The Chattanooga Police Department announced the expansion of their Crime Analysis Unit from one civilian employee to four total civilians. CPD is taking this step to better support one of its three newly adopted pillars of policing – Intelligence Led Policing.
ILP is a policing model built around the assessment and management of potential risk. ILP builds on community policing, problem-oriented policing, and the partnership model of policing now employed by CPD.
The Crime Analysis Unit is responsible for crime pattern analysis, geographic analysis, time-series analysis, and statistical analysis.
The application of analytical techniques—particularly quantitative techniques—identifies likely objectives for police intervention and can help prevent crime or solve past crimes by making statistical predictions.
The department says that officers will have timelier access to more quantitative information.
This quantitative data will be utilized to better anticipate where crime might happen next through predictive analytics.
“Predictive analytics will allow us to better anticipate where individuals may be most at risk of being victims and to identify patterns,” said Chief of Police Fred Fletcher. “This increased information will allow us to use finite resources to problem solve in the most effective manner possible.”
In addition to expanding the Crime Analysis Unit the department will be working over the next few months to increase the functionality of their Intelligence Unit to better supply officers and command staff with both qualitative and quantitative information.