A new report by the RAND Corp. found that police crime centers that use technology, like remote cameras and analytic tools, may be able to reduce crime.
RAND researchers found significant reductions in some types of crimes in Chicago, including robberies and burglaries, using these tools and technologies. Chicago’s strategic decision support centers enabled responses to crime incidents that were not previously possible.
“We found evidence that strategic decision support centers are supporting much higher levels of awareness by police—and rapid decision-making using that awareness—than had been present previously,” John Hollywood, lead author of the study and a senior operations researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization, said
The Chicago strategic decision support centers were launched in 2017. They occupy small conference rooms and are staffed with three staff members – including a crime analyst.
“Prior to the opening of the centers, commanders we interviewed described making decisions largely ad-hoc, based on whatever they heard about,” Hollywood said. “Once the centers were in place, command decisions were much more structured and data-driven.”
A bank of screens provides information from sensors that can detect gunshots, feeds from the city’s surveillance cameras and details from predictive policing software that identifies areas of higher risk. Officers in each district are provided smartphones with an app that provides key information, such as individuals to be on the lookout for.
RAND researchers found that crime reductions varied between 3 percent and 17 percent for the 10 categories of crime examined, including shootings and sexual assault.
The Chicago Police Department has created a new oversight panel for the strategic decision support centers and established a set of departmental directives to guide center operations.