As governments are faced with shrinking budgets and resources, public safety officials are tasked to deliver mission value in new ways. “Agencies simply cannot afford to put more officers on the street. They need to make improved decisions and allocate resources more effectively. Leveraging crime analytics is part of the solution in a time of tight budgets and resources,” states Mike Reade, Public Safety Specialist, IBM® Smarter Cities Team. The GovLoop and IBM report explores the variety of crime analytics applications agencies are adopting. The various applications reflects how agencies are looking to align analytics to core mission functions. http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/smarter-cities-building-safer-communities-in-the-digital-age

1. Public Safety in the Digital Age 1
Smarter Cities:
Public Safety in the
Digital Age
Industry
Perspective

2. IBM Industry Perspective1
“Agencies simply cannot afford to put more officers on the street.
They need to make improved decisions and allocate resources more
effectively. Leveraging crime analytics is part of the solution in a time
of tight budgets and resources.”
Mike Reade, Public Safety Specialist, IBM® Smarter Cities Team

3. Public Safety in the Digital Age 2
reventing crime is vital to developing vi-
brant and safe communities.As govern-
ments are faced with shrinking budgets
and resources, public safety officials are tasked to
deliver mission value in new ways.“Agencies simply
cannot afford to put more officers on the street.
They need to make improved decisions and allo-
cate resources more effectively. Leveraging crime
analytics is part of the solution in a time of tight
budgets and resources,” states Mike Reade, Public
Safety Specialist, IBM® Smarter Cities Team.
The variety of crime analytics applications reflects
how agencies are looking to align analytics to core
mission functions.Existing use cases for crime ana-
lytics includes:
COMBATING RECIDIVISM by understanding
and focusing on serious and prolific offenders
PREDICTING AND PREVENTING crime be-
fore it happens
ENHANCING SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
for officers through social media analytics or
video analytics to detect suspicious activity as
events unfold
Providing REAL-TIME INSIGHTS through GIS
technology and geo-tagged crime data to de-
liver knowledge on surrounding locations and
identify potential escape routes
OPTIMIZING resource deployment and mea-
suring outcomes of decisions and crime-fight-
ing initiatives
These examples provide only a snapshot of how
analytics is being applied in law enforcement. One
specific case study comes from the Miami-Dade
County Police Department’s Blue PALMS initiative.
Blue PALMS, or Predictive Analytics Lead Modeling
Software, leverages crime analytics to break cold
cases, and catch repeat offenders of crimes.When
a crime is committed, an officer collects informa-
tion that is captured in the Blue PALMS model.
Blue PALMS uses advanced analytics to generate
a list of potential suspects based on match prob-
ability. This list is then delivered to investigators
to narrow their focus from thousands of known
Smarter Cities: Public
Safety in the Digital Age

4. IBM Industry Perspective3
offenders to those with the highest probability of
having committed the crime. Blue PALMS provides
stronger leads to investigators by leveraging his-
torical crime patterns and offender modus ope-
randi from huge volumes of data.
Although the Blue PALMS program and related
examples highlight common ways of using crime
analytics applications, organizations define crime
analytics in different ways to meet mission de-
mands. David Edwards, Global Public Safety Offer-
ing Manager, IBM Smarter Cities, states, “I define
crime analytics as the effort being taken by police
departments to collect, synthesize and develop in-
sights from all sources of public and private data
that they can get access to.” Expanding upon Ed-
wards’ definition, crime analytics serves as an um-
brella term and includes various analytic applica-
tions.A few examples are highlighted below:
DESCRIPTIVE ANALYTICS mine historical
data to categorize, classify, and group informa-
tion in order to reveal patterns, trends and
performance.
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS involves a variety of
statistical techniques to model data and analyze
historical crime, event, geographic, demograph-
ic and other data to predict the likelihood of
crime before it happens.
ENTITY ANALYTICS focuses on improving
the accuracy and consistency of data across
disparate data sets by resolving identity, event
and location records. For instance, a criminal
might go by several names and aliases within a
records management system and across other
datasets, and may be a witness to one crime
while being the victim in another. Entity analyt-
ics will connect the dots between the data to
form a complete profile of a criminal, address
or object (such as a vehicle). Entity analytics
solutions will also find the non-obvious rela-
tionships between persons, objects, locations
and events that is only possible when the rela-
tionships between resolved identity packages
are identified.
CONTENT ANALYTICS unlocks valuable data
that is trapped in narratives, case files and oth-
Blue PALMS, or Predictive Analytics Lead Modeling Software, initiative from the Miami-
Dade County Police Department provides stronger leads to investigators by leveraging
historical crime patterns and offender modus operandi from huge volumes of data.

5. Public Safety in the Digital Age 4
er documents. Semantic and context analysis
of unstructured text allows the volumes of in-
formation captured this way to be utilized as
effectively as database information in order to
identify new insights.
SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS provides a con-
stant stream of information. By leveraging this
highly unstructured data in real time using
streaming social media analytics, officers are
able to identify and locate potential threats and
evolving events, find evidence through photos,
or track down witnesses.
INTELLIGENT VIDEO ANALYTICS can help
identify events and spot patterns of behavior
in real time. In addition to providing alerts and
improving situational awareness, video analyt-
ics provides event and pattern classification
to dramatically improve forensic search from
huge volumes of stored video.
In a fast moving, data-driven world, the key is that
agencies focus on specific mission needs and align
technology to achieve mission goals. Even though
agencies are operating in a time of restrictive bud-
gets and dwindling resources, crime analytics is al-
lowing agency personnel to be more responsive
and efficient to combat crime.“Most agencies are
interested in using analytics to better inform their
personnel in a more efficient and effective way,”
states Reade.
With robust crime analytics, information can be
delivered to officers in a more timely and accurate
manner. Through this critical information sharing,
officers are gaining advanced insights to improve
situational awareness.“Analytics can deliver infor-
mation to officers so they know what risks they
might be encountering. Analytics can inform offi-
cers of known individuals in the area they should
be on the lookout for, which can help the officer
be better prepared,” states Reade.
Likewise, investigators are tracking stronger leads,
and departments are witnessing new efficiencies
by placing officers at the right spot, at the right
time. Above all, crime analytics is creating new
insights through data analysis. Organizations can
spot trends and correlations by testing multiple
variables against one another.
Ultimately, by implementing a crime analytics solu-
tion, new workplace efficiencies are found. Reade
states, “Analytics reduces the administrative bur-
den on officers, investigators and analysts so they
can spend more time doing what they do best.”
This means more time working on leads, patrol-
ling and participating in community based initia-
tives, and spending less time searching databases,
requesting information and making sense of some-
times conflicting reports.
Although the benefits are clear, new efficiencies
can only be met if an agency aligns analytics to its
core mission needs. Due to organizational size and
ingrained operating procedures, this process is of-
ten challenging for agencies to adopt. “Organiza-
tions need to view crime analytics as a core part
of their business,” states Edwards, he continues,
“reorienting the organization around analytical in-
sights is the hardest part.”
“ANALYTICS CAN DELIVER INFORMATION TO
OFFICERS SO THEY KNOW WHAT RISKS THEY
MIGHT BE ENCOUNTERING. ANALYTICS CAN
INFORM OFFICERS OF KNOWN INDIVIDUALS
IN THE AREA THEY SHOULD BE ON THE LOOK-
OUT FOR, WHICH CAN HELP THE OFFICER BE
BETTER PREPARED.”
Mike Reade, Public Safety Specialist,
IBM® Smarter CitiesTeam

6. IBM Industry Perspective5
Edwards is alluding to the cultural challenges of
leveraging crime analytics for public safety agen-
cies. Analytics requires organizations create new
organizational policies and infrastructures around
analytics to meet mission goals.
In addition to overcoming culture challenges, ana-
lytic solutions depend on accurate and high quality
data. As police officers are often entering infor-
mation from a variety of devices and inputs, and
sometimes into multiple databases,data quality has
become an issue for public safety administrators.
As Reade states,“Data governance starts with es-
tablishing policy and enforcing policy in regards
to capturing information. For instance, an officer
could enter information for ‘208 Maine Avenue’
and mistakenly enter ‘208 Main Street.’” Combine
this with the criminals’ deliberate attempts to
obfuscate their identities, and multiply these er-
rors over an entire force and many years, and data
quality will suffer. With inaccurate data, even the
most complex algorithms simply will not provide
insights that can be trusted.
Data quality tools and entity analytics solutions
can help to overcome these challenges, but the
real goal is to train officers on the importance of
data quality and governance.“Part of solving better
data governance in law enforcement comes back
to the person in the field understanding the im-
pact of data accuracy and how it will come back to
benefit them in the future,” states Reade.
In addition to showing the operational value of
analytics to officers, public safety organizations
must also assess the return on investment (ROI)
of crime analytics. One example of how to mea-
sure the ROI of crime analytics comes from the
City of Lancaster, California.
In 2008, Lancaster hired James Kobolt as the first
Senior Criminal Justice Analyst, tasked with lever-
aging data in new ways to combat crime through
data.Kobolt used IBM® SPSS® and Esri’sArcGIS to
explore how to fight crime through smarter, more
innovative approaches. Lancaster public safety of-
ficers estimated that roughly 35 percent of their
time was spent on reducing Part I crimes, which
is defined as murder and non-negligent homicide,
forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary,
vehicle theft, larceny and arson.
By 2010, Kobolt had created predictive data mod-
els that accurately showed crime patterns. Esri
maps showed heat maps and color codes to show
crime throughout the city. These maps have pro-
vided the City of Lancaster with new insights and
improved decisions how to allocate resources.
The results were staggering, as Lancaster wit-
nessed a 37 percent decrease in crime from their
benchmark set in 2007.Working with Nucleus Re-
In addition to showing the operational value of analytics
to officers, public safety organizations must also assess
the return on investment (ROI) of crime analytics, as
they did in Lancaster, CA.

7. Public Safety in the Digital Age 6
search Inc., IBM set out to understand the ROI for
the City of Lancaster, the findings include:
Lancaster saw a 35 percent reduction in Part I
crimes in 2010 and a 42 percent reduction in
2011 compared to the 2007 benchmark rate
Over $800,000 savings in the partial year of
2010 when predictive analytics was implement-
ed
By using predictive and geographic analytics,
Lancaster was able to gain over a million dol-
lars in productivity on a year-over-year basis
The City of Lancaster attained a ROI of 1301
percent in a payback period of 1.5 months af-
ter implementing a SPSS and ArcGIS solution
to fight crime
Although the City of Lancaster witnessed re-
ductions in Part I crimes, the ROI of an analyt-
ics solution extends far beyond just general crime
statistics. “I see ROI at three levels, number one
is the crime rate, second is personnel productiv-
ity and finally the economic development impact
from crime reduction,” states Jim Lingerfelt,Senior
Consultant, IBM.
Lingerfelt continues, “We are doing some deeper
thinking about a community and the way it is af-
fected by crime. Crime is inextricably linked to
economic development,so that fact alone demands
a broader approach that includes social services
agencies, schools, community groups and even get-
ting involved in permitting and zoning.”
For public sector organizations to truly transform
into modern institutions,agencies will be forced to
adopt analytics as a core business function. Cur-
rently, IBM is in the process of developing a police
resource optimization engine that will give man-
agement the ability to see what the impact is by
putting incremental resources in different parts of
their police force.
This means that an administrator could add a de-
tective to the robbery squad and see the impact
on clearance rates for robberies.Alternatively, the
administrator could add the resource to the pa-
trol division and see the impact on response time.
This is a way for police chiefs to make better in-
cremental decisions that are based upon expected
outcomes, rather than existing workloads.
Now,like never before,agencies must explore new
and innovative ways to protect citizens. In order
to do so, utilizing analytics is the way forward for
agencies to combat crime with diminishing bud-
gets and resources.
With inaccurate data, even the most complex algorithms
simply will not provide insights that can be trusted.

8. IBM Industry Perspective7
The world isn’t just getting smaller and flatter, it is
also becoming more instrumented, inter- connect-
ed and intelligent.As we move toward a globally in-
tegrated economy,all types of governments are also
getting smarter.
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered so-
lutions to help governments at all levels become
more responsive to constituents, improve opera-
tional efficiencies, transform processes, manage
costs and collaborate with internal and external
partners in a safe and secure environment.
Governments can leverage the unparalleled re-
sources of IBM through IBM Research, the Center
for the Business of Government, the Institute for
Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosys-
tem of strategic relationships.
To learn more, visit ibm.com/smarterplanet/safety
GovLoop’s mission is to “connect government to
improve government.” We aim to inspire public
sector professionals by serving as the knowledge
network for government. GovLoop connects more
than 65,000 members, fostering cross-government
collaboration, solving common problems and ad-
vancing government careers. GovLoop is headquar-
tered in Washington D.C with a team of dedicated
professionals who share a commitment to connect
and improve government.
For more information about this report, please
reach out to Pat Fiorenza, Senior Research Analyst,
GovLoop, at pat@govloop.com, or follow him on
twitter: @pjfiorenza.
GovLoop
734 15th St NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 407-7421 Fax: (202) 407-7501
Twitter: @GovLoop
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