The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has a longstanding reputation for the use of technology in policing practices. Indeed, in 2010, the LAPD was actively involved, along with researchers at UCLA, in the development of PredPol: an algorithmic, place-based predictive policing system designed to forecast the times and places — mapped to a 500-foot by 500-foot city-wide grid of neighbourhood cells or hot spots—where property crimes, such as car thefts and burglaries, might occur.
Predictive policing can be place-based or person-based. The LAPD’s eagerness to harness predictive analytics as part of its SMART Policing Initiative extended to include LASER: a person-based predictive policing system allocating risk scores to persons of interest — known as hot people— considered to be connected to gun and gang violence within targeted neighbourhoods in the community. In this case study, we will focus on the place-based PredPol system.