In each walk of life, we are always presented with difficulties and we solve them based on the experience and knowledge gathered from previous scenarios. The same theory applies to predicting crime patterns. By studying the behaviour of the criminal and the pattern of the crime, the crime can be predicted before it even occurs. And as more big data insights is revealed day to day with the advancement of technology, the police are upgrading their prediction by data analytics along with the criminals upgrading their crime pattern.
As an example, the police department of Delhi (India) have teamed up with ISRO to develop an analytical system—Crime Mapping, Analytics and Predictive System (CMAPS). The CMAPS is a security tool that will help the department to control internal security, crime, maintain law and order with the help of Big Data analytics. Even Jharkhand police with the help from IIM Ranchi have used data analytics of various crime records of the entire country, their time and location of occurrence to predict crime-prone zones.
Increasing criminal activities have lead unrest in the human society. By crime mapping which will help to analyse, map and visualize the crime pattern we can predict crime occurrences.
Crime Pattern Prediction:
To ensure whether this new theory works in actuality, we tried the method in new departments. Reports from the police department of Los Angeles and Manchester claim to have successfully run the crime pattern prediction. By utilising huge amounts of data, the police were able to detect a pattern in people’s behaviour and thus station personnel on the lookout at the crime location beforehand.
The theory is nothing but probability and predictive analysis by using Big Data. By various methods of mathematics, statistics and machine learning algorithms, a system can be patterned which helps to define human behaviour currently and in future. With this system pattern, we can match the society and its individuals to respective behaviour.
The theory is being tested by the Chinese government on their quest to catch terrorists and anti-nationalists. With the help of China Electronics Technology Group, a software was developed to collect all details of its country men including jobs, habits and hobbies. This was then utilised to detect sudden changes – like huge transfer of money in a poor man’s account or any frequent unusual foreign call to someone who do not have any foreign relatives. The government hopes to use this data to thwart criminals and any disorderly activity before its occurrence.
Success or Failure:
Today more police organisations are testing whether big data analysis can be used to predict and fight crime. And those who run successfully running the analysis crime fighting are reporting positive results. Reports from Manchester claim a 30% reduction in robberies. The few cases of failure are due to the reason of errored data being used for the analysis.
As the experts say, “If Big Data can forecast weather, then it is nothing new for the big giant to forecast and predict crime patterns”.