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PositionIT – October 2009 61

Crime analysis and the criticalrole of location intelligenceby Ian Broadbent, Pitney Bowes Business Insight

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.

Crime 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.

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:

l 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

helps to solve any ambiguity over

the exact location where an incident

has happened.

l 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.

l 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.

l 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.

Crime analysis is a law enforcement

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.

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

 

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62 PositionIT – October 2009

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:

l In the control and command centre

to coordinate agencies, provide visual

representation of an area, project

further threats.

l It can be linked to CCTV to detect

and prevent criminal activity, record

and archive video footage.

l 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.

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 

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 force’s

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:

l Geospatial query (Spatial SQL) and

analysis tools

l Analysis, information, statistics and

statistical analysis functions

l Redistricting and interpolation

l Built in geocoding

l Standard emergency icon sets

l Data management

l Geoprocessing tools

l Geometry editing capabilities

including powerful CAD based edit

tools

l Extensive publishing and reporting

options

l Charts and graphs

l Vector and raster support

l 3D Views and prism mapping

l Support for OGC Web Service

Standards (WFS-T, WMS)

l Support for a range of data formats

including Excel and ESRI SHP

l Integration with web services for

routing, drive times and geocoding.

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

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.

 

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PositionIT – October 2009 63

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:

l Multiple real-time hotspotting options

and kernal density visualisation

l Integrated 3D imagery including

CCTV footage

l User-specified temporal analysis

(contrasting day/night or other time

profiles)

l Automatic graphing and mapping

creation, linking and updates

l 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

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 UK’s 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.