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Crimeradar

February 7, 2017 | Expert Insights

Is predicting crimes, a preferred path?

Robert Muggah’s Igarapé Institute, with Via Science and Mosaico Internet, launched CrimeRadar. It is a publicaly available crime-prediction platform. The launch is focused on Rio de Janeiro, with plans to take the platform global.

How does CrimeRadar Work?

  • The tool is powered by algorithms that process more than 14 million official crime events going back to 2010. CrimeRadar uses advanced machine learning to forecast future crime risk and track historical crime tends. The software runs on both mobile phones and desktops. It uses the API from Google Maps.
  • The colour scheme displays risk of crime ranging from green and yellow (lower probability) to orange and red (higher probability).
  • CrimeRadar highlights the highly variable timing and seasonality of criminal incidents in Rio de Janeiro. Data suggests that crime concentrates at 4PM and late at night on Fridays and Saturdays.

Implications of CrimeRadar

  • CrimeRadar can be applied by local businesses, politicians and activists to call for action to improve safety. 
  • It may help countries encourage tourism in otherwise crime prone areas.
  • There is the risk of criminals using the application to attack victims in places of low crime. Unsuspecting victims may have relied on the application to decide the route they take.

Assessment

Synergia Foundation has developed a mobile application complete with security features. The application, S-Guard, is a women safety application. It has a heat map of areas of criminal activity categorised based on the type of crimes. An alert triggered by shaking the phone will alert the police of the location of crime supported with audio and video evidence. Predictive analytics are here to stay, and advances in processing power means that they may become more pervasive.