© Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times
Tattoo shop owner Edward Everett shows LAPD Senior Lead Officers Denise Vasquez, center, and Oscar Bocanegra where cars have been burglarized on Sherman Way in Reseda. The officers patrol where a computer program predicts property crimes will occur.
Tattoo shop owner Edward Everett shows LAPD Senior Lead Officers Denise Vasquez, center, and Oscar Bocanegra where cars have been burglarized on Sherman Way in Reseda. The officers patrol where a computer program predicts property crimes will occur.
But the widely hailed tool the LAPD helped create has come under fire in the last 18 months, with numerous departments dumping the software because it did not help them reduce crime and essentially provided information already being gathered by officers patrolling the streets.
After three years, "we didn't find it effective," Palo Alto police spokeswoman Janine De la Vega said. "We didn't get any value out of it. It didn't help us solve crime."
The Mountain View, Calif., Police Department spent more than $60,000 on the program between 2013 and 2018. "We tested the software and eventually subscribed to the service for a few years, but ultimately the results were mixed and we discontinued the service in June 2018," spokeswoman Katie Nelson said in a statement.
The program was designed to predict where and when crimes were likely to occur over the next 12 hours. The software's algorithm examines 10 years of data, including the types of crimes and the dates, times and locations where they occurred. Beyond concerns from law enforcement, the data-driven programs are also under increasing scrutiny by privacy and civil liberties groups, which say the tactics result in heavier policing of black and Latino communities.
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