Hutchinson Police Department chief Dick Heitschmidt said the HPD just started being able to pull data out of the $7,000 software purchased late last year. The software — LexisNexis Accurint for Law Enforcement — piles together information from police reports and recently started to prove its worth.
Heitschmidt said the system narrowed down an area where a suspect in a string of burglaries lived. At first, Heitschmidt said officers didn't believe the software could determine an area with any accuracy, until they later found the suspect living in the same area.
"It's not going to do that on every case, but it's amazing the tool we are adding to the department," Heitschmidt told city council members during a Feb. 27 meeting with department heads.
The wreck report is pretty straightforward but saves the department time and could possibly even save lives.
Data pulled from the last four years shows the most likely intersection for an injury accident is at 5th and Adams streets. Mondays were the worst days. The worst times for the intersection were 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.
The intersection near Dillons grocery store had 27 accidents and the highest number of injury accidents at any location around town with 17.
But the highest volume of accidents goes to 30th and Lorraine, with 58 wrecks. Wednesdays and Thursdays at noon, 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. were the worst times for that intersection. Among the 58 wrecks, 10 were injury accidents.
Heitschmidt said the data will change the way police patrol those areas.
According to LexisNexis, the software was developed by "experienced law enforcement professionals."
"Law enforcement agencies can solve cases faster, free up valuable staff to work on higher priority casework, minimize costs associated with lengthy investigations, and in some cases, save more lives," it said on the company's website. "It enables law enforcement agencies to locate suspects, find missing children and quickly solve cases."
©2018 The Hutchinson News (Hutchinson, Kan.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
