Cops"wanted to bring a data-driven approach to identifying stolen vehicles."Police in Portland, Oregon, are arresting more suspected car thieves and reducing the number of vehicles stolen, thanks to a partnership with cancer researchers.
Dr. Jeffrey Tyner, a professor at the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University, told ABC News Terrett approached him at a social gathering about helping improve the city's stolen vehicle problem."He told me about his concept that he wanted to bring a data-driven approach to identifying stolen vehicles," Tyner said. "I actually thought it was a natural fit because we use data. They were interested in using data - obviously for very different purposes.
Terrett said stolen vehicles are frequently used to commit other crimes, so pulling over stolen vehicles often leads to reducing other crimes."If we can apprehend that vehicle with that person in the car, we are likely - as our statistics have shown - going to take a gun off the street," Terrett said. "There is likely a person in that vehicle with an active arrest warrant that we can take into custody. And who knows what we have just stopped from occurring in the community.
He wanted to find someone local who could help analyze information gathered on traffic stops and increase law enforcement efficiency. He said the list of characteristics, which he calls "enrichment factors," is constantly changing,