Law Enforcement Benefits From Analytics

By Tracey E. Schelmetic, Editorial Director, Customer Interaction Solutions

Here's proof that sometimes a technology invented for one purpose turns out to be at least as useful for another, perhaps initially unimagined, purpose. Crime-fighting organizations at all levels -- local, state and federal -- have begun to benefit from analytics software initially created for consumer/customer service organizations.

Today, SPSS Inc., a provider of predictive analytics software, announced that the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, has implemented additional SPSS predictive analytics software to analyze and produce reports on crime and justice-related data.

BJS's job is to collect, analyze, publish, and generally disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. These data, when used properly, can help law enforcment better work to combat crime and make sure that justice is both efficient and fair.

The BJS's 32 statisticians use SPSS predictive analytics software to create reports on an extensive set of criminal and justice data.  Recent SPSS-generated reports have addressed such areas as crime and victims, correctional populations, forensic crime labs, law enforcement agencies and civil justice caseloads.

The cities of Atlanta and Richmond, Virginia are using SPSS technologies to identify patterns in crime data -- such as incident reports, crime tips and calls for police assistance --to make effective officer-deployment decisions.

How many crime shows have we all seen in which the mystery is finally solved by a sharp underling who spots the "pattern" in the crime history only by accident while looking over the case history? Analytics software, such as that offered by SPSS, takes the randomness out of processing the data. (Though it wouldn't make nearly as good a cop show as the aforementioned smart rookie.)

More information can be found at www.ssps.com

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