Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher has boosted staffing in his crime analysis unit by 300 percent to reflect a new focus on what he calls “intelligence-led policing.”
Fletcher hired three civilian analysts, bringing the unit’s staffing up to four, according to a police news release Thursday.
The increased manpower is part Fletcher’s effort to ramp up the police department’s focus on quantitative data. The unit will crunch all sorts of crime data, looking for geographic and statistical patterns that can help police either prevent crime or be immediately available to stop crime if it does occur.
“Predictive analytics will allow us to better anticipate where individuals may be most at risk of being victims and to identify patterns,” Fletcher said in a news release. “This increased information will allow us to use finite resources to problem solve in the most effective manner possible.”