NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Police Chief Jeff Hooper said where they place resources continues to be driven by data.
"That crime data and our predictive policing model pretty much drives everything that we do," Hooper said. "Officers still respond to calls for service when we're called for assistance. Outside of that, officers are either doing one of two things based off of our two driving principles. They are conducting community engagements, getting out into the neighborhoods, talking to people, or they are focusing on an intelligence led policing strategy."
The numbers say if there's been a crime in a given place once, there likely will be again.
"We have the ability to determine, within basically a thousand foot radius that there's an increased likelihood of about 42% that that's a high crime area and a crime is more likely to occur there."
However, most of the time, crime doesn't happen when police are actively watching.
"If an officer spends five minutes in a particular area, that will decrease or deter crime in that particular neighborhood for up to two hours. That's just by seeing a police car there. They don't even have to do anything. Think about this, if you have an area that's 42% more likely that there's going to be a crime occurring there, if you put an officer there and he sits there for five minutes works on a report, gets out and talks to people and then he leaves and two hours later he comes back, and two hours later they come back, we can effectively eliminate crime in that particular area that has a higher likelihood of seeing crime. That's how you decrease crime in your community, is by being proactive and getting out in front of crime as opposed to reacting after crimes occur."
Hooper also emphasized how important it is that members of the community let police know when they see something, so that they can follow up.