Collaboration between Cambridge, Everett, and Somerville police departments will use predictive policing to prevent cross-jurisdictional violent crime.

The City of Cambridge was one of sixteen national sites awarded a competitive Smart Policing Initiative grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. This grant will enable the Cambridge, Everett, and Somerville police departments and their research partner, Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. to engage in an innovative approach – using predictive policing analytics – to prevent cross-jurisdictional violent crime.

The Cambridge Police Department will serve as the lead agency and Lieutenant Daniel Wagner of the Cambridge Police Crime Analysis Unit will be the project director.
“I am excited that the Department of Justice recognized the strength of our existing regional partnerships and the potential of our project to bring meaningful results in the emerging field of predictive policing,” said Lieutenant Daniel Wagner. “We are fortunate to collaborate with a nationally renowned research partner, and believe that this project will provide a unique opportunity to develop innovative practices that will ultimately have a measurable effect on preventing crime and disorder issues in our communities.”
Through this project, data and analytic standards will be established to allow for each partner agency to share data easily at multiple levels within the agency. The departments will share information about gangs, habitual violent offenders, basic crime data, and other information. Databases of offenders and known associates will be created in an attempt to predict and prevent retaliatory inter-gang violence.
To conduct this project, funds were requested to use Herman Goldstein’s problem-oriented policing framework to test different predictive analytics that are currently being used in large police departments. Funds will be provided to the research partner to provide guidance about predictive policing and to analyze data and conduct an evaluation of interventions.
The project period is two years with a budget of $299,668. For more information, visit http://www.smartpolicinginitiative.com/.