On the other hand, the desire to obtain any data available without a warrant is resulting in some very twisted uses of third-party records. . .
>Maria Polletta posted this article in the Arizona Republic on October 21, 2016 - two months after the Mesa City Council approved contracts, addressing lingering issues that few people are aware of . . . Over the next three years, Mesa will spend nearly $200,000 to implement PredPol crime-predicting software with councilmembers little informed about it.
In August, a Mesa staff report asserted PredPol's hot-spot-generation tool would "support the city’s efforts to suppress, deter and reduce crime."
The department still is working to determine when it will begin using the software; how many officers it will train to use it; and what, if any, any tools or strategies it will use to measure PredPol's effectiveness, police spokesman Nik Rasheta said.
...Mesa Vice Mayor Dennis Kavanaugh, a longtime advocate of innovation and experimentation in public safety, called predictive policing "one of the best practices recommended for departments to consider," despite its potential limitations. . .
PredPol software will provide easy to use predictions for where and when property crime, drug crime, gun violence, gang activity and traffic incidents are most likely to occur based on historical data, current crimes and mathematical modeling.
The Police Department and Purchasing recommend awarding the contract to the sole source vendor, PredPol; year 1 at $60,400; and years 2 and 3 at $54,900 annually, based on estimated requirements.
The one-time setup fee of $5,500 and an annual subscription fee of $54,900 (for the first three years) are funded by the Asset Forfeiture (RICO) Funds.
Hot-spot strategy is cooling violence, police say
"Mesa Police Department officials told Mesa City Council’s public safety committee that an initiative to attack crime hot spots with a surge of officers for a limited period of time has helped the department lower violent crime in Mesa amid a national rise.
While overall crime in Mesa, including property crimes, is slightly up from last year, police said the city saw a 14% drop in violent incidents in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the same period in 2021.
They attributed the progress to a recently launched program that will target violent crime by drawing personnel from every division of the force together in a specific location every night for two weeks, once per quarter. . ."
Sometimes we can get compartmentalized, right, I’m doing my thing and Gang (Unit) does their thing.” Landato said. “It’s a good thing when you can kind of bring everybody out to play together, if you will. For me, that’s what I like to see.”
Patrol officers, gang and narcotics specialists, and “shirt and tie” detectives will work side-by-side to make seizures and arrests seen as most likely to prevent violent crime, such as drug dealing, illegal gun possession and outstanding warrants.
Chief Ken Cost told council in April that Mesa is one of the safest large cities in the U.S., but it still has its share of violent crime.
“People get in arguments and the guns come out, and gun play is a huge deal right now,” Cost said in April. At a community forum last year, Cost said, “we know that it’s the street level drug dealing that is turning into violent crimes.”
To try to head off a rise in violent crime last summer, Mesa PD rolled out a 15-week summer program. After analyzing violent crime between May and December of 2021 and seeing a decrease in violence, Mesa PD leadership asked district lieutenants to reinstitute a new version of the program in 2022, called the Violent Crime Program.
The first operation occurred earlier this year. . .
[ ] One example he gave was an arrest for drug possession by a patrol officer that eventually developed into a massive drug bust within two days. The patrol officer worked with detectives and narcotics agents to move up the food chain.
“One night you arrest somebody because they got drugs on them,” Landato said of focused violent crime operations, “and you get some information that leads you to over here. Next thing you know you’re doing a search warrant here and there’s drugs and, oh my gosh, this has led to information about over here.”
“Then the next thing you know you’re looking at something like this,” Landato said, showing off a picture of tables laden with 14 guns, almost 3,000 grams of fentanyl pills, 43 grams of heroin, 37 grams of meth, $10,000 in cash.
Sometimes we can get compartmentalized, right, I’m doing my thing and Gang (Unit) does their thing.” Landato said. “It’s a good thing when you can kind of bring everybody out to play together, if you will. For me, that’s what I like to see.”
No comments:
Post a Comment