{"619823":{"#nid":"619823","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Data-Driven Policing","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn an effort to reduce police officer response times to calls for assistance, Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Police Department partnered on a year-long project to reconfigure patrol areas across the city.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cstrong\u003EYao Xie\u003C\/strong\u003E, assistant professor in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EH. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E, analyzed multiple data sources\u0026mdash;911 calls, traffic data from the Georgia Department of Transportation, and Atlanta census numbers\u0026mdash;to identify patrol patterns and help predict future officer workloads. She then used the data to update the city\u0026rsquo;s zones and beats, which determine where to allocate officers across the city.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s important to design these beats and zone boundaries efficiently; this critically impacts response time,\u0026rdquo; said Xie. \u0026ldquo;Someone calls 911, how fast do police officers respond?\u0026rdquo;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCurrently, the average police response time to the city\u0026rsquo;s highest priority calls is 13 minutes. Although they haven\u0026rsquo;t publicly discussed a target response time, APD says the beat redesign will help to balance workloads across zones with the goal of answering calls for assistance more quickly.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026ldquo;Response time is something that you always want to manage and improve so that you\u0026rsquo;re delivering quality services to people,\u0026rdquo; said Major John Quigley, executive officer, Atlanta Police Department Strategy and Special Projects Division. \u0026ldquo;Everybody benefits from better service, whether it\u0026rsquo;s answering a 911 call or the follow-up investigation.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe City of Atlanta is\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/atlantapd.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/webappviewer\/index.html?id=e891b9b618a747a795d2f609a349ee7b\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Edivided into six geographic areas or zones\u003C\/a\u003E, with each zone split into 13 or 14 beats assigned to one patrol officer. Each officer is responsible for responding to all of the 911 calls in their assigned beat, everything from traffic incidents to serious crime.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nThe redesign affects three zones: Zone 6 in East Atlanta will increase by four square miles, while Zone 1 in Northwest Atlanta will grow by two square miles. Zone 2, which covers Northeast Atlanta and Buckhead, will decrease by seven square miles.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nRecently, the Buckhead district has seen a spike in car thefts, burglaries, and armed robberies. At a\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/news\/local\/buckhead-residents-confront-mayor-police-chief-about-crime\/5VYluSvFkIAmqUloAIIRSK\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Etown hall meeting\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;with concerned residents in early March, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields discussed how a smaller zone will allow officers to respond more quickly to 911 calls.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nIn a\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.atlantapd.org\/Home\/Components\/News\/News\/190\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Estatement about the beat redesign\u003C\/a\u003E, Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Jeff Glazier said, \u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s important that we examine our officer workload periodically, and with the help of Georgia Tech we were able to do so in a data-driven manner. We are confident these changes will balance the workload in all zones.\u0026rdquo;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nZone optimization also addresses Atlanta\u0026rsquo;s growing population, which has resulted in an increase in 911 calls and more work for the understaffed police force currently facing a shortage of 400 officers.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nAtlanta\u0026rsquo;s City Council voted in February to approve the re-zoning plan and the police department officially implemented it on March 17.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nThe redesign initiative is Xie\u0026rsquo;s second research project in partnership with the Atlanta Police Department and funded by the Atlanta Police Foundation. In 2017 she\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ipat.gatech.edu\/news\/smart-data-revolution\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Edeveloped an algorithm\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;that quickly analyzes incident reports to find connections between crimes.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nXie will soon begin working with the City of South Fulton to analyze its police zones, which haven\u0026rsquo;t been updated since the 1970s.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech and the Atlanta Police Department use publicly-available data to optimize the city\u0026rsquo;s officer patrol zones.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Police Department use publicly-available data to optimize the city\u2019s officer patrol zones."}],"uid":"27980","created_gmt":"2019-03-29 13:36:59","changed_gmt":"2019-07-10 19:28:38","author":"Alyson Key","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2019-03-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2019-03-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"619824":{"id":"619824","type":"image","title":"Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Police Department use publicly-available data to optimize the city\u2019s officer patrol zones","body":null,"created":"1553867020","gmt_created":"2019-03-29 13:43:40","changed":"1553867020","gmt_changed":"2019-03-29 13:43:40","alt":"Major John Quigley and Assistant Professor Yao Xie","file":{"fid":"235996","name":"APD-beat-redesign.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/APD-beat-redesign.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/APD-beat-redesign.png","mime":"image\/png","size":5353782,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/APD-beat-redesign.png?itok=OEn9-w7O"}}},"media_ids":["619824"],"groups":[{"id":"69599","name":"IPaT"},{"id":"594329","name":"Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation"}],"categories":[{"id":"142","name":"City Planning, Transportation, and Urban Growth"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"}],"keywords":[{"id":"144981","name":"atlanta police"},{"id":"38891","name":"APD"},{"id":"71771","name":"Yao Xie"},{"id":"426","name":"isye"},{"id":"167987","name":"smart cities"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAlyson Powell Key\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMarketing Communications Manager\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EInstitute for People and Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}