GIS Taking a Bite out of Crime

February 23, 2012  - By

Information is power. Geographic information is information, turbocharged. While privacy is certainly a major issue we need to deal with as geographic information becomes mainstream, geographic information is a fantastic tool for fighting crime.

Just this week, another crime-fighting GIS website was announced. Witness Confident, a charitable organization based in London, introduced streetviolence.org, a website for reporting crimes in your neighborhood. While the initial service is focused on London, Witness Confident is interested in hearing from other geographic regions.

According to the witnessconfident.org website, streetviolence.org buy enabling:

 

  • victims of street robberies and attacks to contact the police online, post witness appeals and alert their community,
  • witnesses who can help, to contact the investigating officers at the click of a button,
  • people to better see whether any incident poses a real threat to them or the family,
  • the police to update posts with links to CCTV and photo-fits and with news of arrests and convictions, and
  • the public to have fresh meaningful information about street violence (whether reported to the police or not).

 

An interactive map displays the reported incidents.

Some other crime-related GIS websites and technology:

Family WatchDog

GPS Foils $86,000 Bank Robbery

Applying GIS Technology to Crime Analysis

Colorado Bureau of Investigation Convicted Sex Offender Site

 

Thanks, and see you next week.
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This is posted in GSS Monthly

About the Author: Eric Gakstatter

Eric Gakstatter has been involved in the GPS/GNSS industry for more than 20 years. For 10 years, he held several product management positions in the GPS/GNSS industry, managing the development of several medium- and high-precision GNSS products along with associated data-collection and post-processing software. Since 2000, he's been a power user of GPS/GNSS technology as well as consulted with capital management companies; federal, state and local government agencies; and private companies on the application and/or development of GPS technology. Since 2006, he's been a contributor to GPS World magazine, serving as editor of the monthly Survey Scene newsletter until 2015, and as editor of Geospatial Solutions monthly newsletter for GPS World's sister site Geospatial Solutions, which focuses on GIS and geospatial technologies.