Linn County law enforcement want to combat property crime via social networks

MARION - The new Marion police chief is hoping to combat property crime through analyzing social networks.

That doesn't mean anyone will be snooping through your Facebook account or Instagram pictures.

It does mean that Police Chief Joseph McHale is applying for a grant, a big one - $500,000 from the Department of Justice Technology Innovation for Public Safety - to pay for a crime analyst, software and training. Only eight public safety agencies will get the grant.

McHale, who used social network analysis during his time in the Kansas City (Mo.) Police Department, is a big believer in the concept.

He said law enforcement agencies already collect data on individuals from records such as arrest reports and traffic tickets. Those records contain personal information like home addresses and ages, as well as criminal history.

In the past decade, law enforcement agencies have used social network analysis and a new kind of software to create a visual representation - or map - of a network of individuals. That map can help police determine the relationships between suspects and what criminal activity might be related.

'It's taking the intelligence you have and drilling down,” McHale said. 'Who is committing the burglaries? Drugs, money, everything flows through people. Where are those bridges?”

Social network analysis also could help determine why crimes are committed, where suspects live and where they choose to commit illegal activity.

For instance, McHale said he worked to cut down on drug deals, fights and other crimes happening at an inner-city high school in Missouri. He and other Kansas City police officers found the dealers and instigators of the crimes didn't live anywhere near the school. Instead, they were traveling to the school to work with the students, some of whom became criminals themselves. The department was able to better target where to deploy resources as a result.

Marion police is applying for the federal grant with the Linn County Sheriff's Office, the Cedar Rapids Police Department and Foundation 2, a Cedar Rapids nonprofit that offers counseling and mental health services.

If the agencies win the grant - they'll know by the end of September - the departments will use the grant and analysis to focus on property crimes, McHale said.

McHale figures two crime analysts, one each for Marion police and the Linn County Sheriff's Office, would cost $248,000 over two years. He said the extra manpower is needed because over the last two years, property crime rates have increased by 33 percent in areas of the county outside Cedar Rapids, according to data from the Linn County Sheriff's Office. In Marion, property crime increased by 24 percent from 2014 to 2016, according to the police department's data.

McHale said the majority of property crime offenders typically don't live near the properties they target and social network analysis - like in the case of the drug dealing in Missouri - would allow police not to unnecessarily target the people who live in a neighborhood where property crimes are being committed, but rather focus on the area from which the criminals are coming.

'Historically, what happens if they get a problem in an area? (Police) push resources to the area,” McHale said. 'If you don't know the dynamic socially of the people committing the crime - do they really even live there? It's good for community policing. If you're not out here blindly stopping the people in the neighborhood, you get better bang for your buck.”

In addition, he said, the analysis opens the door for law enforcement to connect individuals with social service agencies and knock down 'barriers to getting past crime.”

Emily Blomme, executive director at Foundation 2, said criminal activity typically occurs to fill a need.

'Poverty, homelessness, mental health, substance abuse - all of those things can be factors and reasons why people commit crime,” she said. 'When we go out on mobile crisis calls, our staff see ... the same types of things law enforcement might see. If people had social supports, would they be able to get what they needed without committing those crimes? It's also about (serving) the families, the children who are exposed to the same type of behavior.”

If Marion and its partners receive the grant, Blomme said, Foundation 2 will offer support through current programs like its mobile crisis outreach, where counselors drive to people experiencing a mental health crisis. And Blomme said the organization's short-term youth shelter can assist children and teens when they need to get out of an unsafe environment. Foundation 2 also offers counseling, she said.

'Our role is to interject ourselves, stabilize, de-escalate and refer,” she said.

That, McHale said, could be a long-term solution to decreasing crime in the county.

l Comments: (319) 368-8516; makayla.tendall@thegazette.com