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Chester City Police Department Takes Initiative to Fight Crime
GeoDecisions
209 Senate Ave., Camp Hill, PA 17011, USA
info@geodecisions.com, www.geodecisions.com
GeoDecisions’ Crime Analysis and Mapping System (GeoCAMS) uses geographic information system (GIS) technology to
analyze and prevent crime.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), the crime index decreased for the ninth straight year in 2000, declining 3.3 percent from 1999. The UCR Program collects information from local law enforcement agencies about crimes reported to police and includes homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft.
Crime
Although the national trend in crime is down, the Chester City Police Department (CPD) wasn’t satisfied with its crime fighting measures. The only city located in Delaware County, Pa., Chester had a history of high, concentrated crime. “We wanted to identify the hot spots and strategize to reduce crime,” said Cyrise Dixon, the Crime Mapping Coordinator for CPD.
The department decided to take a pro-active approach to its law enforcement practices by implementing GeoCAMS.
CCAMS
Chester’s version of GeoCAMS is known as the Chester Crime Analysis and Mapping System (CCAMS). This flexible application enables law enforcement personnel to search for, map, and analyze incident and intelligence data, as well as generate deployment plans. This revolutionary product was developed by GeoDecisions, a software-independent technology company.
Components
CCAMS consists of three spatial components. The first allows a user to see what happened, as well as where and when a crime took place. The second enables users to create a tactical deployment plan, by drawing on a map and alerting law enforcement personnel close to the scene. The third component, the detective information mapping tool, gives users the opportunity to create a map that records the physical, social, and location-based characteristics of a suspect. This spatial web of activity shows where a suspect lives and works, as well as the places he/she frequents. All of this information can be queried.
“It allows detectives to put their intelligence in a GIS system,” Dixon said. “You can actually map out a case and show where everything took place. It’s an awesome tool. This has been helpful in a lot of ways we hadn’t expected.”
It is the first application of its kind to build spatial and temporal webs of information for use in law enforcement.
Pin Map
Prior to the implementation of CCAMS, the CPD used a pin map system. Using a paper map, law enforcement personnel would literally use a pin to mark the location of a crime, in an effort to observe activity. “Up until three years ago, this was a paper and pencil shop,” Dixon said. “Technologically, that wasn’t helping us. You can’t query or compare time periods with this type of system.”
With the implementation of computers three years ago and a $110,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency in 2000, the CPD was finally able to take a more modern approach to its crime fighting practices. CPD began working with GeoDecisions in July 2000 and immediately began plans to implement GeoCAMS.
“This system saves a lot of time,” Dixon said. “Things are always happening here [in Chester City]. Things move very fluid and fast. CCAMS puts the information at my fingertips.”
However, CCAMS wasn’t implemented overnight. It has been introduced in stages.
CCAMS Stages
First, a thorough needs assessment was conducted to gather information on existing operational procedures, hardware and software, crime data, and personnel needs.
The second stage involved developing a law-enforcement specific spatial data set or base map, comprised of specific layers, such as the location of city streets, schools, railroads, and hospitals that would eventually serve as context on future incident maps.
In the third stage, an automated law enforcement report tracking system was integrated with GIS. This function enables law enforcement personnel to enter incident queries, locate crime scenes on a map, and generate police reports, which contain information about the crime and suspect. The system is so easy to use that police officers with only limited computer experience can operate it. This step also involved the implementation of the detective information mapping tool.
The fifth and sixth steps, system distribution and training and evaluation of future funding sources, will take place over the next several years. Eventually, CPD would like to utilize the data integration and analysis functionality inherent in GeoCAMS as a model for all areas of city government.
Although CCAMS has been operational since October 2001, the project is not yet complete. However, CPD is already seeing the fruits of its labor. “We have had phenomenal results,” Dixon said. “It helped reduce the number of stolen vehicles in the city.” It has also helped curb person to person crime near Widener University.
“GeoDecisions did an excellent job for us,” Dixon said. “I can’t say that enough. This could have been a nightmare. We had people that were not as comfortable with technology. This was done in such a way people were comfortable with it. They [CDP] have confidence this system will help them, and they use it.”
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