Drones. AI. Bodycams. Is Technology Making Us Safer?

In 2017, the Chicago Police Department created six high-tech police hubs located throughout the city's more crime-ridden neighborhoods. Dubbed "Strategic Decision Support Centers," the hubs are a blend of human expertise and high-end technology, including surveillance cameras, gunshot detection platforms, predictive mapping and data analytics. Since the centers went live, crime in adjacent neighborhoods has gone down. In two of the districts that have had some of the city's highest crime rates, the decline in crime rates has been so significant, the numbers are helping to drive down the city's overall crime numbers. "Before this project started, I would have said there's no way technology can have this kind of impact," said Jonathan Lewin, chief of CPD's Bureau of Technical Services.