We must remember that law enforcement is the foundation of the safety of
our society. Without proper law enforcement,
a person may not feel safe
when walking at night, or in extreme scenarios, even when walking along
the street in broad daylight. However, recent developments have shifted the
public’s perception of law enforcement to the negative side. There is this
idea of rising police brutality, along with an increase in crime rate. Now,
more than ever, there is a need for our police forces to innovate, as the
demands upon them increase, while the support given to them continues to
decrease.
Data Analytics, Software Companies, and Police
Departments: A solution?
As mentioned earlier, once the proposed data
platforms are put into place,
data analysis may be applied at a much more detailed level. This will allow
law enforcement to improve the rate and percentage of crimes solved,
allowing them to curtail criminal activity more easily. These data analytics
may even be able to predict potential criminal behavior, and allow police to
stop some criminals from breaking the law or harming others to begin with.
Microsoft is an example of a company that works closely with some police
departments to prevent and solve crimes. There is even one police
department that uses multiple streams of data to receive live camera feeds,
911 calls, and police reports in order to better fight crime. They employ
these methods at any level of crime, allowing them to react quickly and
develop strategies to prevent crimes from even occurring. They use certain
technologies
to assist them in doing this, such as Microsoft Azure Data
Lake, Windows Speech Recognition, and Microsoft Cortana Analytics.
Microsoft Azure is software that allows forensic specialists to store data
regarding criminals and their activities in a central database. This data may
be used for whatever forensic analysis or data processing method may be
appropriate. This central database would allow police agencies around the
world to create a network of shared data. This would greatly assist in
tracking criminals, especially terrorists. This data may even be used,
through predictive analytics carried out on historical data, to extrapolate the
next target of terrorists, and may allow law enforcement
agencies to prevent
attacks from ever happening in the first place. Microsoft Cortana Analytics
allows police departments to use machine-learning algorithms to rapidly
forecast certain criminal scenarios. These specialists can also employ this
method to enhance the decision-making process by assisting in choosing the
optimal solution when a crime takes place. This tool also allows crime
departments to automate certain decisions, which allow them to better
account for rapidly changing criminal factors, improving their capabilities
when it comes to preventing crimes, or halting a crime in progress.
Windows voice recognition allows the police to dictate commands to the
computer, enabling them to rapidly find pertinent information such as
warrant
histories, DUI violations, or even ticket violations. Having this
information at their fingertips allows police officers to prevent crime or
even just traffic violations. The ability of an officer to reduce threats or
diffuse situations or dangerous events is greatly enhanced through this
software.
Analytics Decrypting Criminal Activities
Law enforcement agencies are able to make use of advanced analytics to
interpret certain criminal patterns, such as homicides, domestic violence
incidents, or theft. The availability of these data tools allows these agencies
to better sift through massive amounts of data. This even allows police to
identify the patterns of a burglar. It allows them to develop a better idea of
the criminal’s
modus operandi, allowing them to answer questions such as
when, where, and how a crime is likely to take place. This allows officers to
position themselves in such a way that they may be able to prevent further
crimes from taking place. Certain crimes tend to happen in specific areas
and even timeframes. If the police can predict the most likely times and
locations for these crimes to happen, they can send officers to the
designated locations during the most likely time period. This may
preemptively stop crimes, and will lead to greater safety for everyone.
Enabling Rapid Police Response to Terrorist Attacks
In situations such as the Boston Marathon bombing, where there is a
massive amount of data, the police can use the
data to help them quickly
find the perpetrators. The Boston Marathon bombing was a very public
attack, and there were huge amounts of video taken of the occurrence, both
from personal phone videos and security footage. The police reached out
through social media in order to retrieve all this video footage. They
thoroughly examined the videos, and thanks to the images found on the data
sources, they were able to identify two suspects. These images led to the
successful capture of the two suspects, allowing for a quick and successful
response to the attack.
