As big data transforms industries ranging from retailing to health care, it’s also becoming a more important tool for police departments, which are turning to data and analysis in an effort to boost their effectiveness.

Known as predictive policing, the practice involves analyzing data on the time, location and nature of past crimes, along with things such as geography and the weather, to gain insight into where and when future crime is most likely to occur and try to deter it before it happens.

Jennifer Bachner, director of the master of science in government analytics program at Johns Hopkins University, says giving police the ability to make data-driven decisions will help reduce biases that result in unfair discrimination, resulting in better relations between police and the communities they serve. Jennifer Lynch, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says predictive policing is flawed and will only serve to focus more law-enforcement surveillance on communities that are already overpoliced.

YES: Police Can Be in the Right Place at the Right Time

By Jennifer Bachner

In an era of tight budgets, police departments across the country are being asked to do more with less. They must protect the public, but often have to do it with limited personnel, equipment and training resources.