Local plans fight national crime

More than 1,200 miles away, the police force in Albuquerque is looking to Cincinnati for ways to reduce crime. Ten years ago, Daniel Gerard, who was a Cincinnati police commander trying to track down a violent gang, realized that there was a huge amount of evidence to narrow down.

Gerard also realized his department couldn’t handle the thousands of pieces of evidence his team had collected. Worst yet, he didn’t have a way to quickly analyze the evidence to build cases against dozens of violent gang members. So he took a huge case filled with evidence to the University of Cincinnati, where he met a graduate student who had recently moved from Turkey.

Together, Murat Ozer, an analytical database wiz, and Gerard created a way for Gerard and his team to find patterns in their evidence and learn about the inner networks of the gang. Weeks later, local police arrested more than 70 people. 

Read more about New Mexico’s initiative here.