When police changes its way of using geographical data to do crime mapping: Effective crime mapping by Mark Patrick (ESRI, UK)
Intranet access to force-wide mapping and analysis is one way to provide information for the range of decision making processes that exist is modern policing.Providing mapping from scales covering the whole police force area right down to data at building footprint level using OS MasterMap allows analysts to publish both performance statistics for the management team and daily tactical analysis for neighbourhood policing teams.Linking this to a partnership approach where police share data with the local partners such as the local authority,probation office,and local education authority,provides an excellent framework for delivering key strategies such as neighbourhood policing.Such an approach can enable a situation where an officer logs in at the start of a shift and is able to review all the police recorded incidents in their neighbourhood since their last shift,they can then pull up the latest information from local partners such as mapping local school truancy reports. (...) The future of geographic information is likely to include more use of mobile technology.West Midlands police have worked with ESRI (UK) to deliver handheld mobile systems for more accurate crime reporting, particularly around so called "signal crimes "such as graffiti, fly-tipping, and abandoned vehicles. These are of particular interest due to their effect on the fear of crime in a neighbourhood. Mobile reporting allows these crimes to be dealt with more quickly reducing their impact as a factor in the perceived level of crime in an area. This project also delivers cost benefits,for example by reducing the need to clear burnt-out vehicles as abandoned vehicles are removed before they are vandalised.As well as reporting crime via mobile technology,the ability to access live information whilst in the field can deliver better decision making on the beat.
Hotspots of so-called 'anti-social behavior':
Why do I blog this? I don't know whether it's a good news or a bad news. Tough, I'm a bit scared by concept like crime reporting: is it a new field for place-based annotation tools?