Companies
PredPol Hires New CEO
by Sara Isenberg
Publisher, Santa Cruz Tech Beat
Local tech start-up PredPol has landed a new leader to guide its rapid growth by adding Silicon Valley 
veteran (and local resident) Larry Samuels as CEO. Samuels has held several senior executive positions in the high technology industry, including President & CEO of Communities.com, Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer of Creative Labs, and Vice President of Worldwide Strategic Markets and General Manager (U.S.) for Atari. He has led or been a management participant in three successful public offerings. Interim CEO, Caleb Baskin, will remain on the Board of Directors and serve as a Special Advisor to the CEO.
“PredPol highlights what is best about Santa Cruz-based tech companies: brilliant minds that dedicate their research and work towards the public good,” Samuels said. “I’m excited to continue the consolidation of our leadership position in the field of predicting policing and to scale PredPol into a multi-service leader of Software as a Service (SaaS) products in the fields of law enforcement and other public service domains.”
PredPol’s SaaS technology combines proprietary mathematical algorithms, big data, and anthropological research to create a simple and effective tool for law enforcement to predict when and where crime will occur. Field-tested in over two dozen police agencies, including LAPD, Seattle PD and Atlanta PD, PredPol’s technology has been featured on major national television news network and in newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. In 2011, Time Magazine named it one of the top inventions of the year. Since the original beta research with the Santa Cruz Police Department and Los Angeles Police Department, PredPol has grown to become a market leader in predictive policing technology and deployments with a rapidly growing U.S. based customer list and international deployments in Europe and South America.
“Over the last few years we’ve worked with PredPol to develop a tool for our line level officers that is easy to use and effective in preventing crime” Santa Cruz Police Deputy Chief Steve Clark said. “They have been very responsive to our feedback and have consistently improved the software to meet our needs.”
PredPol’s software now includes predictions for gun violence and a tool that shows the accuracy of the predictions in real time to the departments; providing a level of transparency and accountability about the efficacy of the software.
A member of the Central Coast Angels, Samuels has been active in the local tech community and is focused upon securing the necessary assets and team to continue scaling the company. This will include the hiring of additional engineers, digital marketing specialists and support staff.
“There is a remarkable amount of local talent here” Samuels said, “many of our brightest and most creative people endure the daily commute over Highway 17 to Silicon Valley, losing 2-3 hours a day commuting and living bifurcated lives because of a lack of opportunities in our county. We want to help change that and we’re looking forward to leveraging some of Santa Cruz County’s extraordinary talent to grow our company.”
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Sara Isenberg curates and publishes Santa Cruz Tech Beat for the benefit of the extended business and technology community. When she is not volunteering her time for the tech scene, Sara makes her living by managing software projects, web strategy planning, and providing development team services (including account management, vendor management, strategic partner management, beta project management, referrals to qualified technical team members, and more). Please visit her website: Sara Isenberg Web Consulting & Project Management, or contact Sara by email if you have any project management, account management, or Development Team leadership or service needs.
Tagged Larry Samuels, predictive policing, PredPol
