Japanese conglomerate Hitachi has devised a computer system called Hitachi Visualization Predictive Crime Analytics (PCA) that can absorb large amounts of data and learn behavior patterns that are unable to be detected by the human eye, allowing it to predict crime, according to Digital Trends. The software stems from research conducted by Darrin Lipscomb and Mark Jules, co-founders of the crime-monitoring technology company Avrio and Pantascene that Hitachi acquired last year.
Although police investigators have typically used crime-prediction models that rely on personal experiences, the PCA used unbiased information on factors such as weather patterns, gunshot sensors, social media activity and more to predict crime.
"You just feed those data sets," said Jules. "And it decides, over a couple of weeks, is there a correlation."
Starting in October, approximately half a dozen U.S. cities will help Hitachi test the concept, one of which could be Washington, D.C., according to Fast Company.
"We were talking to [Washington] D.C., and they said, our biggest cause and effect is what neighborhood you're closest to," said Lipscomb. "There's these neighborhood rivalries going on in D.C."
With public safety resources currently low, many police departments are relying on predictive analytics such as the PCA to help them improve their policing and decrease crime rates, according to Datanami.
