Fraud
Below is a Power BI dashboard that I created with the latest Boston Crime. All fraudulent, forgery and counterfeit crimes were grouped into this category.
In the line plot time series, you will see that there were multiple spikes in fraud related crimes during 2020 and smaller spikes in 2023. I enabled anomaly detection and used the default sensitivity of 70%. 2020s largest spike over two months appears to be an outlier, but the drop does not. If I set the sensitivity to 90% then the drop in Sept 2025 is an outlier, as is the May 2020 spike. I decided to go more conservative here.
Based on this, I did a little research and found an article of the FTC web site about increases in fraud in 2023 and the actions taken by the FTC to reduce risk to consumers. As Nationwide Fraud Losses Top $10 Billion in 2023, FTC Steps Up Efforts to Protect the Public | Federal Trade Commission. I know there were claims of fraud during 2020 related to government benefits targeting those impacted by Covid.
Opioid Crisis – Drug Related Sick Assists
In analyzing the data, I grouped the drug related arrest data with drug related sick assist data. I also combined the sick assists for all of the different opioids. I was fascinated by the huge spike in sick assist activity starting in January of 2022.
Again, I did some research and found an interesting article in NPR about the opioid crisis in 2022. The article stated that fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, was becoming increasingly deadly. While the DEA impounded historic amounts, it was still getting into the country. I was unaware that there were laws to crack down on drugs that actually made it more difficult for people suffering from addiction to get medical help. Changes were made to make the overdose medications available over the counter and to make it easier for doctors to treat them. One might argue that all the actions being taken demonstrated more sympathy for the victims of drug addiction than in the past. As a result, we see that the police were actually more involved in saving people than punishing them.
Note that while I added anomaly detection, the huge spike in 2022 was not an anomaly because it was the start of a new trend. It was not an unexplained temporary spike.
Check out the fascinating article on NPR about this issue: U.S. opioid crisis hit a deadly peak in 2022 but also perhaps a turning point : NPR
Blackmail
I looked into corruption, thinking blackmail and bribery. The cases were all blackmail and there has been an upward trend since June 2015. Also note that when I added the anomaly detection, using the default sensitivity, 70%, the Sept 2023 and Sept 2024 spikes are anomalies. However, notice that there is an upward trend. I am also including an article on the blackmail epidemic.
