Selected news
SKY TG24: 77% FEWER ROBBERIES IN MILAN – HOW DID THEY DO IT?
Sky TG24’s Helga Cossu interviewed Mario Venturi, KeyCrime’s President and Founder on the program Progress: Innovaction, delving into how Milan’s police have been so successful, aided by their use of the KeyCrime #delia® software, how the idea came to be and what the future might hold for KeyCrime (hint: the next frontier could be the city of Turin!).
SUCCESS FOR THE POLICE in their fight against robberies.
For the Police, the successes related to the use of the application “KeyCrime delia®” in the fight against robberies are growing.
“… According to the Chief of Police, the numbers confirm that the work carried out by the Police is effective” explains President Racca to FPress “thanks to the KeyCrime system, the perpetrators of 77% of last year’s robberies have already been identified, arrested or referred to the judicial authorities…” – KeyCrime
Violence against women is not acceptable at any level nor at any latitude; fighting it must be a daily priority for all of us. Even today it has the dimensions of a global pandemic: more than a billion women worldwide, or one in three women, have suffered it (source: UN). But this is only a part of the picture, which takes into account only the crimes that have been reported, brought to light through the courage of the victims; Closely related to physical violence, made up of abuse, torture and mistreatment, is the far more subtle but equally dangerous violence made up of words, pressure,
A robber with a taste for antique weaponry was arrested in Milan after a robbery in Via Millelire. The police were forewarned and already on the scene when the 52 year old robber struck thanks to the Police’s VI Mobile Squad and a little help from the software KeyCrime delia®.
With a hoodie and a mask, the 52 year old robber thought each raid was a sure thing. Each time he would study the situation in the pharmacy or supermarket, pretending to be a customer, proceed to the cash register as though to make a purchase and then pull out a replica antique revolver. His age, the old-style revolver and his habit of leaving through the back door (in Italian: “retro”) all led to the investigators pursuing the case to nickname the crime series “retrò”.
How do you preserve the know-how and analytical capabilities of investigators, transforming them into shared assets for future investigations? After the criminal investigation wraps up, what are the advantages for prosecutors when investigators have used analytical techniques and technologies to establish that the accused perpetrated a crime series? KeyCrime’s Mario Venturi and Maurizio Sanarico answer these and other questions in the Rai – Radiotelevisione Italiana (Italian National TV) program “Stem: Crimine”, broadcast September 30th and now available in streaming on raiplay.
The topic of artificial intelligence is among those that – for some years now – have monopolized attention, arousing hopes and questions from a sociological, scientific, economic and legal point of view. With regard to the latter aspect, there is a need to clarify in what terms the phenomenon must be framed and – above all – within what limits forms of use of artificial intelligence can enter the investigative, cognitive and evaluative heritage of the criminal system. An answer to these questions could make it possible to combine the enormous potential of the sector with the need for efficiency in the prevention and repression of various criminal forms, while at the same time ensuring full protection for the guarantees of individual associates.
What is the difference between KeyCrime and other predictive police software? The idea was born by analyzing, for work, a mountain of files related to the various crimes, in which the data were collected summarily but still contained information that would allow us to hypothesize behind which crimes, even if occurred in different times and places, there was the same hand”, tells the founder of KeyCrime.
A rank-and-file officer in the Milan Police Department created a computer program called KeyCrime that has revolutionised how the city catches robbers. When Mario Venturi was assigned to the property division in 2004, his team worked without the help of computers. Venturi thought there was a better way and enlisted the help of some programmer friends to design an algorithm to automate investigation. He convinced his bosses to put the software into action in 2008. Since the Milan Police Department started using KeyCrime, the number of robberies in the city has fallen by 51 percent while the rate of solved cased increased to 60 percent.
From software that predicts crimes to drones. Technology promises more safety. But does it threaten our privacy?
The policeman stops the suspect, points the gun, asks to raise their hands. The boy refuses. And, when he reaches into his bag, the officer chills him, mistakenly thinking he is about to take a weapon. Fortunately, the only real element is … the policeman.
Predict robberies? At the police headquarters in Milan they do it with Keycrime, the algorithm developed by a policeman inspired by Sherlock Holmes. In Italy he hasn’t found investments and now the United States could steal it from us.
On the computer screen the map of Milan is marked by some red dots: a line connects them, node after node, following a precise chronological itinerary. It is the crime series carried out by a robber, target after target.
