The software processes crime incident data to predict where and when crimes may occur.
Analysis by The Markup found that Geolitica, formerly known as PredPol, produces predictions that rarely match recorded crime data.
The study examined 23,631 estimates made by Geolitica for Plainfield police in 2018. Surprisingly, less than half a percent of the predictions correctly predicted the same category of crimes reported to the police. In particular, the predictive success rate for robbery and aggravated assault was only 0.6%, and things were even worse for burglary; only 0.1%.
The findings call into question the reliability and effectiveness of crime prediction software and further fuel the debate over its use in law enforcement.
Source: Ferra
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