ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Channel 9's Cuthbert Langley spoke to Orange County Sheriff's deputies to see how they are working to not only pinpoint crime, but possibly predict it, something experts said is tough to do.
Eyewitness News began asking questions after what appeared to be a recent spike in shootings and homicides.
Maj. Jeff Stonebreaker helps lead the program, Predpol, which is used 10 years of date to show where crimes happened, mapped by red dots.
Deputies can choose which shift and which crime to analyze, and then the red boxes show them where to patrol.
“The prediction aspect is very tough,” said William Moreto, a UCF criminal justice professor.
Moreto said predicting crime is easier said than done.
For example, during the last two weeks, four people have been killed in Orange County and Orlando. Moreto said those numbers alone can't predict where additional homicides may occur, or even a trend.
“You'd have to compare what's going on right now to previous data. Not just this year, but previous years as well,” Moreto said.
Deputies told Eyewitness News a trend in Orange County is car break-ins.
“All of our areas have had a massive increase in the number of auto burglaries,” Stonebreaker said.
Deputies said they're using a map from the Predpol program of where the break-ins are occurring to better pinpoint where the deputies should patrol, with the hopes of pinpointing and preventing.
The sheriff's office bought the program in 2014, and signed a two year contract to keep it. Just recently, they signed on to keep it for another year.