Chicago, IL – (January 9, 2018) – Benchmark Analytics, a leading software provider of analytics-based police force management and early intervention solutions for law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S., and the University of Chicago are announcing a partnership to commercialize an early intervention system for police officers developed at the Center for Data Science and Public Policy.
Benchmark offers an all-in-one solution that provides a comprehensive, holistic approach to managing and developing police workforces. The company is dedicated to the belief that the application of research in the world of law enforcement is extremely critical to discovering new, proactive approaches for supporting police officers – which they have done by exclusively licensing a technology created by over 20 data scientists as part of the Data Science for Social Good Fellowship and the Center for Data Science and Public Policy (DSaPP), led by Rayid Ghani, Director of the DSaPP and Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and Computation Institute, Lauren Haynes, Associate Director of DSaPP, and Joe Walsh, Senior Data Scientist at DSaPP.
“We’re excited to launch our partnership with the University of Chicago,” said Ron Huberman, CEO of Benchmark. “Along with the series of research-based models that they have developed to identify patterns of officer conduct, we will be able to build a longitudinal database into policing that helps identify the best ways to support police officers.”
Ghani’s work at the University of Chicago has been instrumental in creating a revolutionary data-driven early intervention system (EIS) for police officers, based on applying data science and machine learning methods to detailed historical data about officers and their behaviors in police departments such as Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC. This analytic tool accurately identifies officers at risk of future adverse behavior and pinpoints the factors that truly matter in signaling future off-track, problematic behavior.
“We have learned that we can significantly reduce the number of ‘false positives’ associated with existing EIS programs that use simple threshold-based triggers,” said Ghani, who worked with the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to license this technology to Benchmark Analytics By analyzing historical data about police officer behavior, we take a more proactive and preventative approach — where we can better predict which officers are truly in need of intervention.”
The partnership, facilitated by the Polsky Center, builds on the combined vision of Benchmark and the Center for Data Science and Public Policy to elevate policing in America with a preventative-based early intervention system that creates a healthy, strong and productive policing culture.
“The goals behind Dr. Ghani’s research and Benchmark are closely aligned,” said Cole Johnson, manager of technology commercialization at the Polsky Center. “This new partnership will help ensure that this important technology is translated out of the University and widely implemented so that it can have a significant positive impact on society.”
About Benchmark Analytics
Benchmark Analytics, in collaboration with our renowned research partners led by the University of Chicago, as well as analytic specialists and world-class technology developers, has created the only evidence-based police force management and early intervention system available today. This proprietary, all-in-one solution captures and aggregates all officer performance data in an easy-to-use, software-enabled system; analyzes it for early, preventative intervention; and provides customized officer support with specific case action plans.
Benchmark Analytics is supported by the National Police Early Intervention and Outcomes Research Consortium, chaired by the University of Chicago and supported by the Joyce Foundation. For more information, visit www.benchmarkanalytics.com.
About the University of Chicago
As one of the world's premier research universities, the University of Chicago empowers students and scholars through its commitment to free and open inquiry. Across numerous departments and disciplines, as well as more than 140 institutes and centers, the UChicago community advances ideas and innovations that enrich human life. UChicago’s faculty are some of the top in the world. The University of Chicago has 90 Nobel Prize winners, including six current faculty, and receives more than $450 million in sponsored research awards each year. Please visit www.uchicago.edu.
About the University of Chicago Center for Data Science and Public Policy
The Center for Data Science and Public Policy (DSaPP) at the University of Chicago is a collaboration between The Harris School of Public Policy and the Computation Institute to further the use of data science in policy research and practice. Our work includes educating current and future policymakers, doing data science projects with government, nonprofit, academic, and foundation partners, and developing new methods and open-source tools that support and extend the use of data science for public policy and social impact. Our team is made up of data scientists and researchers from computer science, statistics, and social science backgrounds to bring in methods from all of these disciplines, software engineers to make sure our work becomes usablecode and implemented, topic experts and project managers who help get things done. Learn more at: dsapp.uchicago.edu
About the University of Chicago Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation drives venture creation and technology commercialization at the University of Chicago and within the surrounding South Side community. Among its offerings is the top-ranked university accelerator, the Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge, which has launched more than 180 companies worldwide including Grubhub and Braintree; a 34,000 square-foot, multidisciplinary co-working space called the Polsky Exchange; an Innovation Fund that invests in early-stage ventures; and a state-of-the-art Fabrication Lab for prototyping new products. By leveraging the University’s distinctive strengths as an intellectual destination and world-class research institution, the Polsky Center brings together innovators and industry partners to translate research, build sustainable organizations and products, and pave the way for more ideas to have a lasting, positive social and economic impact. Learn more at polsky.uchicago.edu.