Hoping to better tackle crime in the area, Gloucestershire Constabulary has adopted SAS’s analytics platform, using real-time analytics.

Gloucestershire Constabulary hopes that choosing SAS as the organisation’s analytics platform will help achieve their goals to improve policing strategies, gain more real-time insights into incidents and identify crime hotspots through the technology.

Using SAS’s platform will provide the Constabulary with the ability to construct an up-to-date image of incidents happening around the country as well as creating automated reports and better ways of presenting real-time data.

The force chose the SAS platform for its combination of real-time analytics and clear visualisation capabilities and will use the real-time insights to improve accountability of crime, by providing maps and performance indicators for the public.

“With police budgets across the country under pressure, it’s vital that we look for every opportunity to operate more efficiently and use the latest data-driven tools in the fight against crime,” said Bob Keeble, continuous improvement manager, Gloucestershire Constabulary. “To ensure that we focus on the issues that are most important to our residents, we need a breakdown of the locations and times when criminals are most likely to strike.”

How Gloucestershire police force is fighting crime with SAS real-time analytics platform
Real time analytics will help fight crime by pinpointing crime areas.

Other benefits of adopting the platform include using the data to build a co-ordinated media and policing strategy as well as bringing a better aligned staff training regime to ensure officers are trained to manage the rise in crimes such as sexual offence and cyber-attacks.

Using SAS’s analytics platform the force will not be able to bring together data from numerous systems, including the electronic incident log and GPS-capable radios to formulate the crime maps and analyse everything in one place. With this data the force can then identify crime hotspots, monitor offender trends and see a real-time breakdown of crime statistics.

Members of the force have found it beneficial to day to day work life, making it much simpler to collate and analyse data to do their job protecting the community much better.

Keeble said: “They find the technology incredibly intuitive and simple to use. Our senior leaders can now view three-year trends per crime type, and gain crucial insight into trends and patterns. Meanwhile officers can drill down into the data to monitor specific crime types on a postcode-by-postcode basis. This insight can then be used to inform the public about crime hotspots, such as spikes in burglaries, in a particular area.”

GCHQ helps fight crime
How AI, analytics helps emergency services
How SAS helps the football environment

Gloucestershire Constabulary and SAS aim to work together to fight crime in the area using data analytics and believe collating the data into a singular location to monitor will effectively achieve this aim.

Charles Senabulya, VP & Country Manager at SAS UK & Ireland said: “Our work with Gloucestershire Constabulary is already helping to tackle crime more effectively and get the most out of available resources. As we continue to partner with them in the on-going fight against crime, we are exploring new developments, such as how to enhance forecasting abilities and incorporate new sources of data – including information from body-worn cameras.”