How can software curb violent crime?

The Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms bureau wants to use technology to help predict where gun crime may unfold, and eventually work to prevent it from happening, as reported in NextGov.

ATF wants a dynamic, interactive crime map with predictive analysis capabilities – specifically, the agency “is in need of an advanced evaluation crime forecasting model/system designed to accurately identify the risk of personal and property crimes at 200 of its locations” in the U.S., UK and Canada, according to information in the request for proposals from the Justice Department.

The software would use geolocation, demographics and other data to analyze trends and make predictions, and is already in use in some state and local agencies, including in Nevada and Ohio, according to the Justice Department documents. The modeling technology needs to be objective, site-specific and forward-looking in assessments, and must be capable of being tailored to agency requirements. The system will take advantage of FBI unified crime report data in an interactive mapping format, according to the statement of work. The RFP provides for onsite-training as part of the contract.

A similar program was used in Ohio last year, where its use netted seven arrests for violent crime in the first weekend of the tool’s use, according to a June 2011 ATF press release. That program, dubbed the Violence Gun Reduction and Interdiction Program or V-GRIP, teamed more than a dozen local, state and federal organizations. The effort used crime-mapping software and other technology to pool intelligence, and now the hope is to emulate that success on a federal level.