Rhode Island Municipal Training Academy Training Coordinator Richard Sullivan said the training took place on Thursday. This is the first training of its kind to take place in Rhode Island.

Sullivan says federal transportation authorities are pushing police departments to map their crime and traffic crashes and use that information to make decisions about deploying manpower. He says departments are also encouraged to share the information with each other.

Sullivan says crime and traffic crashes dropped in communities were the system has been tested. He says the strategy started to get implemented more broadly in January.