California Police Chief- Fall 2013 CPCA_2018_Winter Magazine-FINAL | Page 16

A Search Engine and a
Crime Miracle in Oakland
Oakland’s law enforcement community describes how Forensic Logic’s search
and analysis technology has helped slash violent crime rates and police use of
force in one of America’s most historically dangerous cities.
Oakland, California, may seem an unlikely setting
for one of the greatest law enforcement successes of the
twenty-first century.
From its roots as the birthplace of the Black Panther
movement in the 1960’s, Oakland has had a difficult legacy
of resistance to policing. That legacy has contributed to
a city that has consistently balked at putting more cops
on the street, meaning Oakland PD is one of the most
understaffed police agencies in America; its ratio of police
officers per capita is less than half the number of cities
such as Detroit, Baltimore, and New York. As a result,
by the early 2000’s Oakland had become one of the most
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dangerous cities in the country, with homicide rates double
those of New York and San Francisco.
In 2012, facing severe resource constraints, soaring
crime rates, and strained community relationships,
Oakland PD partnered with Forensic Logic to adopt a
new approach to how their officers did their jobs. The
agency made the decision to let data drive every aspect
of its approach to violent crime reduction, from precisely
targeting its worst offenders to enabling the most junior
officers to access data to make investigative inroads at
crime scenes.