The North Bay Police Service might be able to improve its response times and even prevent crimes as a result of a collaborative project with Nipissing University.
Chief Scott Tod says the department was approached by the school asking if the police wanted to partner with a Masters student doing a thesis on how police statistical data is used.
“They suggested there may be an alternative way we look at the data,” Tod said.
“After meeting with them we decided to enter into the project. We’ll provide the student with data with how we respond to calls for service and how we travel throughout the community when we’re responding to calls for service.”
Tod says the nature of the information police will give the Masters student is data on the direction of travel and the type of response.
He emphasizes no personal information or addresses will be shared.
Tod says the local police service has no way of looking at all the data it has.
“We don’t have an internal statistical analyst or business analyst or crime analyst,” he said.
“This is an opportunity for us to look at our police service and how we respond to the community.”
Tod says if the information identifies areas where there are high call frequencies or areas where more officers are required, “we can actually work on what’s the best route the officers” can use to get there.
Tod says it’s not just a question of speed for how quickly police get to a scene.
He says the thesis being put together by the student may actually help prevent or deter other crimes from occurring in those areas where police are in the process of responding to an incident.
Tod says the department should have all the information from the student’s thesis by next summer.
He adds if it proves useful to the North Bay police it’s possible other law enforcement agencies can use the same methodology to reduce and prevent crimes in their jurisdictions.
