Crime Computer Helps Eliminate Guesswork on Police Deployment

Fifty Neighborhood Watch block captains let out a collective “Wow!” when they saw the crime computer work.

A bunch of green 4s blipped across a computer screen. The numbers were overlayed on a road map of one section of the city, each one symbolizing an auto theft during the first three months of 1989.

The block captains watched this pattern of crime unfold during a test-run of the Monterey Park Police Department’s new computer system last month.

After two years of planning and computer programming, Monterey Park police have declared the system ready. It is a cross between a crime-stopper device that Batman might use and a video game.

Patterns of robberies, drunk driving accidents or burglaries can instantly pop up in multicolored graphics on the computer. And the system can develop charts and graphs of crime trends and show comparative increases or decreases. The computer can show these patterns for the entire city or it can zoom in on an individual street.

Provides Analyses

It can also analyze crimes by the time of day, the kinds of weapons and motives involved, and the types of victims.

Developed five years ago, the computer system known as Landtrak is used by about 30 California law enforcement agencies. These include the Pasadena Police Department, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, the Hawthorne Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which helped to pioneer the system’s development at the Norwalk station.

“We’re looking for clustering of crimes,” said Monterey Park Police Capt. Joseph Santoro. Before, he said, police relied on hunches, collective experience and push-pins on a wall map showing where crimes occurred. And Police Chief Kenneth G. Hickman said deployment of police often was based on that. But he said, “Random patrolling produces random results.”

To Catch a Thief

Timothy J. Miller, a former sheriff’s deputy in the City of Industry, gave an example of how the system helped to catch a robber.

Deputies there used the computer to spot a pattern developing with robberies, said Miller, who now works for GeoBased Systems, which markets Landtrak.

Law enforcement officials analyzed the crime data on the basis of times and methods of operation. They found 21 robberies had happened about the same times within a three- to five-mile area. The deputies were able to forecast when and approximately where the next robbery might occur.

By essentially ringing the area with sheriff’s deputies, who had a possible description of the car the robber was using, the law enforcement officers were able to catch the robber five minutes after he committed his 22nd crime.

At the Scene

This would have been much harder, Miller said, without the computer. “The whole idea of this system is, instead of reacting to crime after it occurs, you want to be there when a crime occurs,” he said.

Hickman said: “Let’s put our people right where those dots are (on the computer screen) and tell them who to look for and when to look for them.”

“It’s the old adage,” said Rick McIntyre of GeoBased Systems, “that one picture is worth 1,000 words. That’s what we’re doing with crime data, creating a picture.”

Even though Monterey Park is not geographically a large city, Hickman said, there are still too many crimes for police to have a complete grasp of patterns and how they may change over time.

Too Many Crimes

In one year, he said, the city records 5,000 to 6,000 major crimes, and that’s too many to analyze by poring over police reports.

Monterey Park’s new system provides a block-by-block look at crime in 91 separate reporting districts that are continually fed into the computer, along with every residential address and every business address.

A computer technician, Lorraine Swider, and Detective Arnold Wong work full time with the system. “I call (Wong) a high-tech detective,” Santoro said. The benefit of having a detective working with Swider, Santoro said, is that Wong provides a street-smart approach to analyzing the crime data.

Santoro said the Fire Department will be able to create computer blueprints of commercial and industrial buildings, listing any hazardous chemicals, underground pipes or earthquake fault lines.

“There’s a million uses for it,” Hickman said.

Deployment of Patrols

As one example, Hickman said he will look at types of traffic violations and the worst accident locations to help determine where and when to deploy motorcycle patrols. An average system today costs $42,000, officials with GeoBased said. With a limited staff, Hickman said, the computer is well worth it.

Another advantage, Hickman said, is that police can identify problem locations and the times when crimes probably will occur. Then officers can be on the alert when they have down-time and use computer printouts detailing the specifics.

The computer won’t replace the know-how and experience of police, Hickman said. “We’re not discounting all the institutional knowledge in the minds of all the officers on the police force,” Hickman said. “But one guy maybe has been here 25 years and another just 25 months.

“This is the kind of thing you’ll see more and more of,” the chief said about the computer.