As we enter into one of the worst economic times in recent history, I started to think about the most considerable risk to our nation achieving a successful economic recovery. The answer was crime, and as the economy deteriorates, crime is expected to increase.

Public safety, to me, is the most critical function of government. If we’re not safe, we can’t be educated, healthy, or do the essential things needed to carry out daily life. In Jamaica, we have some of the worst crime statistics globally. For example, in 2016, we had the world’s highest violent death rate for females and the sixth highest in total. We ranked overall below Syria, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Afghanistan, and above Iraq, Libya, Somalia.

The global murder average is six per 100,000; for the Caribbean region, it is 16 per 100,000 – and Jamaica is at 46.2 per 100,000. Some 40,829 murders were committed in Jamaica since 1962. In the last eight years alone, some 11,379 murders were committed.

The Economic Impact

According to the Jamaica Observer, Jamaica’s murder rate costs about five per cent annually of the Jamaican gross domestic product (GDP) of roughly US$14 billion. That is .05 x US$14 billion = US$70 million per year. Each 10 per cent fall in our murder rate, therefore, saves US$7 million or $9 billion per year = $750 million per month.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the ability of machines to understand the world around them, learn and make decisions. AI is an interdisciplinary and human-centred field. The number of countries using AI to prevent crime has been experiencing a steady increase given the technology’s superiority. Already police departments in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and many other countries are using facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, surveillance systems, biometrics, and behavioural software monitoring to prevent crime before it occurs.

Police in Vancouver, British Columbia, are deploying a machine learning solution that uses an algorithm to deconstruct crime patterns and help predict future offences. Through spatial analytics, police can predict where residential break and enters will occur and place police patrols accordingly. The department first trialled this technology with a pilot that reduced burglary by more than 1/5 month over month. Now they are making the intelligence-led approach common practice.

Jamaica’s AI-Based Crime Strategy – Why are we looking at crime first? Based on its undeniable impact on life itself, we see crime reduction as one of the core ways to improve our society and economy. We asked ourselves if we were tasked with creating a national strategy to combat and prevent crime, what would that look like?

StarApple’s Proposal:

1) Where and when to patrol. Crime prediction

2) Types of training and equipment to provide to each district based on crime patterns

3) Response time prediction to update procedures to be faster

4) Effectiveness of police officers and processes based on data to improve

5) Pre-emptive policing based on less serious crimes and potential escalation

6) Gang analytics to minimise the spread and power grabs

7) Human-centred design to understand and manage the biases that affect how we monitor location, demographics and instances of crime

Adrian Dunkley, president of the Jamaica Technology and Digital Alliance,founder and CEO of Starapple AI, launched in 2020, aims to make Jamaica the global hub for analytics and AI innovation.