Salinas police ax crime predicting software.

The latest change to the Salinas Police Department, which is due to not having sufficient staff, is the loss of a software program that helped predict where a crime was likely to occur next. 

In the same way that an earthquake causes ‘aftershocks,’ the software—called PredPol—predicts where crimes trigger ‘aftercrimes,’ based on mathematical equations using the time and location of previous crimes and sociological information about criminals. 

The software was acquired in 2012 and came in handy in Salinas, where retaliatory violence plagues the streets. 

Hoping to put a halt to the violence, the city spent $25,000 to test the software for two years. 

PredPol successfully predicted locations where crime would occur, but those areas were not patrolled enough, Salinas Police Chief Kelly McMillin says. 

For the software to work, it was recommended that officers spent an average of 171 minutes every day on each high-crime hot spot. Salinas police officers only had time to spend 20 minutes per day in those areas.  

“I absolutely support this recommendation, but give me the bodies—we don't have the bodies,” McMillin says.

By the time the contract was up for renewal, the police department axed it.

In a year when homicides have skyrocketed and broken the all-time record with a current tally of 34, McMillin says this software could have helped prevent fatal shootings.

“But my first priority is and always will be to respond to emergency 911 calls,” he says. “Salinas police are so busy we don't have the time to be on the box.”

When asked if crime declined when the software was used, McMillin said it would be hard to tell, as crime prevention is hard to measure. 

Ironically, one of the reasons the software was obtained was to "fine tune what officers are already doing and make it more efficient," then Salinas Interim Police Chief Cassie McSorely said when talking about the new acquisition.