Mobile app uses machine learning to predict crime in Rio de Janeiro
CrimeRadar, a new desktop and mobile based app developed by The Igarapé Institute alongside software company, Via Science, and investment firm, Mosaico Internet, uses machine learning to predict criminality in Rio de Janeiro. With data from 14 million crimes collected over five years, the app carves the city into 250 metre square quadrants that are then colour coded depending on their predicted crime threat and time of day in the week. Large favelas such as Rocinha, however, have been left off the map due to unreliable data on criminality.

CrimeRadar

It may sound like something from the Minority Report, but this app can predict where crimes will take place. The software, called CrimeRadar, has just launched its prototype in the Olympic host city of Rio de Janeiro.

The app uses advanced machine learning to predict crime rates in the city's neighbourhoods at different times of the day and night.

The Olympic Games have, arguably, exposed crime levels in Rio de Janeiro to a wider audience. A string of high profile robberies, allegedly including members of the US swim team; Australian athletes; and even the Brazilian government's head of security for events falling prey to criminals, have been reported.

"Our recent work shows that roughly 32 of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world (as measured by homicide rates) are in Brazil," Robert Muggah, research director at The Igarapé Institute, a think tank behind the app, told WIRED.

"Most Brazilians – 81 per cent in a 2015 poll - fear that they will become a victim of homicide,” he says. 58,000 homicides happened in Brazil in 2014, one watchdog has claimed.