Sunday, February 19, 2012

Memphis Cops Get Smart





Technology Advancements
This is a link I found that talks about technologies advancements.


“IBM Analytics Help Memphis Cops Get Smart”
I chose to look at the article “IBM Analytics Help Memphis Cops Get Smart” because I think it had a funny title.  The article talks about the crime in Memphis and how police are going about doing their crime reports on their smart phones.  They are using data analysis to cut the crime rate.  They believe this is revolutionizing how crime is being reported.  I think for a big city like Memphis it is crucial to have a system like this.  In this decade we will spend $108 billion dollars in smart city infrastructure such as smart meters and grids, energy efficient buildings, and data analytics.  Technology surrounds us now but what about in ten years, it is going to take over this country.
While Memphis’s focus has been on reducing crime, other cities such as London are using smart city tools to deal with challenges posed by population growth, as cities attract more people than rural areas for the first time. Last year, about 50.5 percent of the world’s population, or 3.5 billion people, lived in cities, according to a March 2010 report from the United Nations. By 2050, the urban population is forecast to rise to 69 percent.
Memphis’s data-analysis effort, called Blue Crush, came about after the success of pilot projects, including one where 5,000 sexual assault cases were examined by variables including location and time of day. Researchers learned that women in low-income neighborhoods were being attacked while using pay phones at convenience stores at night. The phones tended to be located around the corner of the building in poorly lit areas.
Honestly I think this is great.  It is also a very scary thing because it is showing how advanced we are in this day of age.  It scares me because what if we advance to a point that we are not ready for nor can we handle and something happens like the great depression of the 21st century.  We will have to wait and see what the future.

1 comment:

  1. Jensen I agree with you about this article. I believe that this is a great idea and other cities should adapt this type of technology to make their cities safer. I think it is pretty cool that the cops are allowed to use their phones to do their crime reports. I believe this is a good use of technology to do a good thing and it is an easy way to make a big difference. I wouldn’t think that something so simple could make such a big difference. This just shows how far technology has come and how it impacts our world today. IF something this small can make a huge difference I can’t image how technology will be in the future. This is kind of scary as you said but I am anxious to see what technology has in store for us in the future.

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