Where does HunchLab get its data?

HunchLab builds on your current investment in enterprise data. When HunchLab is installed at your organization, it is customized to use your existing data. Your crime classes and codes are brought into the system and appear as you are used to seeing them. Statistical and Threshold Hunches are designed to work with crime classes you have already defined within your organization.

HunchLab is also populated with spatial areas of interest to you. Sectors, districts, and other jurisdictional areas are loaded into the system and are available for use in searches and defining Hunches.

Will HunchLab connect directly to my operational data?

No. HunchLab pulls an update subset of your data on a regular basis – typically daily, but it can be more frequent. The HunchLab database is completely separate from other production systems, and runs all analysis on the extracted data.

Where is the data stored?

For maximum security, your data never leaves your internal network. HunchLab resides within your secure environment and runs the scheduled Hunch processing service completely within your network. No communication is necessary outside of your enterprise environment.

How often does HunchLab analyze my data?

HunchLab runs its service daily or on the schedule of your choice.

How is HunchLab’s change detection different from trend analysis software?

Although some crime analysis software attempts to identify upward or downward trends in the rate of crime, HunchLab takes a different approach.  HunchLab seeks to find instances where the rate of crime is significantly greater or less than the rate typical for a particular area over a particular timespan. This capability goes beyond trend analysis, pin maps or hot spot maps. It allows early detection of change and early response.

How do I know HunchLab is right?

HunchLab uses a statistical distribution known as the “Hypergeometric Distribution”. It compares previous crime frequencies with current crime frequencies and determines the probability that current frequencies are due to chance alone. If this probability is remote enough, the Hunch is regarded as valid – something besides chance is changing the distribution.

In addition, HunchLab shows you a detailed graph of the frequency distribution over time – so you can see the change for yourself.

But if you prefer, you can choose to focus on threshold-based alerts, called Threshold Hunches, that are not calculated statically.