Just like any big city, Chicago has more than its fair share of problems. Take stolen garbage carts for example – they might not cause as many headaches as trying to reduce the city’s crime rates, but still, it’s a problem nevertheless. Stolen garbage carts have to be replaced, and this means wasting precious resources that could be put to better use elsewhere.

As with most problems, it’s often the case that prevention is better than the cure, and the case of Chicago’s missing garbage carts is no exception. In an illuminating look at Big Data in action, InformationWeek’s Chris Murphy writes that city officials have used predictive analytics software to highlight a link between streetlight outages in certain neighborhoods and stolen carts.

To understand how officials came to this conclusion, it helps to see what Chicago has been doing Big Data. The city has developed its own predictive analytics platform after securing a $1 million grant for finishing as runner up in the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge. Consequently, it invested heavily in its computer programs, hiring Big Data experts such as Tom Schenk, who previously led medical research analysis at Northwestern University, to serve as its director of analytics.

According to Murphy, cities are often much better positioned to get the most out of Big Data than private businesses are, because they have mountains of public data at their disposal. For example, “Chicago cranks out many data sets for public consumption, providing APIs that let people access that data, and setting up internal systems to automatically update information as the city does,” writes Murphy.

To improve the accessibility of this data, the city has created a single database into which information pours from its existing systems. This database also incorporates mapping software, which means analysts are able to highlight where the city’s problems are concentrated, compare statistics, and perform historical analysis to predict where future troubles might occur. As well as linking stolen garbage carts to blacked out streetlights, Chicago’s predictive analytics software is being used to cut down on urban blights like graffiti and rats, and perhaps it could one day even address bigger problems.

Brenna Berman, Chicago’s deputy CIO, says that his department may one day be able to help come up with solutions to tackle the city’s murder rate, or improve its water infrastructure.

“It’s the exact same story for how you figure out which water mains are going to explode this year, so we can use our limited budget to improve the water infrastructure the right way for over 10 years,” says Berman.

Indeed, it’s possible that just by cracking down on garbage cart theft, there could be unintended, but positive, effects. Just as New York City’s efforts to combat subway fare-hopping and vandalism in the 1990s caused a reduction in violent crime, keeping Chicago’s streets illuminated could also make the city a much safer place for its residents.

photo credit: Geoff LMV via photopin cc