January 18, 2012

SCPD's Predictive Policing Featured on KQED

KQED did a feature story on the department's predictive policing program. You can click here to listen to here. Their write up about the program is below:

The city of Santa Cruz has pioneered an innovative policing tool. Predictive policing uses a sophisticated computer model to analyze crimes and anticipate where they may happen next. We talk to two of the developers of the tool and to a crime analyst with the Santa Cruz Police Department about the promise of predictive policing, and other mathematical approaches to identifying crime hot spots.
Host: Michael Krasny
Guests:
  • George Tita, associate professor of criminology, law and society at UC Irvine, director of the Masters in Public Policy Program, and member of the Mathematical Simulation Modeling of Crime Project
  • Jeff Brantingham, professor of anthropology at UCLA and member of the Mathematical and Simulation Modeling of Crime Project
  • Zach Friend, crime analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department