Page 1 of 6
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 11
October 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 330
Crime Mapping and Analysis Using GIS
Marapaka Laxminarayana
M.Sc.Geoinformatics Telangana University
1. Introduction
The traditional and age-old system of
intelligence and criminal record
maintenance has failed to live up to the
requirements of the existing crime
scenario. Manual processes neither
provide accurate, reliable and
comprehensive data round the clock nor
does it help
in trend prediction and decision support. It also results in lower productivity and
ineffective utilisation of manpower. The solution to this ever-increasing problem lies in
the effective use of Information Technology.
Geographic Information System (GIS)
uses geography and computer-generated
maps as an interface for integrating and
accessing massive amounts of location- based information. GIS allows police
personnel to plan effectively for
emergency response, determine
mitigation priorities, analyse historical
events, and predict future events. GIS
can also be used to get critical
information to emergency responders
upon dispatch or while en route to an
incident to assist in tactical planning and
response. GIS helps identify potential
suspects to increase investigators
suspect base when no leads are evident.
GIS plays an important role in crime
mapping and analysis. Response
capabilities often rely on a variety of
data from multiple agencies and sources.
The ability to access and process
information quickly while displaying it
in a spatial and visual medium allows
agencies to allocate resources quickly
and more effectively. In the ‘mission- critical’ nature of law enforcement,
information about the location of a
crime, incident, suspect, or victim is
often crucial to determine the manner
and size of the response. GIS software
helps co-ordinate vast amounts of
location-based data from multiple
sources. It enables the user to layer the
data and view the data most critical to
the particular issue or mission. It is used
world over by police departments, both
large and small, to provide mapping
solutions for crime analysis, criminal
tracking, traffic safety, community
policing, Intranet/Internet mapping, and
numerous other tasks.
GIS helps crime officers determine potential crime sites by examining complex
seemingly unrelated criteria and displaying them all in a graphical, layered, spatial
interface or map. It also helps them map
inmate populations, fixtures, and
equipment to provide for the safety of
inmates by separating gang members,
identifying high-risk or potentially
violent inmates, and identifying
Page 2 of 6
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 11
October 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 331
hazardous locations in an area. It
reduces the potential for internal
violence by providing better command
and control. GIS functions, when
combined with capabilities of location
identification devices such as GPS
facilitate tracking the movement of high- risk inmates or at-risk personnel
throughout an area. It is more cost- effective for the crime analyst to come
up with the information than for patrol
officers to do it themselves. Virtually
every operational activity in the police
department includes spatial
relationships. Traditionally, these
activities have been supported by paper
maps and pins. Police officers now have
the ability to immediately generate maps
directly relevant to the situation at hand.
Police agencies collect vast amounts of
data from many sources including
called-for-services, arrests, first
information reports and daily report.
Data in this form, however, can be
difficult to visualise. The same
information displayed graphically
provides a powerful decision making
tool for investigators, supervisors, and
administrators. The visual format shows
relationships and patterns that are buried
in the data. GIS could also be used to
explore the relationship between crime
and the environment.
1.1 Role of Internet/Intranet: Internet/Intranet capability enables an agency to serve
various information to substations and remote offices, and to serve maps regionally to
other agencies. It provides the ability to serve multiple applications from a single server
to any number of clients, and serve
dynamic maps and data quickly on a
variety of servers. It also centralises the
administration of both data and
applications, and can easily
accommodate expansion of the system
as the number of clients rises. Officers
will be able to access several reports
including summaries of activity for a
user-specified period, lists of incidents
occurring at a single address, and charts
analysing day-of-week and time-of-day
relationships for aggravated assaults and
robberies.
Another benefit of the Intranet-based
application will be the team's ability to
turn around late-breaking information
immediately. It helps distribute the
mapping functions to each of the district
offices, enabling any officer or detective
to generate customised maps. The more
information officers have, the better
equipped they are to do their job. The
Intranet-based application should be
very secure and safe against
unauthorised usage. To maintain the
confidentiality of information, access to
the system could be controlled through
passwords.
2. Crime mapping
Maps offer crime analysts graphic
representations of crime-related issues.
An understanding of where and why
crimes occur can improve attempts to
fight crime. Mapping crime can help
police protect citizens more effectively.
Simple maps that display the locations
where crimes or concentrations of
crimes have occurred can be used to
help direct patrols to places they are
most needed. Policy makers in police
departments might use more complex
maps to observe trends in criminal
activity, and maps may prove invaluable
in solving criminal cases.
Page 3 of 6
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 11
October 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 332
2.1 Display spatial patterns of events:
Digital maps are the quickest means of
visualising the entire crime scenario. The
locations of crime events, arrests, etc.
can be routinely displayed on maps. This
provides an easy method of viewing
activities in an area rather than searching
through a listing of events. Maps can
also be used to convey more than one
type of information at a time. Crime
locations can be symbolised according to
the day of week, type of crime, modus
operandi (a particular suspect’s method
of operation when committing a crime)
or frequency.
2.2 Integrate community
characteristics: Community
characteristics (for e.g., slums, markets,
colleges, parks, alcohol permit locations,
red light area, etc.) can be routinely
displayed on maps while analysing
crime patterns to interpret relationship
between these characteristics and the
crime. For example, the locations of
aggravated assaults, robberies and
alcohol permits can be displayed to see
if crime is clustering around locations
that sell alcohol. Other mapping data
such as bus routes and public housing
can also be displayed at the same time to
analyse relationships between
neighbourhood characteristics and crime.
2.3 Produce thematic maps: Maps can
be produced at any geographic level (e.g.
Police stations, divisions, or zones) to
aid in the analysis of crime patterns.
Each response area can be shaded to
represent the number of crimes that
occurred in that area during a specific
time frame. The darker the shade, the
more events that occurred within the
response area. These thematic maps can
also be used to show the change in an
area's crime rate. The percent change in
the number of crime incidents can be
displayed by shading each area
according to whether there was an
increase, decrease or no change.
3. Crime analysis
Crime Analysis is defined as a set of systematic, analytical processes directed at
providing timely and pertinent information relative to crime patterns and trend
correlations to assist the operational and administrative personnel in planning the
deployment of resources for the prevention and suppression of criminal activities, aiding
the investigative process, and increasing apprehensions and the clearance of cases. It
supports a number of department functions including patrol deployment, special
operations, and tactical units, investigations, planning and research, crime prevention,
and administrative services. Crime analysis can be divided into three categories:
Tactical: An analytical process that
provides information used to assist
operations personnel (patrol and
investigative officers) in identifying
specific and immediate crime trends,
patterns, series, sprees and hotspots,
providing investigative leads and
clearing cases. Analysis includes
associating criminal activity by method
of the crime, time, date, location,
suspect, vehicle, and other types of
information.
Strategic: Concerned with long-range
problems and projections of long-term
