Officer Locations
When the model was run with the parameters set to the default parameters, with the exception of Officer Count which was set to 365, the size of the operating police force, and Grid Size which was set to 1000 meters. The predicted model that was exported aligned well to the actual crime that happened at the time that the model was supposed to be modelling for. The officer placement made a high distribution of officers around the city of Albuquerque, with extra officers where crime was forecasted to be a prevalent issue, and no officers where no crime was predicted to occur. A section of the exported heatmap using these parameters is shown in figure 13.
Figure 13: An example heatmap with officer placement. Parameters: default except Officer Count is set to 365 and Grid Size is set to 1000 meters.
Grid Size
When a lower Grid Size is set, (figure 15) weights stop taking into account nearby weights, and officers tend to build up excessively in some areas, which makes for inefficient placement and lack of officers in other needed areas. On the other hand, a higher Grid Size (figure 16) results in lower resolution, and an expectation for officers to patrol a larger area. Some areas may not be seen, effectively resulting in a similar situation to what is seen currently. In addition, areas with no crime will not get addressed, so not all officers will be placed because no crime existed for the places that are not covered, which leads to a much worse situation than what is currently seen. It is important to keep a reasonable officer patrol area in mind when setting resolution so that officers do not clump together and leave places totally vulnerable, but so that all officers are utilized and an officer is not expected to cover an area of ground that is not possible for them to cover.
Figure 15 (above): Example heatmap with Grid Size set to 1 meter
Figure 16 (above): Example heatmap with Grid Size set to 10,000 meters
Max Qty. of Officers per Grid
When a lower Max # of Officers per Grid is set (Figure 17), then more officers can be placed around the city. However, there will be less support for an officer in an area of high crime rate. On the contrary, a higher Max # of Officers per Grid (Figure 18) will result in many officers being placed in areas of high crime, and there not being enough officers to be placed around the entire city. It is important to consider how many the best number of officers to place in a particular area would be, as it will keep the officers distributed and not all targeting one area, but supported enough in the case of a dangerous incident that could require more assistance from other law enforcement officers than are stationed in that particular area at that time
Figure 17 (above): Example Heatmap with Max # of Officers per Grid set to 2
Figure 18 (above): Example Heatmap with Max # of Officers per Grid set to 10