Chicago, Detroit, New York and Washington, D.C., have all dealt with tarnished reputations of violence for the last few decades.
And today, more than ever, Chicago is dealing with it. Rahm Emanuel, former White House chief of staff and current mayor of Chicago, went on national television to explain the violence afflicting his city.
One major factor distinguishes theses cities from our town: Population. Those cities are huge. Savannah is small. And because of this differential, our problem hurts a little more than theirs.
We should look at other cities plagued by crime with population density similar to ours. What have they done, if anything, to curb crime?
The label of violent city causes stress in all corners. Individuals begin to fear for their safety. Businesses worry about dwindling foot traffic. Corporations fear potential new hires won?t move to the region because of safety concerns. And tourism, our beloved golden goose, suffers if tourists are worried about what lurks in the haunted shadows.
We need to curb crime and we need to do something about it immediately.
I have an idea, and it isn?t anything new. As a matter of fact, an extremely intelligent local business owner and I already pitched this idea to the police department. The response? Silence.
The idea is simple. The police department should make its crime data open and available for computer programmers. If programmers are able to access the data, they could help solve crime.
How? Simple. Programmers, geeks and techies love this kind of thing. Make the data accessible, and programmers will manipulate the data, run algorithms and analyze the information. With regression analysis, we can pinpoint crime locations, identify neighborhoods with repeat offenders, zero in on nights with the highest criminal activity, and determine which crimes lead to other criminal behavior.
We can pinpoint where criminals attended school, when they dropped out, what types of families they came from, and where it all went wrong. We could track where guns and bullets come from and which types of cars are stolen. We could cross-reference streets without proper lighting
and crime. With this type of information, we can begin a new process of pro-activity, instead of our tired program of re-activity. To put it simply, we could begin to outsmart crime.
The best part of this idea? Opening up data is free, and most of the talented technologists in the region would be happy to work on this project for free. We need to fight crime with intelligence, one data set at a time.
If I was the police chief, I would meet with the local technology community and ask what they need, and begin feeding them the information immediately.
Some might say the idea of opening up data is dangerous as personal identities could be compromised. Nope.
The police department can restrict personal information from open data. Names, social security numbers and the like are omitted from the list. Height, weight, race, address, convictions and general data specific to the individuals can be shared. Sensitive data are omitted.
Others might say the police department is already collecting and using data to fight crime. Fine, but what if dozens of community-minded technologists were working alongside our police force? They could bring a new analytical approach that very well could shine light on the issues plaguing our region.
Other cities across the country have opened their data sets. Information on crime, water usage, trash collection, student test scores, public transportation and the like has been made available to the public.
And the response has been overwhelming. In cities across the country, volunteer technologists have manipulated data to provide community-centered apps and websites. Think modern day neighborhood watch.
Best part, all of this was done for free. Open source.
I urge our community to demand access to the data that belongs to us, and once available, I urge local technologists to manipulate the data to help make our police force stronger.
Sound too idealistic to you? Let me know how you feel after reading the next crime-related headline.
Jake Hodesh is the executive director of The Creative Coast, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the creative and entrepreneurial community within the region. Jake can be reached at 912-447-8457 or jake@thecreativecoast.org.
Source: http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2012-11-21/jake-hodesh-lets-fight-crime-local-intelligence
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