by CivicMeter Staff | Aug 28, 2018 | Civic Analytics
The attraction of predictive policing is that it incorporates a quantitative element into the field of law enforcement. Doing so supposedly introduces mathematical rigor and a scientific basis into decisions about further detention, investigation, sentencing, or...
by CivicMeter Staff | Aug 28, 2018 | Civic Analytics
Models of forest fire behavior have long helped emergency managers prepare for the annual wildfire season in western US states. But the complexity of the wildland-urban transition zone (where wildfires cross into human-occupied areas) that has so far defied attempts...
by CivicMeter Staff | Aug 27, 2018 | Civic Analytics
Chances are that in a few years the faces shown to you in advertisements would have been tailored so you could identify with them and be more receptive to their messages. This form of cost-effective mass customization is now made possible with the development of new...
by CivicMeter Staff | Aug 27, 2018 | Civic Analytics
Performance management systems help states keep their eye on the ball and warn them if they are heading off-target. But not all such systems are calibrated for full efficiency. Sarah Dube, a director at the Pew-MacArthur Results First Initiative, writes on the...
by CivicMeter Staff | Aug 27, 2018 | Civic Analytics, Data Science
The United States abounds in databases both public and private but most of federal government data remain in unstructured formats and residing in inaccessible servers. A recent push towards an open data policy has achieved some gains but the incompatibility among data...
by CivicMeter Staff | Aug 27, 2018 | Civic Analytics
As the use of predictive analytics expands beyond niches like suicide prevention and road safety into more contentious areas like child protection and parole/sentencing decisions, more and more voices are raised against the opaque algorithms that govern such software....
by CivicMeter Staff | Aug 27, 2018 | Civic Analytics
Cities generate tremendous amounts of data, most of it heterogeneous and unstructured. But the actionable information that can be gleaned from this huge pile of data can help cities thrive and prosper going forward. Facing limited resources and urgent needs, cities...
by CivicMeter Staff | Aug 27, 2018 | Civic Analytics
Federal officials who try to an accurate read of the US economy from the mass of available public and private economic data influence need all the help they can get. Their insights into the economy and where it is heading influence important economic decisions by the...
by CivicMeter Staff | Mar 15, 2018 | Criminal Justice
How many gang members are in the United States? It depends who you ask, and what political party they affiliate with. In his State of the Union speech this January, President Donald Trump called one such gang, the MS-13 as “worse than Al-Qaeda” and “true animals.” The...
by CivicMeter Staff | Mar 15, 2018 | Criminal Justice
Many industries have their own version of the same dilemma: When driverless cars kill their first pedestrian, who should be blamed? When that automated doctor fouls up your diagnosis, who do we point the finger at? And when innocent people are sent to jail because...
