Application

Crime analysis and the critical role of location intelligence

by Ian Broadbent, Pitney Bowes Business Insight

technical

Crime analysis is a law enforcement profession dedicated to the identification of patterns, trends and problems in crime and disorder. It has become an increasingly important part of policing and crime prevention and thousands of specialist crime analysts are now employed by police forces worldwide.

rime analysts work at all levels in policing the study of crime, incident, and intelligence information. The role is to identify, predict and forecast occurrences and suggest solutions, effective strategies and tactics to address crime and disorder. Other duties include preparing statistics, data queries and the use of geographical information systems (GIS) for the identification of local, regional, national and international crime concerns. Effective crime analysis employs a whole host of tools and skills, including: data mining, crime mapping, statistics and research methods, desktop publishing, charting and presentation skills, critical thinking and understanding of criminal behaviour. There are two main types of crime analysis: tactical crime analysis and strategic crime analysis. Within these areas crime analysts are able to use their training and skills to predict crime, forecast future crime trends and make predictions using statistics and geographical information systems to assist their organisations in decision making, proactive enforcement and determining how future risk and harm to communities can be managed.

Fig. 1: Identifying hotspots for targeting, deploying and managing responses is crucial.

helps to solve any ambiguity over the exact location where an incident has happened.
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Supporting the briefing of operational police officers by identifying crimes and incidents that have recently occurred in the areas they have patrolled or are soon to patrol, and what may happen in the future. Identifying hotspots for targeting, deploying and managing responses is crucial (see Fig.1). Additionally, it has been used by many police forces to help identify, target and prioritise suitable areas for prevention initiatives, managing risk and reducing harm. Monitoring the impact of operational initiatives and evaluation is pivotal; this is an area where crime mapping is extensively used to help monitor and evaluate what has worked and what has not.

function that involves systematic analysis for identifying and analysing patterns and trends in crime and disorder. Information on patterns can help law enforcement agencies deploy resources in a more effective manner, and assist detectives in identifying and apprehending suspects. Crime analysis also plays a role in devising solutions to crime problems, and formulating crime prevention strategies. With the 2010 World Cup rapidly approaching, it is pivotal that resources are maximised and coordinated in the most appropriate way. Often many people from different agencies will be involved to support security at a major event. These include the police, fire and rescue, ambulance service, health, military, environment agency, as well as utilities, transport, local and national government, not to mention the high profile media attention it will attract. Consequently, effective command and control plans need to be put in place.

Crime analysis in practice

Crime mapping is the direct application that comes from considering the inherent geography in crime. It supports a number of key processes that include:
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Responding and directing police for service, and information collection. Many police forces use detailed gazetteers of addresses and locations with computer mapping to help them identify where a response is needed and become consistent in address data capture. This also

Crime analysis is a law enforcement

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Application

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The prioritisation of what you are dealing with is crucial and the setting of prioritised lines of enquiry and gathering as much intelligence about what has happened is paramount while at the same time managing risk, reducing harm and protecting the public. The projection of further threats needs to be managed and exclusion areas set up to reduce harm to members of the public. As 85% of actions have a location component, location intelligence is vital in supporting the decision making process. Location intelligence is an investigative and preventative tool which allows agencies to analyse and prepare an impact assessment to develop a planning strategy.

Location intelligence can be used:

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In the control and command centre to coordinate agencies, provide visual representation of an area, project further threats. It can be linked to CCTV to detect and prevent criminal activity, record and archive video footage. In a public order automation system to manage calls, identify callers and their location, dispatch units, coordinate units such as the Mobile Operation Management Unit. The mobile unit can be deployed to any major incident. It contains radio and satellite communications, camera displays, connection to police networks.

Fig. 2: Ready-to-use crime analysis software components save analysts time by making analysis tools available at one common point in one common format.

patterns of crime from a wide variety of different perspectives thereby assisting in directing law enforcement efforts to where they can be most effective. It breaks new ground in providing ready-to-use crime analysis software components that save analysts time by making analysis tools available at one common point in one common format (see Fig. 2). Analyst training is made easier and quicker (high analyst turnover rates are costly in terms of training and short term resource pressures). Speedier response to operational requirements is enabled. Management and performance reporting is improved through consistency of output and better information sharing to help improve decision making. The product is an easily scalable platform to which new components can be added as new techniques are developed, as a police forces enterprise needs grow, and as budgets become available. Analysing patterns of crime from a wide variety of different perspectives helps to direct law enforcement efforts where they can be most effective. However, these patterns are in a constant state of flux, and the professional crime analyst often has to explore a number of different data combinations, scenarios and geographical aspects in order to provide law enforcement teams with the intelligence they need to be operationally effective. In short, this solution is said to provide analysts and other power users within law enforcement with an advanced analytical toolset to meet their geospatial and crime analytical requirements. The offering is a new module from the

company's MapInfo Professional solution, which is at the core for geographical information systems and is not just a mapping application. As such it also provides a wide range of capabilities of use within a police force beyond simple mapping including:
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Geospatial query (Spatial SQL) and analysis tools Analysis, information, statistics and statistical analysis functions Redistricting and interpolation Built in geocoding Standard emergency icon sets Data management Geoprocessing tools Geometry editing capabilities including powerful CAD based edit tools Extensive publishing and reporting options Charts and graphs Vector and raster support 3D Views and prism mapping Support for OGC Web Service Standards (WFS-T, WMS) Support for a range of data formats including Excel and ESRI SHP Integration with web services for routing, drive times and geocoding.

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Solution for crime analysis

In recent years, crime analysis and mapping has become an essential tool for effective law enforcement not only to aid detection rates, but also to support operational efficiency and effectiveness, management reporting and other enterprise-wide tasks. Pitney Bowes Business Insight, a provider of location intelligence solutions, integrating software, data and services, has recently launched a fully automated crime analysis and visualisation solution called MapInfo Crime Profiler. The solution automates much of the statistical legwork that sits behind crime analysis and visualisation, allowing users to perform sophisticated analyses more quickly and easily through an intuitive dashboard interface. The product is expected to play a major role in helping improve policing effectiveness. This solution helps police forces get the right resources in the right place at the right time, helping to improve detection rates, minimising the number of victims of crime, and reducing the analysis of

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The Engage3D software, another component of MapInfo Crime Profiler, will insert itself in the main menu bar of MapInfo Professional and provide the user with a range of useful crime analysis tools such as: Choropleth mapping and advanced Choropleth techniques, grid analysis and contour mapping, circle analysis, cluster mapping, link analysis and geodemographic

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analysis centre at the New York Police Department. In Europe they have coverage across Germany, Nordics, Netherlands, Spain and Italy. Over the last year they have provided solutions and software to thirty UK police forces including West Midlands Police, Greater Manchester and the Metropolitan Police, in addition to presenting applications to be used to investigate at a strategic and tactical level for serious and organised crime. In its latest report on the use of geographical information in the public sector, the UKs Department for Communities and Local Government has highlighted the urgent need for automation to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of crucial analytical output. The report notes that, Current users of geographic information spend 80% of their time collating and managing the information and only 20% analysing it to solve problems and generate benefits. We need to address this imbalance. This comment reveals the great efficiency gains that could be possible by utilising such a solution. Contact Lisa de Kock, ST Group, Tel 011 314-0788, lisad@stgroup.co.za

Fig. 3: Incidents by time, category, day of the week and geographical district.

analysis. It will enable interactive crime analysis, allowing the user to conduct complex crime analysis within MapInfo Professional, without the need to run additional external programs. This direct connection will also allow faster visualisation and analysis. It will enable the user to undertake complex crime analysis by using a tool bar, making the functionality simple, thus negating the need for complex training. The solution contains a great amount of functionality and analytical ability, facilitated by a relatively simple user interface. One of the problems of many analytical tools for generating continuous surfaces (hotspots) is that the user is faced with many complex decisions before an analysis can be generated, this proposal would effectively provide options. The product is said to be an effective and advanced solution which meets the geospatial and analytical crime requirements of the modern day police force. It provides a single package of capabilities for applying common operations and a toolkit to enable investigative or research based analysis. It removes the need for analysts to devote a substantial proportion of their efforts to time-consuming statistical manipulation, such as creating macros or pivot tables in SPSS or MS Excel. Instead, these tasks are automated through a dashboard interface. Pilot studies have shown that analyst efficiency can be greatly improved using the product. This solution allows the analyst to choose automated options including:
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Automated data, table and workspace utilities

The company is committed to working with police forces around the world, providing technologies required to share, analyse and present information (GIS), modelling software, web mapping services and visualisation tools. It has worked in partnership with some of the largest police forces in the world, including Australian police forces such as Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales. In the United States the company designed and implemented the real time command and control crime

Multiple real-time hotspotting options and kernal density visualisation Integrated 3D imagery including CCTV footage User-specified temporal analysis (contrasting day/night or other time profiles) Automatic graphing and mapping creation, linking and updates

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