It's often a mundane detail that ultimately solves a crime. A nickname. A parking ticket. A past address. And it is mundane details — billions of them — that populate the data warehouse of the New York City Real Time Crime Center.
New York is now the safest large city in the U.S., one example of how cities are getting smarter about public safety.
IBM worked with the New York Police Department (NYPD) to create a data warehouse that could bring together information buried in filing cabinets, on index cards and in handwritten notes. Today, the RTCC stitches together more than 120 million New York City criminal complaints, 31 million national crime records and 33 billion public records, just to name a few.
Sophisticated analytics and search capabilities make connections across multiple databases. Information can be visualized in seconds on a two-story video wall: a photo of a suspect appears with details — tattoos, past offenses, addresses with maps — quickly filling in. Critical data can be relayed instantly to officers at the scene. What once took days now takes minutes.
IBM Deploys Citywide Surveillance in Chicago
IBM has worked with the city of Chicago to develop Operation Virtual Shield, which is among the most advanced citywide intelligent security systems. Encompassing one of the world's largest video security deployments, Operation Virtual Shield includes large-scale video surveillance and incorporates LPR, advanced search and trending capabilities.