Data analysis of knife crime incidents with Police Scotland. What was the project? Image Studies have demonstrated that not all instances of stabbings are reported to the police, and that ambulance data can provide a valuable additional source of information. This project focused on cross referencing police crime/incident data relating to stabbings with Scottish Ambulance Service data related to knife wounds. These datasets, matched by time, date, and description provided an opportunity to explore under-reporting and data gaps, as well as working across agencies to examine a common problem. What was the business need? We offered the internships for several reasons. Firstly, we wanted to bring in some expertise that we didn’t have access to internally. The fact that this could be achieved at really low cost was a bonus. Secondly, we wanted to build a PoC that would spark interest and which could be used as an engaging case study of the sort of advanced analytics work we could do. Finally, we wanted a way of advertising ourselves as an interesting and data driven employer, and to access potential future employees by giving them an idea of the sort of work we do. What did the student bring to the team? The student brought a degree of technical knowledge that was great to see, but also a genuine curiosity about the problem and a drive to answer the question. She has left a fantastic piece of work that we are already starting to build on and develop further. This article was published on 2024-06-06
