Crime & Safety

These are Likely Spots for Burglaries Wednesday, According to Santa Cruz Police

Here are the maps of places in Santa Cruz that are most likely for car thefts, burglaries from cars and home burglaries, as part of an international day of predictive policing.

The list is based on crimes that have occurred in areas with the theory that burglars operate in places they are familiar with, usually within a mile from their own homes. PredPol, the company started by mathematicians and police, suggests that property crimes are like earthquake aftershocks and can occur near where they occurred before.

The system analyzes historical and recent crimes in an area and is able to distinguish random crimes from serial ones. For example, if a burglar driving from Seattle to Los Angeles stopped and hit two homes on Seabright, the program would be able to distinguish that random act from a serial burglar in the neighborhood, according to former police spokesman Zach Friend.

The program looks at the history of crimes over a decade in the area, to sort out the trends and come up with its probable recommendations.

Santa Cruz was the first city to launch this program, which has been picked up in Los Angeles and Seattle, among others. 

The city is participating in a worldwide PredPol day, stepping up community involvement in predictive policing, which gives officers an idea of places crimes are most likely to occur, according to the company. The day was inspired by the police department in Kent, England, which patrols an area of 1.3 million people. 

You can dowload the PDFs.

For burglary, the likely points are:
Near 440 Frederick St
Near 1520 Pacific Ave.
Near 350 Ocean St.
Near 339 Walnut Ave
Near 250 California St.
Near 804 Windsor St
Near 370 Ocean St
Near 919 Mission St.
Near 400 Beach St.
Near 600 Front St.
Near 1134 Pacific Ave.
Near 112 Canfield St.

For Auto Theft:

Near 1717 Seabright Ave.
Near 525 Ocean St. 
Near Center St. and Walnut Ave.
Near Laurel St. and Front St.
Near 900 High St.
Near 526 Broadway
Near Mission St. and Walnut Ave.
Near 519 Seabright Ave.
Near 901 Soquel Ave.
Near 350 Ocean St.
Near Ocean St and Barson St.
Near 125 Beach St.
Near 24 River St.
Near 407 Broadway
Near 920 Pacific Ave.


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