Roger Evans is a Conservative member of the London Assembly
At Mayor’s Question Time the other day I asked Boris Johnson to step up efforts to introduce US style predictive crime mapping in London. Predictive mapping uses technology which examines historic crime data and human behaviour analysis, to judge where an offence is likely to take place and dispatch resources accordingly.
Many readers will remember when this type of technology was championed in New York by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani with his famed “Compstat” system. More recently in other parts of the USA, cities such as Memphis have seen a reduction of 30 per in crime and in Los Angeles, the city recorded a 33 per cent reduction in burglary after the introduction of this assistive technology. Just as impressive was the 21 per cent fall in violent crime the city experienced.
Here in the UK, our neighbours in Kent have piloted similar technology and results from the project indicate that there has been a 10 per cent reduction in crime. The pilot ran for four months in Medway where street violence saw a significant fall in addition to the overall reduction.
I hope that Boris and the Commissioner take this forward in London, so we can lead the way in the UK.