Chicago Police use Big Data to Predict Gun Violence
- By Sydny Shepard
- May 25, 2016
Nearly 3,000 people were shot in Chicago in 2015 and 240 have already been subject to the same kind of violence in 2016. The Chicago Police Department attributes a large amount of the gun violence to gangs in the city of 2.7 million people. So rather than come up with a traditional approach to curb the violence, the CPD are looking at the crimes in terms of data.
CPD has developed an algorithm that can help predict which people are most at risk of committing or being targeted by gun violence, according to the New York Times. The algorithm, created by Illinois Institute of Technology professor, Dr. Miles Wernick, assigns scores to people based on their criminal records as well as any known gang affiliations. Wernick says that while the program does look at criminal history, it exclusively leaves out information such as age, ethnicity and gender.
Using Wernick’s algorithm, the CPD curated a 1,400-member “Strategic Subject List” that has already started to prove itself accurate. In 2016, 70 percent of the people shot have been on the list, as have 80 percent of the shooters. According to the CPD, 117 of the 140 people arrested during a city-wide gang raid performed last week were on the list as well.
The police also use the list to perform “custom notifications” where social workers and community leaders can meet with those who score high on the list in the hopes of intervening before a crime is committed.
About the Author
Sydny Shepard is the Executive Editor of Campus Security & Life Safety.