Advisory: LAPD Pacific Division is using Predictive Policing to help keep your community safe. What is it and how can you participate?
LAPD Pacific Division has adopted the use of an experimental technology called Predictive Policing to thwart would be criminals and burglars. What is Predictive Policing?
Predictive Policing uses a mathematical logarithm combined with past crime reports to generate boxes on a map which, predict where officers should deploy to best deter crime. The goal of Predictive Policing is not to boost the number of arrests in an area, it is to deter criminals from committing crimes in the first place.
How does it work? Each day officers receive a new map with Predictive Policing boxes, and during the course of their shift officers will patrol the box areas in between responding to calls for service. The idea is that the more time spent in the box areas the more crime will be deterred.
LAPD Pacific Division wants to enhance the results of Predictive Policing to drive crime as low as possible. In an effort to do this we are deploying as many resources as possible to the box areas. To further increase the effectiveness of Predictive Policing we are asking the public to spend any free time that you may have in these areas too. You can simply walk with a neighbor, exercise, or walk your dog in these areas and your presence alone can assist in deterring would be criminals from committing crime in your neighborhood. Each day we will release via social media the closest cross streets for the boxes in your neighborhood. The boxes will change each day, so check back in to see where you can help deter crime.
In other parts of Los Angeles Predictive Policing has been effective, and has reduced crimes such as theft and burglary in those communities. Predictive Policing is one more tool that we will use to help combat crime in Pacific Division, but it will not replace the many other techniques that we currently employ. Please join us in helping to protect your neighborhood. To see what you can do, please visit us on social media.
