How big data is changing the nature of policing from reactive to proactive

Dwindling budgets, the changing nature of crime and the contemporary demands of communities are forcing police across the country to reevaluate their approach to law enforcement. Adding data-driven insights to their traditional policing expertise could provide a solution. It has already found a home in numerous areas of policing, from fraud detection to the identification of crime hotspots, and is transforming methods of policing from reactive to preventative.

"We strive to be more preventative," Detective Chief Superintendent of West Midlands Police Andy Hill told the audience at the Reform Big Data in Government Conference on Tuesday. "That isn't a new concept for policing. If we look back to Sir Robert Peel's 1829 Principles of Policing, it's number one on that list and then it recurs again down at number nine [the final entry on the list]."

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