Azavea’s HunchLab wins $25K civic tech award from Amazon Web Services

Azavea‘s HunchLab software for law enforcement was one of four private-sector projects to win the Amazon Web Services (AWS) civic tech award, according to a release.

Named the City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge, AWS sought both private- and public-sector projects that use AWS and aim to improve city services. The private-sector winners won $25,000 in AWS credits, while the public sector winners won $50,000 in AWS credits.

Developed over a period of three years with the support of about $800,000 in federal grants, HunchLab uses data on past crimes, weather, special events and more to calculate the level of risk for different types of crimes in different neighborhoods. In late 2013, Azavea gave Philadelphia Police free access to the tool as part of a data-sharing agreement. Philly cops are the first big city police force to use the tool.