Police have always relied on data — whether push pins tracking crimes on a map, mug shot cards, or intelligence files on repeat offenders. The problem with all that information is that it has traditionally been slow and hard to use.
“I would have to log into 19 different databases,” says Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Dennis Kato. “I’d log in, print out all the tickets that were written to you, and lay them on my desk. Then I’d go and run your criminal history on another database, and print that out. And then another database to see how many times your name was associated with crime reports.”
Now he can see all that information on one screen. Kato has been instrumental in LAPD’s rollout of a data search program sold by a company called Palantir. While Palantir is somewhat controversial because of its secrecy and reliance on national security contracts, its product for police isn’t that mysterious.
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