Analyzing Crime Data from Chicago Police Department using Watson Analytics Software

This project analyzes crime data from the Chicago Police Department using Watson Analytics software to give informed decisions and lay strategies on improving the security of the Chicago city. The analysis will help to give an informed decisions and lay strategies on improving the security of the Chicago city.

Business Project Management
Name
Federation University- Australia
Professor
Date

Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................3
Task 1- Background information.............................................................................................................3
Task 3 – Advanced Insights......................................................................................................................4
Task 4 – Research......................................................................................................................................4
Task 5 – Recommendations for POLICE CHIEF...................................................................................7
Task 6 – Cover letter...............................................................................................................................10
Task 7 - The Reflection:..........................................................................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
This project is aimed at analyzing crime data from the Chicago Police Department concerning
the reported crimes from the year 2012. This will be accomplished by use of the Watson
Analytics software. The analysis will help to give an informed decisions and lay strategies on
improving the security of the Chicago city.
Task 1- Background information
This project entails use of Watson analytics software to analyze data obtained from the
Chicago police department. The dataset to be analyzed is about the reported crimes in Chicago
from the year 2012. The project aims analyzing the Chicago crime data, present the findings in a
clear manner and then provide an automated predictive analysis by analyzing the data in order to
get an overview of the crimes in Chicago from the year 2012 so as to come up with informed
preventive and corrective measures of curbing crime cases in Chicago so as to increase the safe
city index of the City.
The dataset given entails different aspects of crime cases in Chicago city reported to the
Chicago Police Department beginning from the year 2012. The data describes different aspects
of the crimes such as the day and time a crime was committed, the area where the crime was
committed, the type of crime committed, the number of cases cleared in comparison with the
number of reporting made among others. This details will greatly inform the Chicago Police
Departments in laying strategies in an endeavor of reducing crime rate of Chicago.
The use of the Watson Analytics Software in the data analysis is a very good choice it is
able to analyze big chunks of data in a user friendly manner as it uses simple language
understandable by the user (Watson, 2014) It also presents it in an easily understandable manner

by use of inforgraphics (Hoyt, 2014), that is in form of graphs and charts and hence ease the data
interpretation and decision making process. The size and the nature of data is also not a problem
once this software is used because it is able to analyze unformatted data very quickly by use of
an isolation button (Epstein, 2012). The software data storage system is also cloud based making
it able to store large amounts of data without a limitation of space (Kambatla, 2014).
Task 3 – Advanced Insights
 Due to the high number of crimes in Chicago, its safe city index is quite low (Mori,
2015).
 The crime clearance ratio in Chicago is quite low. These means that the number of
arrests and prosecutions done for crime perpetrators is very minimal compared to the
crimes reported (Roberts, 2008).
 Theft crime has the least crime clearance ratio while narcotics related crimes has the
highest crime clearance ratio. This means that the number of theft crime perpetrator
arrested and prosecuted is low as compared to that of narcotic crime perpetrators.
 The residential areas and the streets in Chicago has high prevalence of crimes. This
means that these areas are the crime hot spots in Chicago.
 Reduction of crime numbers reported in Chicago from the year 2012 0onwards shows
that much has been done in cubing the crimes by the Chicago Police Department
(Ratcliffe, 2011).
Task 4 – Research
The Business Intelligent (BI) solutions/dashboards, and in this case the Watson Analytics
Software, has been chosen because of the following reasons.

 It is a powerful decision making support system tool (Clemen, 2013)- The Watson Analytics
Software is very crucial in decision making process as because it helps improve human visual
ability of the analyzed data hence help predictive analytics process required especially in the
Chicago Police department.
 Processes unstructured data (Chen, 2012)- The Watson analytics Software has an ability to
analyze unstructured data. After feeding the data into the software, the isolation button is
used to analyze one type of data at a time and therefore makes it easy to analyze large data
chunks hence filling human limitations of being unable to analyze large data chunks.
 The Watson Analytics software improves the whole process of data analysis by giving high
quality data analyzed by presenting it in inforgraphics form, that is in graphs and charts
making it very easy for the analysts to draw conclusions of the analyzed data as shown below
 H
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le enormous quantities of data- The Watson Analytics Software storage is Cloud based and
therefore has no limitation on data storage. This makes it possible for it to store and analyze
large chunks of data for a very long time. For instance, for the Chicago Police Department, it
has been used to handle the information of 361,741 districts
 It is customizable (Hart, 2011)- Depending on the data available and required analysis, the
software is not fixed but rather can be customized by the user to fit their requirements. For
instance, the Chicago Police Department has analyzed the crime cases reported in terms of
type, days and area of occurrence.

Task 5 – Recommendations for POLICE CHIEF

Based on the result from the analysis of the data, I would like to make the following
recommendations that will help improve the Operations of the Chicago Police Department.
 Increase the number of personnel on patrol in the streets and the resident areas because
these are the crime hotspots as shown by the figure below
 Creation of special security force to handle the theft crime cases in Chicago would help
in increasing the theft crime clearance rate which is currently very low as shown by the
figure below.

 There is high prevalence of crimes in Chicago city. This leads to a low safe city index
of the city. In order to increase the safe city index, the Chicago police department
should work closely with other bodies such as Drug Enforcement Administration to
reduce some crimes such as narcotics crimes.
 Security should be made a bit tight on Sundays by probably increasing the number of
police on patrols as this is the day when most of the crimes are committed as shown
below
 The above diagram also shows that there is not a single day when crimes are not
committed. Therefore, regular patrols on each day should be done in the city of

Chicago including at the cemetery and the forest reserve areas as there are still
high levels of crimes in this areas as shown below
Lighting up these areas could also be a method of reducing crime cases.
Task 6 – Cover letter
The POLICE CHIEF
CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT
28th September 2018
Dear sir/Madam
I am currently working for Federation University Australia as a data analyst. I undertook
the project of analyzing the big data on crimes reported and recorded by your security
department. The information given to me was comprehensive giving different aspects of crimes
such as the crime hot spots, the crime clearance rates, the crime prevalence, crime type, day of
crime commission among others. After the data analysis, I have made different observations that
will be very crucial in helping you come up with informed comprehensive strategies in reducing
the crimes in Chicago so as to improve on the its safe city index. Some of the insights and their
recommendations are listed below.

 The crime clearance rate of the city is very low. Much more need to be done to
ensure that the cases reported are followed up and perpetrators arrested,
prosecuted and cases cleared. This will help a great deal in reducing crimes in
Chicago hence improve its safe city index
 Theft is the principle damage crime in Chicago. However, there is usually very
little theft crime cases cleared. This calls for improvement in theft crime
perpetrators hunting operations. This can be done by forming a special security
unit to do this job.
 Narcotics crimes are very high in Chicago, working closely with drug fighting
bodies such as drug enforcement administration will help reduce these crimes.
 The streets and the residential areas are highly affected by crimes. Increase of
patrol in this areas will help cub this.
It is my sincere hope that the information I provided plays an important role in helping you
improve the security of Chicago. May it also please you to consider the recommendations I have
given to you.
Task 7 - The Reflection:
Using the Watson Analytic Software has imparted us with knowledge about its usage that
we initially didn’t have. We have also learnt a lot and improved on big data analysis skills that
will be very crucial for us in the course of our future leaning and application. The project was
however challenging as much effort and time had to be applied in order to learn how to use the
new software and also in coming up with conclusive conclusion of the data after analysis.

Conclusion
Data analysis using the Watson Analytic Software has given a very comprehensive data
analysis and presented it in an eye catching inforgraphics making the whole process of predictive
analysis for the Chicago police department. From the analyzed data about the crimes in Chicago,
different observations, insights and recommendations has been given in order to improve the
operations of the Chicago Police department.

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