Newark, New Jersey
An evidence based, technology focused approach to addressing hot spots for gun violence
Project Overview
Newark has the third highest violence rate in New Jersey and is above average on the national scale of cities similar in size. This crime is concentrated in specific areas of the City. Approximately 26 percent of violent crime incidents in Newark were committed in the Fifth Precinct in 2016. The Newark SPI proposed to respond to chronic violent crime in the Fifth Precinct through the Model Precinct Accountability and Cooperation Team (M-PACT). M-PACT created a smaller police precinct within a standard police precinct in order to focus on a smaller area that is affecting crime disproportionally. This mini-precinct implemented evidence-based strategies and integrate technology in order to achieve significant violence reductions. The initiative focused on reducing chronic violence through the use of evidence-based strategies, technology based crime interventions, and community engagement. The Impact of M-PACT will be analyzed through comparison to a comparable treatment area, also within the Fifth Precinct.
Methods and Findings
- The Model Precinct Accountability and Cooperation Team (M-PACT) will use technology including:
- Starlight, a data/system agnostic solution that presents an opportunity for state, county, and municipal law enforcement entities to begin working with a data integration tool to share real time data captured from each participating agency’s current CAD, RMS, ShotSpotter, and Automated License Plate Recognition technology. Starlight also has the ability to incorporate data from persons of interest databases and registries, facial recognition, GPS data, camera feeds, live traffic feeds, and Visualized Building Plans.
- PredPol, an analytic software tool that the SPI team will use to make predictions using three data points: past type of crime, place of crime, and time of crime.
- M-PACT will work within the violence reduction treatment zone. A comparable area within the same Newark Precinct will receive no M-PACT treatment. These two areas will be compared on the outcomes of reductions in crime such as murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults, as well as community attitudes.
