Report Prepared by: Lance Eber, Crime Analyst, Police Department
Title
SUBJECT: Approval of Agreement with PredPol, Inc., for Predictive Policing Software Subscription
REPORT IN BRIEF
Considers approving an agreement with Predpol, Inc. to provide predictive policing software that will assign probabilities and locations of future crimes.
RECOMMENDATION
City Council - Adopt a motion approving the contract with Predpol, Inc., and; authorizing the City Manager or Assistant City Manager to execute the necessary documents.
Body
ALTERNATIVES
1. Approve execution of the contract as recommended; or
2. Decline to award contract; or
3. Refer to staff with direction
AUTHORITY
Section 3.04.120 of the Merced Municipal Code
CITY COUNCIL PRIORITIES
To enhance police staffing by providing tools to assist officers in carrying out law enforcement duties.
DISCUSSION
Predictive policing will enhance the Department’s ability to assign probabilities of future crime events to each districts, present estimated crime risk in a useable framework to law enforcement decision makers and lead to more efficient & more accurate resource deployment by local law enforcement agencies.
How PredPol Works:
Using only three data points - past type, place and time of crime and a unique algorithm based on criminal behavior patterns, PredPol’s powerful software provides Merced Police Department with customized crime predictions for the places and times that crimes are most likely to occur. PredPol pinpoints small areas, depicted in 500 feet by 500 feet boxes on maps - that are automatically generated for each shift of each day.
PredPol’s tool enables law enforcement to enhance and better direct the patrol resources they have. It does not replace, but requires, the insights of veteran officers and crime analysts. Typically, patrol officers spend a few minutes in PredPol boxes to deter crime when they’re not responding to calls for service or performing other duties. Some of these boxes are places that officers routinely cover, but many others are places that might not otherwise receive attention. This also provides officers an opportunity to interact with residents, aiding in relationship building and strengthening community ties.
The Merced Police Department’s Command Staff recommends the use of this software to help reduce crime and provide more efficient service to our community. Modesto Police Department has already started using this technology and appears to have been beneficial to their city.
City Council approved a contract for this service on July 20, 2015, for the contract amount of $44,700 for the period of 7/2015 through 7/2018. That original contract is expiring. This contract is for one year to run 7/2018 through 7/2019 at a cost of $14,900. The contract can be renewed annually for one-year terms.
IMPACT ON CITY RESOURCES
Funding is available in the Fiscal Year 2018-19 budget under account 061-1026-522-17-00.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Predpol contract