Using a Geographic Information System for Tactical Crime Analysis

This chapter discusses the uses of a geographic information system (GIs) for tactical crime analysis. A tactical crime analysis GIs is built on the assumption that police managers and line officers need access to timely and accurate information for problem solving, community policing, crime prevention, and enforcement activities. The goal of using a GIs system is to address some of the shortcomings of traditional policing, such as reactive responses prompted by 91 1 calls for service. Police in the United States have a well-established practice of using crime statistics to help manage operations. Spelman (1988) notes that Chief August Vollmer of Berkeley, California, was the first police manager to use crime records for short-and long-term planning in 1909. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (1994) reports that crime analysis is frequently used by police departments to provide general management information and to provide tactical and strategic support. Accreditation standards for law enforcement agencies require police departments to use crime analysis information for supporting management and operations. The use of maps to examine the spatial distribution of crime also has a long history as evidenced by the work of Guerry (1833) and Quetelet (1842/1973), who noted that crime was not evenly distributed across geographic areas in France Comparative studies, most notably the work of social ecologists of the Chicago school of sociology during the first half of the twentieth century, found that high delinquency rates corresponded to communities with other social problems (Shaw, 1929). Comparing the spatial distribution of crime with other data on an area's inhabitants contributed to the development of several crimi-nological theories. Social disorganization theory developed from the work of Shaw INTRODUCTION and McKay. Brantingham and Brantingham (1981) noted that early comparative mapping studies were used to support arguments about criminal etiology made by social positivists during the early twentieth century. Examining various aspects of crime within a geographical context has contributed to a better understanding of offender travel patterns Crime analysis involves the collection and analysis of data pertaining to a criminal incident, offender, and target. Police managers recognize that competent analysts provide important information to decision makers. One of the most important purposes of crime analysis is to identify and generate the information needed to assist in decisions regarding the deployment of police resources to prevent and suppress criminal activity. In addition, crime analysis can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of programs such as community policing …