Hunches

Hunch Processing Service

Automated service that runs on a specified schedule to import data from your operational databases and execute a series of search patterns (i.e. Statistical and Threshold Hunches) that you have defined and sends out alerts.

Hunch Management

Anyone in your organization can create Hunches. A Hunch is comprised of four components:

• Crime class(es): assaults, car thefts, burglaries, or other incident events
• Geographic extent of the area you are interested in looking at
• Definition of recent time period: depending on the number of events and the resolution of the time information this might be the past 15 days, the past 30 days or other recent time period
• Definition of the historical time period

Some Hunches are defined by a system administrator or crime analysis team, and others are created by individual users of the system. Individual users can add and remove Hunches themselves, while users with specified access are the only ones who can establish or alter Hunches throughtout an agency.

Hunches can be shared and searched throughout HunchLab.  Individuals do not need to set their own Hunch criteria, they can search for Hunches that have already been created using spatial areas or crime classifications that are of interest to them.

Mass Statistical and Threshold Hunches

Users with the mass hunch creation persmission, can blanket an area with many Hunches in a grid-like pattern. Called a “Mass Hunch”, this capability allows the statistical or threshold surveillance of crime in large regions. Mass Hunches enable a larger geography to be analyzed in the search for particular crime pattern changes. However, you are informed only of the results of this jurisdiction-wide analysis when there is something of interest to you, ensuring that you are not overwhelmed by alerts.  HunchLab allows you to subscribe to Hunches that fall match the geographic area(s) and/or crime type(s) of interest to you.   You only receive alerts if the Mass Hunch has to do with your defined interests.

Hunch Search

Hunches can be searched throughout the system so that each individual does not need to set their own Hunch criteria. Hunches are searchable by:

• Text in the Hunch name
• Owner of the Hunch
• Crime classification
• Date source (if multiple)
  
• Geographic location
• Validity Status

Once you identify a Statistical or Threshold Hunch you find useful, you can “subscribe” to that particular Hunch. This means the Hunch will appear on your personalized “My Hunches” page, and you will receive an alert should the Hunch prove true in the future.

Text Analysis Capabilities

HunchLab can search through the narrative text of crime event reports to pull relevant variables from the incident data to look for patterns or changes that were previously unknown. This enables alerts to be created based on the appearance of specific keywords in a narrative text.