SSPO Data Analysis and Interpretation 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A crime analyst notices that robbery rates spike every Friday between 9 PM and midnight. This is an example of what type of pattern?
- Spatial clustering
- Temporal pattern (Correct answer)
- Random distribution
- Demographic correlation
Correct answer: Temporal pattern
Crimes consistently occurring at specific days and times represent a temporal pattern.
Question 2: A dataset of response times in minutes is: 4, 7, 3, 9, 5, 6, 3, 8, 3, 7. What is the mode?
- 5
- 3 (Correct answer)
- 6
- 7
Correct answer: 3
The value 3 appears three times, more than any other value, making it the mode.
Question 3: Monthly DUI arrests for a year total 144. If arrests are evenly distributed, what is the expected count per quarter?
- 12
- 36 (Correct answer)
- 48
- 24
Correct answer: 36
144 arrests ÷ 4 quarters = 36 arrests per quarter.
Question 4: A heat map shows high crime concentration in the northeast sector of a city. Which analytical action is most appropriate next?
- Redistribute officers citywide equally
- Investigate socioeconomic and environmental factors in that sector (Correct answer)
- Ignore it as statistical noise
- Only track future crimes citywide
Correct answer: Investigate socioeconomic and environmental factors in that sector
Investigating contributing factors in the identified hot spot allows for targeted, evidence-based intervention.
Question 5: Crime data for five neighborhoods shows: A=55, B=30, C=45, D=70, E=25. What is the median crime count?
- 30
- 45 (Correct answer)
- 55
- 70
Correct answer: 45
Sorted: 25, 30, 45, 55, 70 — the middle value (3rd) is 45.
Question 6: An officer reviews a line graph showing crime trends over 10 years. The line rises steeply for 3 years then flattens. What does the flat portion suggest?
- Crime is still increasing rapidly
- The rate of increase has slowed or stabilized (Correct answer)
- Crime has completely disappeared
- Data was not collected during that period
Correct answer: The rate of increase has slowed or stabilized
A flat line on a trend graph indicates that values are stable, meaning the rate of change has slowed to near zero.
Question 7: A contingency table shows 120 traffic stops: 45 resulted in citations, 30 in warnings, 25 in arrests, and 20 in no action. What fraction of stops resulted in citations?
- 1/3
- 3/8 (Correct answer)
- 1/4
- 3/10
Correct answer: 3/8
45/120 = 3/8 of all traffic stops resulted in citations.
SSPO Data Analysis and Interpretation 3
A crime analyst notices that robbery rates spike every Friday between 9 PM and midnight.
This is an example of what type of pattern?