Feature
This would enable HPS to obtain deeper insight
into crime patterns and trends, react quickly to
new threats and deploy resources when and
where they would have the most impact.
They selected CrimeAnalyst – an extension to
ESRI’s ArcGIS software that offers an advanced
suite of crime pattern analysis tools, which allows police services to explore trends in their
data. CrimeAnalyst was selected because HPS
wanted to leverage the Data Clock tool to improve their method of temporal analysis. This
tool summarizes crime patterns by time of day
and day of the week, and also offers seasonal
clocks to help police forces gain a clearer understanding of crime patterns.
Evidence-Based Crime Prevention Yields
Higher Return on Investment
Challenged by budget constraints and limited
staffing, it is more important than ever for
Canadian police services to develop crime prevention strategies that are effective, efficient
and economical. As random patrol has not
proven to significantly reduce crime, effective
policing requires a tightly focused, collaborative approach that is measurable and based on
detailed analysis.
Evidence-based crime prevention is future-oriented and emphasizes reduction over reaction,
identifying, analyzing and managing persistent
or developing problems or risks. It provides police services with timely intelligence so they can
rapidly deploy personnel and resources wherever
crimes are occurring. In order to be successful,
this approach requires the integration of datadriven strategies into the day-to-day decisionmaking process so that stakeholders have the
information they need to make informed choices.
With a vision “to be the best and most progressive police service”, the
Hamilton
Police
Service
(HPS) adopted a software tool
that enabled them to put this
forward-thinking approach to
crime prevention into action.
When the ACTION Teams
(Addressing Crime Trends in
our Neighbourhoods) were
introduced in 2010, officer
deployment was based on the
analysis of repeat victimization
and criminal hot spot data.
As most calls-for-service cluster in specific locations, research has strongly supported
this approach as an effective
way to reduce violent crime
and neighbourhood disorder.
It ensures that officers are deployed where they are needed
most and that scarce resources
are effectively distributed to
achieve public safety goals.
HPS was previously leveraging non-spatial statistics to analyze crime along with data collected
from calls-for-service and density mapping. They
needed a more integrated approach to developing
crime intelligence and a mapping tool that would
support spatial, temporal and statistical analysis.
“CrimeAnalyst brings together the
tools that we need to conduct concise,
evidence-based crime analysis. It
not only saves us valuable time but
also improves our ability to identify
crime and calls-for-service hot spots,
allowing us to make better decisions,
save money and ultimately offer
higher-quality policing services across
our community.”
Debbie Gifford,
Hamilton Police Service
The software also integrates calls-for-service
data, census data, city data and point data so
that the police service can analyze hot spots, repeat victimization and temporal factors. To save
time, the ModelBuilder feature will allow HPS
to create models for hot spot maps, repeat victimization maps and seasonal analysis that run
automatically and can be shared across the police service and with other agencies.
CrimeAnalyst also offers a variety of features to
identify repeat patterns, such as the Point Cluster
Renderer that pinpoints and communicates locations where multiple crimes of a similar type
have occurred. Features like Journey to Crime
promote a proactive approach to policing by allowing analysts to identify routes most likely to
be used by offenders.
“CrimeAnalyst brings together the tools that
we need to conduct concise, evidence-based
crime analysis,” said Debbie Gifford, Research
Analyst, Hamilton Police Service. “It not only
saves us valuable time but also improves our
ability to identify crime and calls-for-service hot
spots, allowing us to make
better decisions, save money and ultimately offer higher- quality policing services
across our community.”
CrimeAnalyst
improves
communication by presenting crime data in an easy-tounderstand format that can
be exported to Excel and
shared with staff and crime
prevention partners. It can
also extend communication
to the field by sharing crime
data with officers in the
community through mobile
devices. Looking forward,
the Hamilton Police Service
will continue to leverage
CrimeAnalyst to support an
evidence-based approach to
crime prevention.
n
The Data Clock summarizes the day-of-week and time-of-day that selected violent calls-for-service
occur.
ESRI Canada Reprint: ArcNorth News Spring 2011