Criminal justice professionalsserving public or private sectors use predictive analytics based on current data to examine ways to improve systems and processes.For example, drug laws and issues are constantly changing with technology. Criminal justice professionals can make positive changes to drug laws using insight gained from predictive analytics. For that reason, law enforcement officers analyze data to examine criminal patterns and try to predict the time and place of drug-related crimes. Drug courts and correctional systems use analytics to make decisions related to predicting recidivism in high-risk individuals and determining the supports needed for each offender who may be reentering a community.

• What changes in drug laws have occurred in recent years in your city, county, or state?
• How have these changes had a positive or negative impact?
• How might these changes affect the future of law enforcement and the correctional system in your area?
• What are the differences between the changes to drug laws that are being made in your area compared to changes in other areas of the U.S. or at the federal level?
• What conflicts of interest might arise as a result of these differences?