Take a Byte Out of Crime
THE DIGITAL AGE has revolutionized much -- including the way children play the age-old game of cops and robbers. The bad guys now crack codes, not kneecaps, and the good guys wield laptops. At least, that's what the officers do in Pinellas County, Fla.
Pinellas County recently implemented a crime-fighting intranet-based application, called the Enforcer, that uses Autodesk MapGuide Internet mapping and information software to support its police work. The software helps police track crimes, alerts them to hot crime spots and helps them determine how to allocate resources. Tim Burns, justice information analyst of the Pinellas County Department of Justice Coordination says, "There is a science to crime analysis. You can really predict when and where some crimes are going to happen," says Burns.
The system will aid in that, to say nothing of the cost savings on aspirin. Pinellas County will spare itself the headache of tracking the whereabouts of every sex offender, who under state law cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school, day-care center or children's area.
"When you have 800 sexual offenders moving from place to place within a county, you have a maintenance nightmare," says Burns. "But if you have a whole list of addresses and can suddenly see these places [highlighted] on a map, then you keep an offender from moving into a restricted area in the first place." Enforcer maps even hold up in Florida courts, says Burns.
The city of Oakland, Calif., also tracks crimes with MapGuide and makes the info available to the public. Through Oakland's website (www.oaklandnet.com), tourists wanting to know whether to bring along their pepper spray can create their own crime queries, choosing date ranges, crime types and specific neighborhoods.
"If you see a rash of car burglaries in your favorite shopping district between Halloween and Christmas, you can take obvious precautions," says Jeff Knight, the internetworking manager at the Office of Information Technology for the city of Oakland.
» posted by ITworld staff
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