Police are always trying to get inside criminals' minds to predict their next move. In Yonkers, New York, last week a police computer turned this guessing game into a science by correctly forecasting the time and place of a robbery -- and dispatched officers to nab the perpetrators.
Lt. James McLaughlin of the Yonkers Police Department technical support unit used a PC to analyze crime statistics and predict the time and location of a robbery before it occurred.
McLaughlin's PC said a robbery would occur between 8 p.m. and midnight on July 27 on South Broadway in Yonkers, New York.
When a 25-year-old woman was robbed at 8:44 p.m. on South Broadway, she flagged down two patrolling police officers who were in the area because of McLaughlin's tip.
Minutes after the officers called in the crime, they found two armed suspects in the area with a stolen cell phone belonging to the victim, according to a report in The Journal News.
Crime analysis technology isn't new, and numerous police agencies have been using similar methods for more a decade, especially with auto theft.
"All the larger agencies have been using it for years to some degree, some to more success than others," said Chris E. McGoey, president of McGoey security consulting.
McGoey said despite the Yonkers Police Department's success in this instance, crime analysis is good for managing police resources but is unlikely to prevent future crime.
Crimes are rarely committed in front of officers, which means police still have to wait for a phone call to react to a robbery, even if it was predicted, McGoey said. And unless police share crime prediction analyses with the public, all the police can do is send out more patrols into high-crime areas.
"Police have this data but are reluctant to share it," said McGoey. "It would do more good if it was available to the public so they could use it to make their business safer and prevent the crime from ever occurring."
The Yonkers Police Department didn't respond to requests for comment.
