Data Availability and Requirements

The first step in implementing or improving a crime analysis function in a law enforcement agency is to determine what kind of data is being collected from offense/incident and arrest reports and what data is available from computer files. An analysis of an agencies data collection capability can be provided to determine what, if any, additions or improvements need to be incorporated in improving or implementing crime analysis capability.

Crime Patterns

Crime patterns occur in two basic forms: geographic patterns (crimes that occur in the same general area) and similar offense patterns (crimes with similar characteristics, suspect descriptions, etc.). Insight and methodologies on how to efficiently detect each kind of crime pattern can be provided.

Crime Trends

Crime forecasts can be utilized in applications ranging from tactical and strategic police planning to personnel requests in the budget to city growth and business projections. Several techniques can be provided for identifying and analyzing historical crime trends and developing accurate crime forecasts.

Crime/Suspect Correlation

When crimes are assigned to different investigators, often in different departmental sections, it is difficult to share information that may solve other crimes. Computer files and reports can be developed that will make information sharing feasible and make multiple clearances possible.

Target and Victim Profiling

Predicting when a crime will occur is often thought of as wishful thinking. However, it is done frequently in law enforcement agencies (e.g., stake out squads, tactical deployments, etc.). Data analysis techniques can be provided for specific crime types that will improve the accuracy and success of such deployments. In addition, data filtering techniques can be implemented to identify possible repeat victim scenarios (e.g., motel burglaries during the height of tourist or convention seasons, crimes against the elderly, etc.).