By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The St. Joseph Police department is taking advantage of advancing technology and combatting crime in a more focused way.
Police Chief Paul Luster says the department is focused on what is called precision policing, using data to help drive how officers focus on crime
"What I call we go fishing with a spear not a net, so we have a scenario violent crime pop up in a neighborhood, well let’s really look at our data, let’s do our research, and lets what I call laser focus, pinpoint on the people or the person, let’s pinpoint the location, and then let’s be precise on how we’re going to handle that issue,” Luster says on the KFEQmunnity show.
Luster says the process helps officers go into an issues laser focused on how to combat the crime with a precise approach
“We know we’re having a problem, this is our problem house, these are the people associated with the house, let’s get our partners on board, let’s get out there in the community and not only deal with that house but let’s attempt to bolster relationships with the neighborhood, let them know we’re here and we’re working on it, maybe get some information if we can, encourage them to call in with information,” Luster explains.
Luster says that extends to bi-weekly meetings with law enforcement partners, including the prosecutor's office, to go over the cases that are shown in the data.
Luster says the data help determine hotspots of where certain crimes are happening
“Map of the city and we may put in the criteria, of let’s just say we put in aggravated assaults, and we plug that in and that grabs data from our reporting system and then it will put heat spots on that map,” Luster says. “And it may go from a light color to glowing hot on that map, so that shows us ok we’re having problems in this neighborhood and maybe this neighborhood.”
Luster points to a recent community engagement in the College Hill Park neighborhood where there were some hotspots. The engagement ended up resolving some cases and getting community engagement while working in that area.
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