Armed with high-tech software and years of crime data, Miami police believe they will soon be able to stop crimes by predicting when and where they will occur..

I can't help but feel that basically officers are being told to hang out in high crime areas more than usual because the map shows what intrinsically Police officers who walk/drive/patrol these beats already know. Predictive Policing should in theory work depending on how you aggregate the data but the descriptions provided are less Minority Report and more googles maps.  Read the article and chime in below. Let us know what you think!

It sounds a little like something out of a science fiction novel, but the department is in the process of adopting a predictive policing system called HunchLab that produces maps showing small areas where specific crimes are likely to be committed during shifts. The probability program is a geographical version of “predictive policing” software, which more departments are using — even if, in the words of one supportive cop, it’s “kind of scary.”

Similar algorithm-based programs have been credited with lowering crime rates in cities around the country, and some South Florida departments recently have adopted their own systems. In Miami’s case, the department is funding the implementation of HunchLab and other software programs with a $600,000 federal grant doled out by the Bureau of Justice Assistance to encourage smart policing tactics.

Miami accepted the grant in November. On Thursday, the city commission will vote on a $120,000 contract with Florida International University to have Rob Guerette, an associate professor of criminal justice, study the department’s program and run tests ahead of its launch.

“It doesn’t replace actual police work,” said Lt. Sean MacDonald, who wrote the grant application. “It’s policing with smarter technology.”

MacDonald said Miami police want to use HunchLab mostly to tackle robberies, auto thefts and home burglaries — crimes in which the department has clearance rates about half the national average. With the program, officers or supervisors will be able to focus their attention on areas where software models tell them that data show there is a high probability that crime will occur.

Police, of course, have always tried to use data to identify crime trends, and for years Miami police have done that with the data-crunching system known as COMPSTAT. Except, now, instead of identifying where crime hot spots have occurred, they’re looking at where crime will occur.

“It goes beyond just looking at crime data,” MacDonald said.

Just how much — and whether — predictive policing software really works remains somewhat of a question. But officers in Los Angeles say a program known as PredPol developed by the department and college professors, and now sold to departments around the country, has helped prevent and stop property crimes, and is now being tested on gun crimes.

In Atlanta, crime dropped by close to 10 percent in two zones where predictive software by the L.A.-based PredPol was put into use by cops during a three-month pilot program, according to Lt. LeAnne Browning, who oversees the department’s video integration center. Supervisors handed out maps to officers at the beginning of their shifts, and when cops had spare time they spent it in the targeted areas. The department monitored where their cops were, how much time they spent in high-risk zones, and every report that came out of the highlighted areas.

“We all thought predictive policing was somewhat hocus pocus and Minority Report,” she said, referring to the Steven Spielberg sci-fi film in which police used psychic powers to stop murders before they happened. “We could see if PredPol was predicting fairly well. It’s kind of scary, because they were.”

It’s just one example of how police are using software to solve or prevent crimes. Miami-Dade’s robbery division, for instance, uses an IBM program called Blue PALMS to solve cold cases. The software has a database of every crime ever documented by Miami-Dade police, and detectives can punch in an old crime report and get a list of 20 suspects within one minute.

“This is not science fiction,” Major Arnold Palmer says in a promotional IBM video.

In Miami, MacDonald said that the software the department is using is a more elaborate version of PredPol, which uses only crime data. Miami police also are punching in everything from paydays to school calendars, weather reports and social media. The department also is using the federal grant to establish an offender database.

Larry Samuels, CEO of PredPol, cautioned about the use of multiple variables, saying the more information you pump into a system, the more the predictions will vary. He said with Miami, as with any policing tool, predictive software will be only as good as the officers using it.

“If you do it in a haphazard way you’ll get haphazard results,” he said. “The credit for success needs to rely in the department.”

How long does it take to get from one part of the city to another?

One question that always comes up as a real estate broker is "how long does it take to get from my home to work?". With the amount of experience we have in the business it's usually not hard to give an exact response based on time of day and points being travelled. But, what if you are not yet working with a realtor or just kicking the tires and curious about commute times and distances. Our travel time map for Miami page does just that! Beside Miami, you can use this tool in just about any place that has traffic.

We embedded below two map types for you to try.

The first one is from a group called Mapnificent which shows how far you can with public transportation for a given time. Beside Miami you can also check various other locales around the world as well.

Here is an embedded travel time map for Miami. It's a very straightforward mapping application. You will see where we placed a pin on the map. Simply move it to any area of interest and the mapping tool will recalculate the amount of distance you can travel based on the amount of time you place on the bottom right of the map.

Mapnificent Map

The Second Travel time map for Miami is from a web page called isoscope which is a slightly different iteration of travel time in that it calculates car travel time but also factors in the time of day in hour increments. To use the map simply type in the city you are interested in. Then, click on the map in the place you want to view and a map overlay will depict the various distances you can travel by car depending on the day and hour. There is also a pedestrian overlay that you can place as well which works great if you zoom in. In a city like Miami where pedestrian traffic in urban cores is still nascent, the pedestrian overlay is not terribly useful. But, try Berlin, Tokyo, New York, Paris, Chicago and it's a much more interesting metric.

Isoscope

Unfortunately, this interactive map is no longer available. Alas, all that is the web is not permanent. Dec 19 2018

If there is a tool you like to see how long it takes to get from one place to another that you find accurate and is aesthetically interesting we would love to hear about it.

I admit it... I am a map and data junkie... We live in a super connected world that constantly tracks and analyzes all myriad of things in our lives. Some of this data becomes quite interesting when overlayed on a map.

The above map image by Data Underload over at Flowing Data, is a great example of how people's preferences for certain areas becomes clear when you overlay the habits of many runners over time. As is always the case, where to run in Miami is also great for showing places to get out and bike, walk, LIVE, etc. Downtown Miami, Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove and Coral Gables feature prominently and are all great places to live, work, play and raise a family.

Do beware as Flowing Data points out that you do have ghost data such persons who apparently seem to be able to walk on water. Most likely GPS coordinate snafu of someone paddle boarding, kayaking or some such thing over the water.

There are also maps of a few more cities to check out at their website.

An interactive map showing where to bike and run South Florida and beyond.

Brought to you buy Strava Labs. This is an incredibly large data set of places to bike and run South Florida but also just about anywhere in the world you can imagine. The data is very granular so once you drill down to a more specific place you will see even more detail.

What makes these maps interesting from a luxury real estate perspective is that great places to ride are usually great places to live. The Main tracks in South Florida take you to Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove, Ponce Davis, Coral Gables and Pinecrest. As you head further north-west closer to the Everglades, you see lots of Activity in the Weston, SouthWest Ranches, Davie area which have great parks and homes for many local professional athletes, etc.

At the time of this posting, the heat maps provided by Strava where getting hit pretty hard so a bit of patience might be in order but the results are really worth the wait.

If not at the link above in the first paragraph, you can also go to the Strava labs website where they have some other interesting GPS based mapping interactions. Click HERE for that page.

There is also below an embed of the Strava labs page you can try out as well. Just set your heat map options and then minimize the options screen to see the map. ENJOY!

How to buy luxury real estate using the geography of beer.

Okay, truth be told, we don't literally expect everyone to buy their next luxury home from us based on beer ALONE...  Though we are always happy to share a pint in the process or after. But, we do find it fantastic how Matthew Zook and Ate Poorthuis were able to take geocoded data (hashtags and the like) on twitter to build these maps.

The geography of beer maps were built using data from 2012 and comprise about a million geocoded beer tweets during that time.

Apparently, down here in South Florida we are quite fond of Yuengling? Considering that it is the oldest operating brewery in the United States having been established in 1829, might mean we South Floridian's have a discerning taste for beer? It could also mean some great online marketing was taking place in South Florida. In either outcome, it helped shape the geography of beer map that you see here. For the record, I'm sticking with a discerning palate...

As luxury real estate data junkies, we can't wait to figure out how to integrate this type of data into the analytics we hope to be sharing in the not to distant future.

Here is a little more information about the folks who came up with the geography of beer.

What would it look like if you could view the growth of a major city over the course of almost 200 years from above? Well, now you have your answer? These three videos show the almost Rorschach inkblot like growth of major cities around the world. Granted, the symmetry might be lacking when compared to a Rorschach test but the beauty and expansion is just captivating.

How Cities Grow and seeing it play out in this manner is interesting because it makes you think about the Topography of the land and how it helps or impedes growth. Then, couple that with master planning (Paris is a great example of a controlled growth model) and you begin to see an intersection of man and his surroundings collide. Let's not even get into the discussion of natural resources.

Then throw in developers, cheap land, incentives to build or grow from municipalities to states and things get really interesting. Also, it's stunning the speed with which growth takes place as you start to get closer to the present day images of these cities. Without a doubt urban living is hitting an apex of sorts. On the flip side you could also argue that rural living simply was in the way of incredible expansive urban growth.

Whatever the reason  how cities grow, check out the videos below and hit us up in the comment section. Credit to those who took the time to create this great animation and the thinking behind it is at after the videos.

 Los Angeles:

Sao Paolo:

Paris:

Below you can learn more about How Cities Grow

Initial Credit goes to GIZMODO and the author of their article for tipping us off. From there we head over to the Stern School at NYU where the Urbanization Project that spearheaded and helped fund this project is located. We then end up at the page of Patrick Lamson-Hall (A Research Scholar at NYU) where links to the YouTube videos here are also posted. Finally, after a little more digging, we land at the Lincoln Institutes Atlas of Urban Expansion where you can download data on over 130 cities in PDF form. Sadly, no one has done this work for South Florida or Miami but it would be great if they did. Oh, don't forget the fine folks over in Quito, Ecuador who put the videos together!

Miami Crime Map That Updates Regularly

For all you Dragnet Fans and budding PI's here is a link to a miami crime map solution. I thought this would be an interesting link for those persons looking into buying real estate in the Miami area and wanting to know about crime in the area. It's an interactive map showing all types of criminal activity with easy to read icons and descriptions and the areas where they happened.

As and FYI, the Miami Crime Map does have links to other municipalities that participate in this program throughout the United States.

Click HERE to jump to the map.

Update:

I took a deeper look and found the following links that are also active with varying degrees of success in mapping. Try the following links for specific communities. You might have to dig around the user interface but it might yield the information you are looking for.

Crime Reports . Com Nice clean interface but did not load data properly. Would love to see this interface improve. Also using the same interface and data sets is Crimemapping.com

Spot Crime I like this one in that it loaded data and you could search almost any area. Just type in the zip code for the best results. Too many adds.

Sex Offenders Map Crime reports also has this feature but these folks focus on this as their main service.

Miami Dade County Crime Mapping Software: This should be the mother of all databases for crime statistics for all cities within Miami-Dade County.  You might have issues when loading crime statistics within a specific city but in general it's very comprehensive system though a bit slow.

There are more sites out there that offer much of the same each with it's own take on the crime mapping theme. You mileage will vary...

If you find a good site pass it on and we will post it!

Update #2

I received a posting from someone in the support section of raids online claiming a similar product. I took a peek and have to say that they actually have a pretty good product!

Check it out HERE:

One thing this website does that is different from the others is heat mapping or color coding areas of higher activity from others with less or... no activity at all. The interface is straightforward as well. You can also view this on tablet and phone devices with some limitations.

The only issue I have is the same one I had with all of these products which is limited data sets. It seems that accumulating comprehensive data beyond a city or handful of cities is difficult.