Blog

GIS Resources for Every Role

Are you looking to boost your GIS skills but not sure where to start? As part of Simsi’s commitment to fostering professional growth and innovation, we’ve compiled a list of free resources that can help you enhance your GIS expertise. … Read More

Key Books for GIS & Crime

Welcome to the world of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)! If you’re new to GIS and looking to get a solid foundation, especially in the context of crime analysis, you’ve come to the right place. Here at Simsi, we specialize in … Read More

RTM in Green Bay, WI

As cities across the country are seeking out innovative strategies to collaboratively build community safety and well-being, Offices of Violence Prevention are emerging as a fresh approach to this work in the United States. Violence Reduction Units in the United … Read More

State Leaders Driving Local Crime Prevention

Simsi serves clients around the globe and recognizes that local terminology could mean that “state” is interchangeable with “country” in some places or “province” in others. This article primarily covers equivalents of states or provinces in countries like the United … Read More

Tackling Leadership Dilemmas with Analytics

By Jonas Baughman It would be an understatement to say the landscape of modern policing, particularly in the United States, has changed since 2020.  Policing has always been a challenging profession, but the public’s demand for police accountability and transparency … Read More

Fighting Violent Crime with RTM & Federal Grants

Leaders from the Major City Chiefs Association (MCCA) wrote a treatise in 2018 on the demands, tactics, and technologies that can and should be used to address violent crime. This Violent Crime Reduction Operations Guide remains useful and relevant today. … Read More

Analyzing Organized Retail Crime

Organized retail crime and related safety concerns are a big issue for retailers today. It amounts to a $69-100B loss per year for the private sector, and it impacts the public, law enforcement, and justice systems too. Reputations are damaged … Read More

Goodhart’s Law and DICE™

Goodhart’s Law states, “every measure which becomes a target becomes a bad measure,” and rings especially true when examining large-scale interventions. The risk of overly optimizing resources for singularly-focused initiatives, like a city heavily investing in a specific program as … Read More

Challenge & Validate Perceptions with Analytics

“Here’s the thing”….“No, not quite.” Or, “Chief, lot’s happened since we last spoke,” are some pretty hard ways to start off a conversation. Disappointing someone’s expectations or not supporting a preconceived notion are things we too often frown upon in … Read More

“Perfection” as the Enemy of “Good”

Many police departments struggle to transition out of a purely response-driven mode of operation, especially in today’s climate where resource constraints can make proactive policing seem elusive. You may be challenged to find, hire, and retain the officers you need … Read More