique community issues in a way that allows police departments to be cost-effective and efficient. POP draws upon routine activities and rational choice theories, at times incorporating elements of crime prevention through environmental design. A recent systematic review found POP to be hugely popular, but not rigorously assessed or implemented. In 2009, the Glendale, Arizona Police Department and researchers from Arizona State University received funding through the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA) Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) to target crime at convenience stores through a problem-oriented policing approach. The Glendale SPI team devised an approach that mirrored the ideals put forth by Goldstein (1990), and provided a thorough undertaking of the SARA model. A comprehensive response plan was developed with several proposed responses, including: intervention with Circle K leadership, suppression, and prevention at the six highest-activity stores. Despite a thorough POP implementation, the initial descriptive evaluation of the Glendale SPI reported positive effects on crime, but left questions about the intervention’s long-term impact on convenience store crime in Glendale, Arizona. The policy and theoretical influence of the initiative warrants a more rigorous evaluation. Supplanting the original assessment, a difference in difference model, negative binomial regression, and relative effect size are calculated to ascertain the SPI’s long-term effects on target and comparison stores. Phi and weighted displacement quotient are calculated to determine the existence of displacement of crime or diffusion of benefits. Overall, results indicate support for the project’s effectiveness on crime reduction. Further, none of the six intervention stores experienced crime displacement. Five of the six stores, however, experienced a diffusion of benefits in the surrounding 500-yard area; that is, a crime reduction was observed at the intervention stores and in the surrounding areas of five of these stores. Disorder and property crimes at the targeted stores were most affected by the intervention. One of the intervention stores did experience an increase in violent crime, however. Future studies should strengthen the methodological design when evaluating POP projects and seek to flesh out more precisely the crime control effects of unique problem-oriented strategies.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Criminology and Criminal Justice 201