Predictive Policing (1353A/22)
Request
I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request information about the use of data analytics for predictive policing purposes by your force. Examples of this could be crime mapping and hotspot identification systems, data-matching systems, decision-support tools, risk assessment and management algorithms, among others.
Specifically, I would like to request the following information:
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- The names, descriptions and purposes of any predictive policing systems used or trialled over the past three years.
- The names of the companies providing the services/tools and the relevant contracts, if purchased commercially.
- The data sources used in the predictive policing system.
- Any data sharing agreements established for the predictive policing system.
- Any summary reports or assessments produced in relation to trials/deployments.
- Any impact assessments (equalities, human rights, data protection) produced for the predictive policing system.
- Any consultations or reviews carried out prior to the deployment of the system.
- Any documents produced for the training of staff members in the use/operation of the system.
Response
Please find enclosed our response:
The names, descriptions and purposes of any predictive policing systems used or trialled over the past three years.
- Knife Crime (used causing injury) prediction; a spatio-temporal model that estimates the number and broad location (covering 1 square kilometre grids) of knife crimes where used causing injury over a coming 4 week period.
- Serious violence prediction; a spatio-temporal model that estimates the number and broad location (covering 0.5 square kilometre grids) of serious violence incidents over a coming 4 week period.
- IOM model; Defines harm and estimates the probability that someone (only those who have at some point been charged with an offence) will become high harm offenders.
The names of the companies providing the services/tools and the relevant contracts, if purchased commercially.
N/A – all data analytics tools provided by the Data Analytics Lab are developed in-house
The data sources used in the predictive policing system.
Internal West Midlands Police systems used in day-to-day work of Policing.
Any data sharing agreements established for the predictive policing system.
N/A – all data used is WMP data, no requirement for data sharing agreements
Any summary reports or assessments produced in relation to trials/deployments.
Papers relating to projects developed by the WMP Data Analytics Lab are publicly available, published on the PCC’s website
Any impact assessments (equalities, human rights, data protection) produced for the predictive policing system.
S21
Any consultations or reviews carried out prior to the deployment of the system.
See minutes of the WMP Data Ethics Committee Ethics Committee Reports and Minutes – West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner (westmidlands-pcc.gov.uk)
Any documents produced for the training of staff members in the use/operation of the system
Training has been provided to end users in person by the tool developers. There are no documents produced, training sessions tend to be recorded for future reference.
Attachments
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