Taking a page from the 2002 film Minority Report, New Haven cops want the feds to help them to predict crimes and preempt perpetrators of crimes before they act.
In the neo-noir sci fi flick, detective Tom Cruise has a device that shows him who’s going to commit what nefarious deed before it occurs.
New Haven’s police department hasn’t reached that ambitious goal yet. But it has applied for a federal grant to get started.
Assistant Police Chief Tobin Hensgen told the Board of Aldermen;s Public Safety Committee about the plan Wednesday night. The aldermen then authorized the police department to apply for and accept, if successful, a $300,000 two-year grant from U.S. Department of Justice for a cutting-edge crime analysis computer software package that “will involve geospatial predictive analysis and threshold analysis.”
In English that means it “anticipates where it’s [crime is] going to be before so we can be there,” translated Hensgen, the police department’s technology czar.
Currently the department does basic analysis of data largely using crime statistics and knowledge of hot spots to predict and to deploy resources.
That’s pretty primitive by technology standards.
“We can see hot spots right now, but the new software can actually predict placement of crime based on models where it’s likely to be displaced, and what kinds of resources we put in place,” said Chief Frank Limon.
In response to a request for further clarification from the committee Vice-Chair Gerald Antunes, a retired cop, Hensgen said the enterprise will take the basic crime statistics and factor in tax information, types of dwellings in certain areas, where convenience stores are located, and “environmental” factors.
The grant comes through the USDOJ’s Smart Policing Initiative.
Allan Appel Photo
Asst. Chief Hensgen & Chief Limon.
“It can show you from the hot spot out where the next crimes will occur. We’ll analyze data that hits a certain threshold to [give] special attention” to that area, said Hensgen. He said that special attention might include what cops can do, what the community can do, and how, for example, lights can change the environment.
The grant requires that the New Haven officers have an academic criminal justice partner. Professors from the University of New Haven have signed on for that part of the work.
Of the $300,000, $216,000 is for the new software, the remaining $84,000, for overtime.
There is no local funding match required, said Carol Bove, who writes the grants for the department.
Antunes asked what the overtime is to be used for. Bove replied that it would go toward “implementing the strategies” — officers attending community meetings in the evenings to prevent that predicted crime, for instance. It is also go toward training for the department “from the chief to line officers” on the sophisticated software.
Limon added it would also be dedicated in part to additional investigation and patrol.
Bove said that if the department succeeds, the grant would come to New Haven by Sept.30th.
“This is going to be the future of policing, and we’d like to lead the way,” said Hensgen