NYPD Incorporates Big Data Into Law-Enforcement For Real-Time Actionable Insight

by Paul Rudo on 12/08/12 at 3:32 pm

On August 8 2012, The NYPD announced that they’ve partnered with Microsoft to create a sophisticated “big data” law enforcement system called Domain Awareness System or DAS.

DAS is will aggregate public safety data from various sources – including smart cameras, license plate readers, 911 calls, crime reports, and more – and perform sophisticated real-time analysis of this information while making it instantly available to officers.

This greatly increases response times, which is an important factor in preventing crimes and successfully handling criminal investigations. For example: If a suspicious package is located, an suspect can be quickly identified, located and apprehended.

Microsoft is working closely with the NYPD in order to custom-tailor this new solution around the city’s real-world needs, and taking special care to align technical capabilities of the new system around the real-world experience and realities of NYPD officers.

The goal is to create a next-generation law enforcement IT system that can be applied to other police departments in order to assist in the law enforcement an counterterrorism efforts of other departments around the world.

This development process will require substantial efforts and resources from both Microsoft and the NYPD. As a means of offsetting the costs of this project for the taxpayers, the city of New York will collect 30% from the sales of DAS to other departments.

According to New York’s police commissioner Raymond Kelly, this new system will be unique in the sense that it was create by officers, for officers. And the funding received from this agreement will also be used for future counterterrorism and crime prevention efforts.

For more information about DAS, you can click here to read the official Microsoft release about the project.