Predictive Analysis

This story has been on NewsRadio 780 on and off all day, but we can only find a short print version on the Channel 7 website. It's almost like they don't want us to dismantle the entire story, seeing as how it's so much bullshit.

• Chicago police Supt. Jody Weis talked Sunday about a new technique the department is using to fight crime.

  It's called Predictive Analytics. Data on crimes is combined with human intelligence to zero-in on places where crime is most likely to occur. That helps the department decide where to put its resources.

  Predictive Analysis was launched at the end of April, and Weis says the department is already seeing positive results.

This is a joke. We remember visiting a couple stations, seeing the maps and color coded push pins for burglaries, robberies, etc. This is nothing more than a computerized version of 1960's "technology." We can't find the actual WBBM story, but J-Fled tells some whoppers in his interview. He claims the Department is already seeing "results" because murders dropped from 57 in July 2009 to 43 this past month.

Did anyone check with Tommy Skilling? We had the wettest July in over 50 years! Weekends were washed out across the board and J-Fled is crediting "predictive analysis?" Hahahaha. He might as well claim the McDonald v Chicago decision made July safer. It's probably nearly as true.

And the maps - did everyone see the pretty maps? Blue and gold and purple and all sorts of territories marked out to predict where conflicts might arise. How about this? You see where two rival gangs of "people" and "folks" run up against each other? Watch for shootings around there. That'll be a million dollars please.

And here's another free one - we'll make another stab at where violence is going to erupt. How about "anywhere the police aren't at." The Sun Times and other outlets run with this "short 2,200 officer" line every week lately whenever the shootings are up. Then J-Fled holds a series of press conferences telling everyone things aren't as bad as they were 15 or 20 years ago because Shortshanks is worried that something like 60% of people perceive crime as being a real problem and Shanks still tosses J-Fled to the wolves. The bottom line is still the same:

• There aren't any police to respond to predictions!

Two, three, even six cars down per night. Backlogs of jobs that are three, four, sometimes seven hours old. Daley begging for federal money to pay overtime costs instead of hiring and training officers. Tens of thousands spent on cameras no one is watching. No detectives to actually follow up on cases. Incompetent court officers who couldn't try their way out of a paper bag making deals for the lowest misdemeanor charge their boss can run on in a few years time.

Predictive analysis. We predict someone will get a "merit" bump out of this BS.