Police Data-Mining Done Right

enharmonix writes "Courtesy of Bruce Schneier, it's nice to hear something good about data mining for a change: predicting and stopping crime. For example, police in Redmond, VA, 'started overlaying crime reports with other data, such as weather, traffic, sports events and paydays for large employers. The data was analyzed three times a day and something interesting emerged: Robberies spiked on paydays near cheque cashing storefronts in specific neighbourhoods. Other clusters also became apparent, and pretty soon police were deploying resources in advance and predicting where crime was most likely to occur.'"

That's some fine police work, Lou.

[Treskin]

Do they really need to spend thousands of dollars analyzing data to determine there's more crime around check-cashing stores on paydays?

Re:Yes, but

[Anonymous Coward]

Offshore, if we're lucky.

Re:That's some fine police work, Lou.

[ginbot462]

Mod parent up!

(p.s. It wouldn't be slashdot with out the "mod parent up" guy. Please follow with "moderation is busted" guy/gal...)

Okay

[Descalzo]

Moderation is busted.

The cops busted him outside a check cashing joint on payday.

Sweet!

[Descalzo]

I get paid on the 6th and 21st.

Which check-cashing place do you go to?

You did it wrong. Here's how you get them there

[Anonymous Coward]

After you've been robbed if the police don't respond quickly enough simply call back and tell them not to worry about it, you've caught the thieves and you shot them. It's amazing the turnaround time.

Re:A better way to prevent crime

[Xtravar]

You can never have everyone content with life. There will always be inequity and jealousy and greed leading to criminal activity, and again this is only in relation to theft and crimes committed as a means to theft. Other crimes have any number of causes beyond a perceived need for comfort or contentment.

This sounds like a job for... drugs!!!!!

Re:That's some fine police work, Lou.

[Torvaun]

I have never been more happy to drive a white car.

People still cash checks?

[hcdejong]

Wow. Over here, companies use direct bank transfers to pay their workers' salaries, and have done so for at least 30 years now. I've no need to ever carry large amounts of cash or cash-analogue paper (checks).

Is the US banking industry really that backward? How come?