Mapping and Analysis for Public Safety

The placement of alleys, buildings and

open spaces, for example, affects the
likelihood that a criminal will strike.
Combining geographic data with police
report data and then displaying the
information on a map is an effective way
to analyze where, how and why crime
occurs.
Maps

Are pictures of information about areas

and places.
Help us visualize data.
Are like the proverbial pictures worth a
thousand words.
Enable information to be seen at a glance.

Computerized crime maps became more

commonplace with the introduction of
desktop computing and software programs
called Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) . Analysts map where crime occurs,
combine the resulting visual display with
other geographic data (such as location of
schools, parks and industrial complexes),
analyze and investigate the causes of
crime, and develop responses. Recent
advances in statistical analysis make it
possible to add more geographic and social
dimensions to the analysis.

Type of Mapping information

Pattern is an especially useful concept in
crime analysis, as so much of what crime
Location is arguably the most important of
analysts do involves describing or analyzing
all the types of information to be
the pattern of crime occurrences
represented on a map from the perspective
Line data Linear features or processes can
of a crime analyst. Where things have
be abstracted on maps. The Minard map
happened, or may happen in the future, is
did this by symbolizing the flow of troops to
the most sought after and potentially useful
Moscow and back. The street maps used to
piece of information.
map crime also contain line data that show
Distance is not much use as an abstract
points on streets, indicating the linear
piece of information. It comes to life when
arrangement of incidents
translated into some kind of relationship:
Discrete distributions When point data are
How far did the victim live from the place
combined within unit areas such as
where she was robbed?
precincts, patrol areas, census tracts, or
neighborhoods, each area is separated from
Direction is most useful when considered in
the others; it is "discrete."
conjunction with distance, although it is not
Continuous distributions are used less in
typically an important piece of map
crime analysis than discrete distributions,
information in crime analysis unless it
finding more frequent application in
relates to other relevant processes or
conjunction with, for example, commonly
conditions
used software such as ArcView Spatial
Analyst.

Role in Mapping
How to use maps to analyze crime.
How to analyze spatial data.
How maps can help researchers evaluate
programs and policies.
How to develop mapping, data sharing and
spatial analysis tools.

How Mapping Helps Reduce Crime

and Improve Public Safety
Place" is a term meant to convey a
geographic area that consists of
various social, economic and
ecological similarities yet has subtle
and distinct differences

Places can be represented as buildings,

street blocks, neighborhoods, sections
of a city or county, metropolitan areas
or regions of the country.
Examining where past victims and
offenders lived and where crimes
occurred helps police determine which
neighborhoods attract offenders and
where unknown offenders may reside.

Geographic analysis uncovers

differences between urban and rural
environments.
Rural areas must collect and examine regional data
over a long period of time to collect sufficient data
to understand local crime trends. Read the full
report.
Cities may experience a high volume of crime in
hot spots. Police can target hot spots to reduce
crime in these areas
Some rural areas do not have hot spots.
Therefore, rural law enforcement must use other
forms of geographic analysis (e.g., identifying the
types of locations where crime occurs, assessing
physical geography) to identify regional crime
trends and develop specific prevention strategies.

Crime Mapping actions can reduce

crime and improve public safety
Working with managers of local businesses
Increasing homeownership may reduce
where people gather (e.g., bar owners,
victimization
restaurant managers) helps reduce crime and
disorder in local venues. In disadvantaged
Partnerships between community
areas, law enforcement may wish to help
organizations and public works or drug code owners fund staff and security efforts
enforcement offices can ensure that urban
planning includes crime prevention
Posting Neighborhood Watch or other crime

Public relations campaigns may increase

residents' awareness of crime in their
neighborhoods
Limiting hours of alcohol sales or reducing
the amount and types of alcohol sold can
reduce crime and disorder.

prevention signs in low- and medium-income

neighborhoods may cause residents to
perceive that their neighborhoods have more
crime and violence, making residents think
they have a crime problem when they do not.
Crime prevention practitioners should replace
defaced or aged signs, because residents may
think these signs indicate a lack of
neighborhood crime prevention

MAPS Projects
MAPS program sponsors grants and research
projects that examine crime, law and public
disorder from a geographic perspective. These
projects often lead to the development of new
statistical and mapping software or provide
datasets for analysis.
PROGRAMS :
Automobiles and Traffic Safety
Hot Spots
General Law Enforcement
Neighborhoods, Communities and Place
Software and Technology

History of Crime Mapping

The best known maps in criminology were
created by the Chicago School sociologists
Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, who
constructed a choropleth map using
aggregations of addresses of close to 3,000
male delinquents in Chicago for the period
1927 to 1933. The map featured polygon
In 1849, Joseph Fletcher created maps that
shading to indicate rates of delinquency
showed the rate of male incarceration for
serious property and violent crimes across
counties in England and Wales, and in
Such labor intensiveness meant that few
1861, Henry Mayhew presented a number
police departments could afford to
of maps displaying the English and Welsh
produce computerized crime maps. It
county rates for a variety of crimes: rape,
wasnt possible for most agencies to afford
assault, bigamy, and abduction, among
crime mapping until desktop computers
others.
became widely available in the mid-1980s
to early 1990s and microprocessor speed
increased.
origin of the mapping of crime to France,
where in 1829 Adriano Balbi and Andr
Michel Guerry created maps that showed
the relationship between violent and
property crimes and educational levels.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of

Desktop Crime Mapping
Technology change, specifically the
increasing availability of desktop
computers, has been the main reason for
the recent rapid growth in crime mapping
by American police departments.

An increasing focus on small geographic

areas has led to increased recognition of
the value of a hot-spots policing approach,
with crime mapping central to this
approach

Computerized crime mapping now relies

less on labor-intensive processes; it is no
longer necessary to draw maps by hand
using special pens and India ink. Pressing
only a few buttons on a keyboard produces
similar effects.

With initial cost outlays for a basic mapping

program low, the cost of crime mapping is not
an impediment to most police departments. For
example, ArcView, the popular software used by
about 40 percent of departments doing
mapping, according to Mamalian and La Vigne,
retails for under $2,000.

The Spread of Crime Mapping Use by

American Police Departments

Why Crime Mapping

Detectives may use maps to
better understand the hunting
patterns of serial criminals and
to hypothesize where these
offenders might live. Using
maps that help people visualize
the geographic aspects of crime,
Mapping crime can help law however, is not limited to law
enforcement. Mapping can
enforcement protect
provide specific information on
citizens more effectively in
crime and criminal behavior to
the areas they serve
politicians, the press, and the
general
same location. Several factors, from the
lure of potential targets to simple
geographic convenience for an offender,
influence where people choose to break
the law. Therefore, an understanding of
where and why crimes occur can improve
attempts to fight crime. Maps offer crime
analysts graphic representations of such
crime-related issues.

Density of Crimes
The same GIS software used to map crime
locations can also be used to calculate
crime density values, such as the number
of crimes per square mile. These density
values can be used to create a choropleth
map, which uses color to represent
different values among land units within
the study area, such as police precincts,
city voting districts, or census tracts.
Density maps offer the map user a broader
look at where crimes occur without his
having to interpret a large number of
individual locations

Combining Data from Multiple Sources

The first choropleth map shows some

correlation of densely populated census tracts
The second map examines homicides and the
percentage of housing units that are vacant in
each census tract.
The third map compares homicides in 1994 with the
percentage of persons in each tract that fall 50% or
more below
the poverty level. Generally, more homicide
incidents appear to have occurred in the poorer
tracts.

Hot Spots
Highlighting such areas helps police direct
patrols where they are most needed,
thereby optimizing the deterrent effect of
police presence
multiple crimes occurring at a single
address may deceivingly be represented by
a single point on such a map
Hot spot analysis is frequently performed
using special software, such as
the Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Crime
(STAC) program developed by the Illinois
Criminal Justice Information
Authority, which draws ellipses based on the
densest concentrations of mapped incidents.

This map shows locations of residential

burglaries and attempted burglaries that
occurred over a two-month period in
Washington, DC.

Keeping Patrols Up to Date

Patrols in many departments are briefed
regularly with the aid of maps on recent
crime trends. In addition to crime location
and hot spot maps, some departments
provide patrol officers with several other
types of spatial information.
sample patrol-briefing map, produced
biweekly for police in the Borough of
Brent, London, U.K. This map not only
shows the locations of three types of
crimes over a 12-day period, but also
highlights the more recent incidents in
larger, red icons. Additionally, icons
representing crimes whose locations have
been positively identified are shaded with
the boldest colors; locations that had to be
approximated receive lighter shading to
signify the decreasing certainty of their
location.

Mapping and Closed Circuit Television

Some police departments in the United
States are beginning to implement closed
circuit television (CCTV) cameras that are
strategically positioned in public areas.
This tool for crime prevention,
investigation, and evidence collection is
used extensively by law enforcement in
Great Britain
This map shows a small portion of police CCTV
coverage in Harlesden, an area within the
London Borough of Brent. On this graphic,
blue shading highlights areas within view of
two of the CCTV cameras. Inside that area, the
darker blue shading shows the region within
each camera's view for which offenders can
be legally identified; film capturing images of
suspects within this region can be used as
prosecuting evidence.

Proximity
The applications of spatial crime analysis
extend beyond the production of maps
displaying crime locations for police; they
provide analytical functions of interest to
the general community.
This map of an anonymous small town
with a population slightly above 6,500, for
example, locates the residences of
registered child sex offenders whose
addresses have been made public by local
government. These locations were
compared with the locations of the town's
schools.

The Commute of Offenders

This map of Atlanta and its vicinity investigates
where offenders tend to commit crimes in
relation to their residences
and compares this data with demographic
factors.
large map at the center uses data obtained
through NIJ's Drug Use Forecasting (DUF)
project, which includes the zip codes of
arrestees and those of the locations where
they committed crimes. For each zip code,
the number of arrestee residences and the
number of crime locations were calculated.

Crime Mapping Presentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDPgLsS5q18

Cites
http://www.training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/co
urseOverview.aspx?code=IS-809
http://www.nij.gov/topics/technology/maps/
pages/welcome.aspx
http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/forum/23/3fall2
006/a_crimemapping.html