Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Police Data-Mining Done Right

Posted by Zonk on from the way-its-supposed-to-be-used dept.

enharmonix writes "Courtesy of Bruce Schneier, it's nice to hear something good about data mining for a change: predicting and stopping crime. For example, police in Redmond, VA, 'started overlaying crime reports with other data, such as weather, traffic, sports events and paydays for large employers. The data was analyzed three times a day and something interesting emerged: Robberies spiked on paydays near cheque cashing storefronts in specific neighbourhoods. Other clusters also became apparent, and pretty soon police were deploying resources in advance and predicting where crime was most likely to occur.'"

2 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. That's some fine police work, Lou. by Treskin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do they really need to spend thousands of dollars analyzing data to determine there's more crime around check-cashing stores on paydays?

  2. Sweet! by Descalzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    I get paid on the 6th and 21st.

    Which check-cashing place do you go to?

    --
    I cried real tears when Li Mu Bai died.