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z3mcs t1_iu6rmei wrote

Reply to comment by agentxstealth in Ever felt unsafe walking along the streets of Baltimore late at night? by agentxstealth

Ah, makes sense. Is there any advanced methodology going on based on what you know of crime in Baltimore?

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agentxstealth OP t1_iu6thdd wrote

It uses machine learning to calculate local crime hotspots for recent crime based on police reports from a database and then assigns a danger score to each route based on the proximity of the route to nearby hotspots. The safest route with the lowest danger score is the default route the app highlights.

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z3mcs t1_iu6tz9q wrote

What database, just curious. Also how do you weight the crimes?

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wwwdotdogsdotcom t1_iu7eosy wrote

Don’t think he’s going to just give you his business model in a Reddit post. LOL

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z3mcs t1_iu7iad7 wrote

Well I need something if I'm going to consider the app. There are some specific things he should be saying about how it weights crimes, based on what we know of crimes committed in Baltimore. He hasn't said those yet. Another user is already pointing out additional flaws of the app.

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ratczar t1_iu8zdvm wrote

He's just using the crime data BPD publishes. The dataset is subject to both non-response bias (ppl don't report all crime to the police) and fluctuations due to the changes in police deployments or dealers moving between corners, meaning even if it could get good predictions it's a lagging indicator.

Also, this all assumed that BPD is reporting their arrests on time. That dataset gets updated sporadically, it's not reliable for this kind of real time use.

Never mind the problem of having your phone out to look at directions in an unsafe area.

OP I applaud you for putting together a portfolio project, but please consider taking it off the app store before this gets someone killed.

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agentxstealth OP t1_iu99jty wrote

  1. The user has the option to choose between a plethora of options based on his preferences for both speed and safety, they are not just confined to take one specific route.

  2. With or without the app people will always be killed. I also state in my disclaimer that the app only gives you the lowest chance of a crime happening and does not guarantee that one will not happen. The safety is still the responsibility of the user.

  3. I have done extensive testing with the database and it actually returns very recent crimes (within the last day) up till the last week. It is also constantly updated hourly with new crimes that can change the recommended route based on the algorithm.

Hence, I disagree with all of your points.

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