Hotspot tackling petty crime

Municipality of Utrecht

Preventing petty crime at Utrecht hotspot locations.

Last change on 12th of July 2024, at 9:02 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Impactful algorithms
• Impact assessment: Field not filled in.
• Status: Out of use

General information

Theme

Public Order and Safety

Begin date

2019-07

End date

2023-07

Contact information

[e-mail]

Link to publication website

zichtopondermijning.nl

Responsible use

Goal and impact

We would like to prevent petty crime from taking place at Utrecht hotspot locations. By this we mean offences such as nuisance, theft and vandalism. To do so, we use existing information on petty crime that has previously taken place in Utrecht, along with its location and context. On this basis, we predict whether and where petty crime can take place in Utrecht hotspots.

Considerations

Results Utrechts Uthic Assessment: with this approach on preventing petty crime in Utrecht hotspots, we contribute to the values Safety and Health of Utrecht residents. From the value Privacy, we have ensured that only anonymised data is used. From the value Control of technology, we ensure that the application of the algorithm meets the conditions of information security.

Human intervention

The algorithm (with a direct impact on Utrecht residents and their living environment) always serves only as a source of information for an employee, who takes the appropriate next step based on this information and the context of the situation. This principle is included in our Utrecht framework Internal Guidelines for Algorithm Application.

Risk management

The Utrecht data scientists, Information and Process Advisors (IPA) and Decentralised Information Security Officers (DISO) within the Utrecht municipality have a controlling and monitoring role in the application of the algorithm, in addition to the employees directly involved. By doing so, we want to prevent the following risks from occurring:

- data leak by making personal data of Utrecht residents publicly available

- algorithm takes a decision completely independently, without the intervention of an employee and without interpreting the relevant context of the situation

- 'function creep' regarding data in the application of the algorithm, causing the algorithm to give a distorted picture of what is going on. This can occur because the same type of data is used when applying the algorithm, and the algorithm uses that as confirmation for what comes out as information

Operations

Data

Data sets used in applying the algorithm include the following:

- Petty crime overview with location

- Nuisance reports with location

- Demographic characteristics at aggregate level

- Environmental characteristics such as proximity to amenities such as traffic (bus stops or train stations) or shops