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Gangs pose a hard challenge for software

Capital - 12/21/2017

Talk about meeting social challenges - whether in health care, education or crime - and sooner or later someone mentions "big data" or "data analysis." No wonder: Never before has so much raw information been available. Never before has it been so easy to gather that data and look for patterns. The problem is putting the technology to effective use.

Much of current crime news in the state involves drugs and gangs. Eight people, most of them linked by prosecutors to the MS-13 gang, have now been arrested in connection with the death of an Annapolis woman in June.

Gov. Larry Hogan announced earlier this month that he was making millions in funding available for "a new, collaborative data-sharing network to help prosecutors and law enforcement bring down criminal networks across the state." Anne Arundel State's Attorney Wes Adams brought this home recently, taking about how $250,000 of the state grant funding will be funneled into the Strategic Targeted Investigation on Narcotics and Gangs - STING.

Adams explained that the core of STING will be software that will help police and prosecutors track suspected repeat offenders as well as crimes by geographic region.

While no one is criticizing the initiative itself, Adams is taking flak from former prosecutors and political rivals for making a show of stepping forward now after stepping back a few years ago. When he was elected, he inherited from his two predecessors a coordinated multiagency effort called Gang Related Investigations and Prosecutions - GRIP. It was never formally discontinued, but after Adams took office in 2015 it was allowed to lapse, with members no longer attending meetings.

One virtue of GRIP, said Kathy Rogers, a former assistant prosecutor fired by Adams, is that it integrated the school system into gang-prevention efforts - she pointed to a recent incident in which an Annapolis High School student was beaten for not joining MS-13. Rogers is running against Adams in next year's Republican primary.

Adams says GRIP essentially duplicated the Safe Streets program, in which law enforcement agencies also pooled resources and information. "We've been working to improve since the moment I stepped into office," he said.

Whatever the resolution of this argument - likely to be hashed out in the coming election - software is no substitute for local involvement. The point was acknowledged this week by county Police Chief Timothy Altomare, who talked of how the use of CompStat to track crime patterns and guide policing efforts was accompanied by conversations about "a lack of connection between police and the community."

But having more information - and the right tools to separate statistical noise from meaningful signals - can make a big difference. Given the frightening increase in gang activity, we're hoping STING makes such a difference.