A Poem to Honor Butch and Beth by Ted Rossiter

Ted Rossiter works for the Information Technology Division within the City of Santa Cruz Administrative Services Department.  Ted has been a friend and supporter of the Santa Cruz Police Department for a long time.  Following the tragic and unexpected loss of Butch and Beth on February 26th and after sitting near SCPD staff at the memorial service at HP Pavilion on March 7th, Ted was inspired to write a poem and share it with me.  I was so touched by Ted's poem that I have decided to share it on our blog.  Please take the time to read it.  I think you will find it to be a tremendously inspiring poem written by a good friend.  Thank you Ted!

With much gratitude, 

Chief Kevin Vogel

                 Thank You SCPD    

Thank you SCPD for working so vigilantly

To Chief Vogel who’s lead the PD, 105 and 172 so well

Thank you SCPD  for defending our community

To Chief Vogel you have inspired people, made hearts swell

Thank you SCPD because of you we sleep peacefully

To Butch Baker, joker, prankster and troublemaker

Thank you SCPD for dealing with what others don’t want to see

To Butch Baker, husband, father, officer, peacemaker

Thank you SCPD for caring and giving of yourselves

To Elizabeth Butler, advocate, defender and nurturer

Thank you SCPD for choosing a job you all do so well

To Elizabeth Butler, partner, mother, officer, recruiter

Thank you SCPD without you all there would be no SC

To Steve Clark the one asked to do so difficult a task

Thank you SCPD for believing in each other, good and justice

To Steve Clark...Governor, Paul Shaffer, comedian at last

Thank you SCPD for answering each and every call

To Dave Perry leader of the Honor Guard through it all

Thank you SCPD for everywhere through everything, years and all

To Dave Perry standing proud, straight, true and tall

Thank you SCPD for having such bravery

To Zach Friend for returning to help us all

Thank you SCPD for being a symbol for all to see

To Zach Friend inviting extended family to one and all

Thank you SCPD for continuing on through

To SCPD members new, current and old

Thank you SCPD for giving us all of you

To SCPD I dedicate this to two officers returned to the fold

by Ted Rossiter

Russian TV Visits SCPD to Cover Predictive Policing

Channel One Russia, the highest-rated news television station in Russia, visited Santa Cruz Police yesterday to learn more about predictive policing. The station sent a crew to learn more about the program and share the information in a feature story in Russia in a few weeks. Channel 1 met with Dr. George Mohler of Santa Clara University, the developer of the predictive policing algorithm, as well as SCPD officers and staff to discuss how it works. A link to the broadcast will be provided when it airs. 

Czech TV Visits Santa Cruz Police

A crew from Czech Television (or Ceska Televize) visited the Santa Cruz Police Department yesterday to do a story on predictive policing. The crew is from Prague but working on assignment in Washington DC and flew out for the day to cover the program. The program will run on the largest station in the Czech Republic with a news viewership of approximately 3 million people. Czech TV met with officers to learn about the program including Officer Armando Agular, Dr. George Mohler of Santa Clara and Crime Analyst Zach Friend. They learned about the program from other media coverage.

German TV Program Planetopia to Feature SCPD

The German TV program Planetopia, a science-based news magazine program, will air a feature on the department's predictive policing program on June 18th. The crew visited about two months ago for the filming and interviewed a number of officers about the program. If you happen to speak German you can watch the program on their website by clicking here.

Rudy Escalante Sworn in as New Chief in Capitola!

The Santa Cruz Police Department was proud to join with well over 100 well wishers at this morning's investiture of Rudy Escalante as the new Chief of Police for Capitola PD. Chief Escalante has served a distinguished career in our county including over 24 years with the Santa Cruz Police Department. The entire Santa Cruz Police Department management team and former SCPD Chief Jack Bassett were on hand to show our support.  Check out this link for a story by the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

CNN To Air Story About SCPD's Predictive Policing

CNN, which ran a story a few months ago about our predictive policing program, will run an updated version of the story next week. CNN spent a day at our department learning about the program from Chief Vogel, Lt. Bernie Escalante, Deputy Chief Steve Clark and Crime Analyst Zach Friend. The program will air on CNN and Headline News (all times are PST):

CNN

Wed.    4/4        11A – 12P

Sat.      4/7        12P – 1P

Sun.     4/8        3P – 4P 

HLN

Wed.    4/4        11A – 12P

French Science Magazine to Highlight SCPD

The French Science Magazine "Sciences et Avenir" will be in Santa Cruz today and tomorrow to meet with the Santa Cruz Police Department and Dr. George Mohler regarding the predictive policing program. The magazine will meet Crime Analyst Zach Friend, Lt. Bernie Escalante and Deputy Chief Steve Clark to view the program. There has been interest from law enforcement agencies in France to implement predictive policing. The magazine will also be reaching out to LAPD regarding their current test of the program. The magazine will be highlighting the department and program in a few months.

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

Downtown Arrests: 2011 Recap

Over the next two weeks the Santa Cruz Police Department will be analyzing crime data from 2011. Last week, we took a look at party/noise calls and bike thefts. This week we've looked at the number of injury accidents in our city, the total amount of Part 1 violent crime incidents stolen/recovered cars in 2011. Today we take a look at downtown arrests. We see that downtown arrest numbers were down 16% from 2010.

These numbers provide a simple indication of crime in the downtown area. The most common arrest in the downtown area is for public intoxication. 

2011 -- 1,011
2010 -- 1,210
2009 -- 1,064

Stolen Vehicles - How Many Were Recovered? 2011 Recap

Over the next few weeks the Santa Cruz Police Department will be analyzing crime data from 2011. Last week, we took a look at party/noise calls and bike thefts. This week we've looked at the number of injury accidents in our city and the total amount of Part 1 violent crime incidents in 2011. Today we take a look at stolen cars. First, how many cars were stolen in Santa Cruz in 2011? Second, we look at how many stolen cars that were recovered. As with all numbers at this stage they are preliminary - but it provides a good look into stats from 2011.


Stolen Vehicles:

2011: 185
2010:  180
2009:  145

Local Stolen Vehicles that We Recovered:

2011: 182 (98%)*
2010:  179 (99%)
2009:  145 (100%)

In addition, we recovered vehicles that were stolen from other areas (not included in these totals).

*This number may increase as it includes cars stolen at the end of December.

Injury Accident Stats: 2011

Over the next few weeks the Santa Cruz Police Department will be analyzing calls-for-service in 2011. Last week, we took a look at party/noise calls and bike thefts. Chief Vogel has made providing open crime data to the community a priority. Today, we pulled numbers on the number of injury accidents in Santa Cruz. These include all documented injuries (minor to major) suffered in accidents in 2011. For comparison, we also pulled numbers on 2009 and 2010.

2011: 222
2010:  205
2009:  212

Bike Theft Stats: 2011

Over the next few weeks the Santa Cruz Police Department will be analyzing calls-for-service in 2011. Yesterday we took a look at party/noise calls. Today, we pulled numbers on bike thefts in Santa Cruz. Bike theft is one of the most frustrating crimes in our area (many of us at the PD have personally experienced bike theft). In 2011 we saw an increase in the number of bike thefts in our community (over 1-per-day) from a historic average of .65-.85 per-day.

2011: 396 thefts


Tips For Protecting Your Bike:

• Keep the bike locked (even when just running in for a short errand)
• When locking your bike use a proper heavy-duty lock and lock the bike correctly
• Write down the serial number
• Take a photo of the bike to help the community and police find the bike
• If stolen, immediately report it (with photo and serial number) to the police
• Register/license the bike

Predictive Policing 5 Month Overview

The Santa Cruz Police Department is five months into the groundbreaking predictive policing study. We plan a full evaluation, with professors at Santa Clara University and UCLA, in January. But we've done a preliminary look at the first five months of data.  

The program predicts hot spot locations based on seven years-worth of historical data. It is updated daily and suggests patrol deployment based on a combination of historic and current data.

So, is it working?

In the first six months of 2011 before we started the project we were on pace to set a record for the number of burglaries in our city. Since we have implemented the program we are now averaging 20% fewer burglaries than in the first six months. 

How does this compare to 2010?

Compared with the same 5 months in 2010 we've seen a 11% decline in the number of burglaries. December (the six month of the study) has historically been problematic for burglaries. Vehicle burglaries tend to rise near the holidays (meaning the holidays have a higher than average monthly burglary rate). This was not the case last year but has been the case in 6 of the last 10 years. 

We are interested to see if the program can continue to reduce the overall number of burglaries in our city and we will provide the full analysis compiled by the professors (which will hopefully be completed at some point in late January). Chief Kevin Vogel, Deputy Chiefs Rick Martinez and Steve Clark and Crime Analyst Zach Friend will work with Professor George Mohler and Professor Jeff Brantingham on the final analysis.

Sounds of SCPD: Holiday Edition

It's time for the next edition of Sounds of SCPD. This time we are doing holiday music. Now, we walked through the building and actually didn't hear any holiday music so we decided to ask people what their favorite holiday music was. Some didn't want to admit they listened to holiday music - others started showing holiday playlists on their iPods. Here is a sampling...

Chief Kevin Vogel (the classics)

• Baby It's Cold Outside - Dinah Shore/Buddy Clark
• Cherry, Cherry Christmas - Neil Diamond
• Sleigh Ride - Andre Kostelanetz

Deputy Chief Rick Martinez  (the 80's mix) -

•  Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) U2
• Christmas in Hollis - Run DMC
• Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas - Sinatra 

Apparently it isn't Christmas unless you have Run DMC in the Martinez household.

Deputy Chief Steve Clark (classic and 80's)

• The Music of Christmas - Steven Curtis Chapman
• Merry Christmas Baby - Bruce Sprinstein
• Please Come Home for Christmas - Vonda Shepard

Bonnie Stow - (50's and 80's)

•  Last Christmas - Wham
• Blue Christmas - Elvis

Police Spokesman Zach Friend (80's but timeless)

• Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi

It's not Run DMC but it's hard not to have Charlie Brown on during the holidays.

Time Magazine Names SCPD's Predictive Policing as one of top 50 Inventions of 2011

The Santa Cruz Police Department’s predictive policing program was named by Time Magazine as one of the fifty best inventions of 2011. In the November 28, 2011 issue (already in newsstands) the magazine said the program helps the department “get ahead of the bad guys.” In the last few years, the prestigious Invention Issue listed the iPad, electric car and even devices that help people walk again among their top inventions.

“We are honored to be recognized by Time Magazine for our predictive policing program” Police Chief Kevin Vogel said. “Innovation is the key to modern policing and we’re proud to be leveraging technology in a way that keeps our community safer.”

The predictive policing program, developed by Dr. George Mohler of Santa Clara University and a team from UCLA, uses an earthquake aftershock model to determine where future crimes will occur. Similar to the predictability of an aftershock after an earthquake, the models predicts that there will be “aftercrimes” after an initial crime. The program does not cost the agency anything.

This groundbreaking model is now being used by the Los Angeles Police Department. This week, LAPD invited Lt. Bernie Escalante and Zach Friend down to speak to roll calls about the program and aid in their launch.

In the first few months of using the program the Santa Cruz Police Department has seen a decrease in the targeted crime types (burglaries and motor vehicle thefts). The program has shown to be much more accurate in predicting where crimes will occur, breaking down targeted locations into 500 foot by 500 foot areas. In January the department will work with the researchers to do a full analysis of the program. Lessons that are being learned by SCPD and LAPD will be integrated into the next generation of the program for other law enforcement agencies.

LAPD Invites SCPD to Speak About Predictive Policing

The Los Angeles Police Department invited Lt. Bernie Escalante and Crime Analyst Zach Friend to LA to speak to roll calls about SCPD's experience with predictive policing. LAPD launched predictive policing last week. Led by Cpt. Sean Malinowski, the LAPD experiment affords an opportunity to test the program on a much larger scale. LAPD has been working closely with researchers from UCLA and was the first agency to provide data to test the model nearly two years ago. LAPD and SCPD are the only two agencies in the country using the program. The results of the two experiments are expected in the next few months. Dozens of agencies have reached out to LAPD and SCPD to ask about the program and possibly launch predictive policing in their own agencies at the end of the test period.

Department Joins Attorney General Kamala Harris at Regional Law Enforcement Meeting

Santa Cruz Police and County law enforcement leaders joined Attorney General Kamala Harris at a regional zone meeting today in Alameda County. Zone meetings allow leaders from law enforcement (police, sheriffs, district attorneys and more) to join together to discuss best practices and learn more about pending legislation and budget issues.

Today's meeting continued an ongoing dialogue that Attorney General Harris and state DOJ has been having with law enforcement partners throughout California. The meeting focused on budget cuts to the DOJ's Division of Law Enforcement (impacting local/regional task forces), contained first-hand information about realignment and focused on trends in gang violence and even cyber crimes.

Speakers included the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and experts on gangs, cyber crimes and more. Chief Kevin Vogel, Deputy Chief Rick Martinez and Crime Analyst Zach Friend attended the event and were joined by the Sheriff's Office, Capitola Police, Watsonville Police and the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office.

Department Featured on German and Swiss Television

The Santa Cruz Police Department's predictive policing program has begun to receive more international attention. The German television station N24 sent a crew to the department last week to focus on the program and also meet with Dr. George Mohler at Santa Clara University. This week, a national Swiss television station will also be by the department for the same coverage. Both stations sent crews as cuts to staff have been occurring in their respective countries and they hope the program will aid their police agencies during these cuts.

Popular Science Magazine Feature (Link Provided)

We blogged earlier that Popular Science Magazine did an extensive feature on SCPD's predictive policing program. Now they have posted the link!

Click here to view it.

Popular Science Magazine Features SCPD!

Popular Science Magazine, with a readership of over 7 million monthly readers, is featuring the Santa Cruz Police Department in this month's (November) issue. While the issue has just hit the newsstands (and you can purchase at your local bookstore) at this time no online link is available. The magazine is featuring our predictive policing program and spent two days at our department in July. The feature-length article takes an in-depth look at the program, the history of predictive analysis in general, and other agencies considering the program. It is an outstanding article and we're proud to be featured by Popular Science!