Frequently Asked Questions
How can Simsi work for you
Overview
Simsi, Inc. is a software company founded on data-informed solutions for crime prevention and public safety using Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM) technology.
Our Analytics platform identifies environmental settings and nearby places that contribute to safety issues. It guides effective interventions.
ActionHub helps teams work together to achieve crime prevention goals.
Simsi Services include automation and assistance to achieve your vision for public safety, no matter what internal capacity you may have.
RTMDx™ is the original and only official software for Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM). It is Simsi’s flagship product.
Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM) is an approach to spatial risk analysis that identifies environmental factors that contribute to crime and other problems. It diagnoses why certain places experience problems by examining the geographic settings and nearby features that create opportunities for crime or harm.
The key to RTM is what you do with it. RTM drives action! RTM breaks big problems down into smaller manageable issues. With a better understanding of crime location patterns in your community, multiple stakeholders can play a role in creating safer spaces.
Simsi analytics, software, tools, and training are based on documented and verifiable research, with over 80 peer-reviewed studies and use-cases across 40+ countries over the past 15 years. Practitioners and scholars at the Rutgers Center on Public Security and independent researchers from around the world have consistently proven Simsi’s analytics and software to be effective in various local contexts and problem types.
Simsi analytics are “diagnostic.” They help you understand the environmental settings and conditions that contribute to problems. This allows for intervention planning and actions intended to reduce place-based risks. It’s about “preventing” crime, not merely “predicting” where to wait for something will happen. Simsi adds context to crime data, and is designed to help you understand and explain the reasons WHY crimes happen where they do.
Simsi uses your current data locally-relevant analyses. There’s no assumptions about your community based on what’s been seen elsewhere. Your specific crime patterns and local contexts inform all the analytic insights and tailored recommendations to address crime problems at priority places and peak times.
Yes! Simsi includes comprehensive training for all users of our software. There’s also ongoing support and professional development through our learning community.
You can also get an introduction to Risk Terrain Modeling through the International Association of Crime Analysts or schedule one of our in-person workshops on DICE™, Risk-Based Policing, Crime Analysis, or Procedurally-Just Policing.
Our exclusive partnership with Rutgers University makes your earned certificates and other training credentials official and verifiable.
Contact the Simsi Team to schedule a demo or consultation. We’ll discuss your specific needs, data availability, and how our crime prevention solutions can work for your community.
Working with Simsi
You may have access to more local data than you realize. Simsi works well with various data sources including:
- Law enforcement records
- Open source crime data
- Sentiment data
- Private or secured corporate data
- 311 calls
- Code enforcement records
- Business license information
- And many other data sources
Hot spot analysis is density-based and requires large amounts of historical crime data to persist and cluster for display as “hot spot maps”. Simsi analytics works with smaller data sets and all types of crime location patterns. With Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM) methods under-the-hood, Simsi analytics let you:
- Diagnose crime settings and other vulnerable areas
- Remain effective as interventions are successful and crime counts decrease
- Provide actionable insights about why problems occur in specific locations
Importantly, Simsi analytics give you insights to be proactive and prescriptive, not reactionary or unplanned. You can fix hot spots, anticipate potential displacement areas if problems shift over time, and address vulnerable places to prevent problems from emerging.
No! Simsi is used by communities of all sizes. Our technology is designed to be sensitive to small amounts of data and a variety of local priority problems, from traffic crashes to motor vehicle theft to violent crimes with a weapon. Simsi software fits in with the unique characteristics of your community.
Simsi provides customizable templated reports and user-friendly interfaces to analyze, explore and share information (like Simsi Mobile). Our software is designed for easy adoption. Our solutions are built to translate analytics into actionable insights that don’t require advanced technical knowledge to understand and implement.
From small organizations who need to outsource all of their work, to large and complex organizations with internal analytical capacity — Simsi has software to fit your needs.
We understand resource constraints. Simsi can provide:
- Automated analyses and reporting
- Templated and customized delivery formats
- Professional services to help implementation and adoption
- Training and ongoing support for your team
Simsi isn’t a consultancy that takes a snapshot in time. As a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform:
- Your local data continuously drives new and specific analyses. We don’t lump unrelated crimes together or make assumptions about what influences your community
- You can run analyses as frequently as needed
- The system adapts to changing trends and priorities in your community
- You gain ongoing insights rather than one-time recommendations
Simsi’s has been successfully applied to numerous fields including:
- Law enforcement
- Public health
- Traffic safety
- Code enforcement
- Community development
- Conservation
- And many others
Check our Solutions pages for examples, or contact us to discuss your specific needs.
DICE™ and Public Safety Collaboratives
DICE™ is a crime prevention framework that pairs Simsi analytics with community engagement for better public safety programming and outcomes that meet local needs and expectations. It empowers multiple community organizations to become co-producers of public safety.
DICE™ coordinates multiple stakeholders to maximize existing resources. It focuses on why certain activities occur at particular places.
DICE™ is the place-based approach to crime prevention and public safety.
DICE™ can be started and used by various groups including:
- Municipal governments
- Law enforcement agencies
- Public health departments
- Community organizations (like Public Safety Collaboratives)
- Non-profit organizations
- Multi-agency task forces
A Public Safety Collaborative (PSC) is a group of community stakeholders who have a role to play in interpreting analytic outputs, adding context to data, and driving actions to address local problems. Everyone is equally informed and empowered by Simsi analytics to do what they do best at the places needing them most while maintaining their own agency and independence in line with their organizational mission.