DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A CRIME GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION TRACKING SYSTEM

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: As the amount of criminal activity across the country increases, the need for crime prevention also increases.  Therefore police departments need every available crime-fighting tool that can provide an advantage over criminals.  Since traditional methods of crime analysis are becoming out-dated due to the amount of time required for analysis, a more automated process is desired.

The primary goal of the system is to prevent local crime through active crime deterrence and increased criminal apprehension.

There is a growing trend in law enforcement to utilize computers equipped with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to solve and prevent crimes.  By combining incident databases and geographic data with a mapping and analysis tool, law enforcement agencies can bring a new level of crime analysis capabilities to their efforts. Mapping incident locations is an effective way to identify spatial relationships and gain valuable insight into criminal activity.

These systems require considerable human and financial resources in order to be properly implemented and sustainable over time.  New computer hardware and the intended software to be developed must integrate into the force.

However, these systems are primarily limited to data from their own jurisdiction. There is no framework in place to support the sharing of incident data between jurisdictions for statewide cross-jurisdictional crime analysis.  Since criminals do not typically respect jurisdictional boundaries, data sharing can be a crucial element for effective analysis.

With the help of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), the law enforcement agencies are able to track crime data to location and view the crime situation of an area on a map. The introduction of GIS has made possible the integration of spatial and non-spatial data. GIS capabilities also allow police to pin point where the problem areas are and allocate appropriate resources.