[telecom] Web tool assesses crime risk in an instant

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Web tool assesses crime risk in an instant

By Mark Sullivan, CORRESPONDENT Sunday, June 9, 2013

WORCESTER - With the click of a mouse, there appears on the computer screen what looks like a weather map. Swirls of green and yellow and red resemble storm systems.

This isn't a meteorologist's chart, but a map of relative crime risks across a swath of Worcester.

Andrew Schiller, founder and chief executive officer of Location Inc., a big data analysis company, is demonstrating a new product that instantly can assess the security risks at any address in the country.

The tool, called SecurityGauge, uses crime, geographic and demographic data from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies and other sources to produce a "holistic picture" of the risks at a given location within 10 meters in any direction.

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Tools such as this one depend on accurate information for their success, and if a community chooses not to report crimes, then it will show an artificially low crime rate, and also a lowered "danger" rating.

Bill Horne Moderator