Data and technology are not drivers of crime in themselves. Rather, they are tools that are critical to successfully preventing crime, and have valuable applications. Sharing the right security information with citizens and working with manufacturers to design crime risks out of products and services are key to reducing opportunities. For “character”, pooling and analysing data across different local agencies can help professionals identify and help people who are vulnerable or at risk.
Better analysis of digital images and geolocation tagging could help make the Criminal System more effective at catching (and therefore deterring) criminals. Finding and correcting weak spots in online banking systems will make fraud less profitable to organised criminals.
Even for drugs and alcohol, drivers that are closely associated with “traditional” crimes, we can make more information on alcohol crime hotspots available to the public online, or use freight targeting technology to stop drug shipments at the border. But compared to some 10 years ago, the pace and scale of technological changes are staggering. We are increasingly living our lives online, and for many of us, that means not just using the internet to communicate or shop or pay bills, but the creation of an online persona which is indivisible from our “real world” selves.
This has far-reaching implications for our identity, for the “value” associated with it and how we protect it. Other developments – in robotics, bio-science and materials technology to name a few – are also transforming the world around us. The pace of this change provides a new challenge –whether that is for the police when responding to criminals’ use of new hardware like drones, or for banks and other companies when fending off the latest cyber-attack, or for young people and their parents when working out how to stay safe online.
To make best use of data and technology, we need a culture change in which everyone recognises that, in a more connected society, we all have a part to play in preventing crime. As members of the public, we have a responsibility to follow some basic rules to protect ourselves – choosing the more secure products, installing security software on all our devices, downloading software updates (particularly on our smartphones) and using strong passwords.
Businesses need to take responsibility to ensure their products and services don’t create opportunities for criminals, as well as protect their own networks and make it as easy as possible for customers to avoid unnecessary risks.
Law enforcement agencies need to share data – with each other, and with other partners in both the public and private sector – and embrace technology as a tool for preventing crime, rather than a specialist subject best left to the experts. And the government has an important role, too, not least in stripping away barriers to the effective use of data and data analytics, and helping others exploit new and existing technology to prevent crime. We can now use the same techniques to prevent crime.
Data analytics can:
• Help police deploy officers to prevent crime in known hotspots (often called “predictive policing”);
• Use information shared by local agencies on, for example, arrests, convictions, hospital admissions, and calls on children’s services to identify individuals who are vulnerable to abuse or exploitation;
• Spot suspicious patterns of activity that can provide new leads for investigators, such as large payments to multiple bank accounts registered at the same address;
• Show which products, services, systems or people are vulnerable to particular types of crime – for example that young women are disproportionately likely to have their smartphones stolen.
This means system flaws can be addressed, or crime prevention advice (e.g. on mobile phone security measures) can be targeted more effectively. Many enforcement officers are carrying out trials on forms of “predictive policing”, largely to forecast where there is a high risk of “traditional”crimes like burglaries happening, and plan officers’ patrol patterns accordingly.
Data analytics can be used to identify vulnerable people and to ensure potential victims are identified quickly and consistently. Effective use of data and technology in crime prevention, in my recent survey confirmed that there will be a drop in crime and fear of crime and lead to a safer community.
