Thomas MacMillan Photo
Police Chief Frank Limon said he hopes to use new technology to predict crime the way meteorologists predict the weather. To that end, he hired three new assistant chiefs Friday, including a new data guru with multiple degrees and a book on information management.
That tech specialist, Tobin Hensgen (at left in photo), was sworn in as an assistant chief on Friday afternoon at New Haven police headquarters on Union Avenue. Joining him as new assistant chiefs were Thomas Wheeler (right) and Ariel Melendez (center).
Wheeler and Hensgen were recruited from Chicago, where they were colleagues of Chief Limon in the Chicago police department. Melendez has been a New Haven cop since 1979. He is being promoted from the rank of lieutenant.
With the new top cops joining Assistant Chief Stephanie Redding, the department is now fully staffed with four assistant chiefs. They will each earn salaries of $100,350.
Hensgen is in charge of internal affairs, training and education. Wheeler is in charge of detectives, Melendez directs patrol, and Redding covers administration.
Limon said the department needs to make better use of technology, in order to do more with less in difficult financial times. That includes using “predictive analytic models” to gather data and determine where crime is likely to happen, he said. People see this kind of prediction every day when they turn on the TV to watch the weather forecast, Limon said. Data collection is widespread also; for instance, Amazon.com collects information about purchases to sell more products, he said.
“So predictive analytics is a part of a business model we’re going to adapt,” Limon said.
After the ceremony, Limon (center in photo) elaborated on the model. It takes crime analysis a step further, to move from where and when a crime occurred to why it may have happened and who could have done it, he said. That information can be used to find trends and patterns of criminal behavior, to prevent retaliatory shootings, for example. Such a system could also be used to analyze work performance and allocate overtime, Limon said.
Predictive analytics requires data collection and tracking, and a smart use of technology. Hensgen, who Limon said has “a great background in technology,” will be spearheading tech and data efforts in the department.
Hensgen, a recent retiree from the Chicago police department, holds an MBA and a Masters of Public Administration from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He’s working on a PhD from Loyola University, where his dissertation topic “involves the development of policing strategies based on the model of Intelligence-led Policing,” according to the program from the promotions ceremony. He’s the co-author of “Managing Information in Complex Organizations: Semiotics and Signals, Complexity and Chaos.”
Hensgen said his first priority in improving the departments technology is finding out what is currently being used.
“What are the MDTs [Mobile Data Terminals in cruisers] like?” he asked Melendez before the ceremony started. Hensgen wanted to know what type of modems and displays were in use, Melendez said.
Hensgen said he’d like to increase communications bandwidth, to allow the quick transmission of photos between officers. “All these things cost money,” he said. He said he’ll be looking into federal grants to pay for new technology.
Hensgen said he has personal experience with predictive analytics. “I know it works.” He said he used the technique to track “gypsies” who were involved in crime in Chicago. “They use certain cars,” he said, in certain areas and “prey on certain individuals.”
Hensgen said he also used predictive analytics to crack down on a burglary spree in Chicago. He overlaid a map of burglaries with information about the housing of released drug offenders and was able to zero in on where the burglars were likely living. He planted police on the house, who then watched a man come out, walk across the street, kick in a door and come out with a TV. Police made two arrests and burglaries dropped 80 percent, Hensgen said.
Limon is the second consecutive police chief to be hired from outside the department and bring assistant chiefs with him. Chief James Lewis, Limon’s predecessor, brought in two former colleagues when he was hired in 2008.
Asked after the meeting if bringing in leadership from the outside gets in the way of developing new chiefs, Limon said he will be working on preparing police within the ranks to step up to higher leadership positions. Limon said he needed to bring in outside leadership because the department is lacking a lot of technology and he needed someone to work on that.
The department has a lot of “great talent,” and when his contract ends in three years, he’d like to have police trained and ready to move up the ranks, Limon said.