Crime Mapping Memo

M E M O

To: Whom It May Concern

From: Ali Munawar

Date: November 5, 2015

CC: Group Mates

Subject: Problem Identification and Recommendations on Crime Mapping FCP

The purpose of this memo is to identify the major problems of crime mapping in Fredericton and recommend possible solutions in the light of best practices around the world to improve our crime mapping.

Problem:

The current crime map of city of Fredericton is static which does not give you some necessary details of crime. It does not show the date and time of crime, geographical location, and brief description of crime. The crime data is not currently open at the moment. No use of GIS technology at the moment. The Fredericton Police Department currently provides archived snapshots and

Application Programming Interfaces will allow third parties to automatically search, retrieve or submit information directly from Fredericton Police Department databases online. This Open data can fuel in developing dynamic maps and apps which will further make data more meaningful.

Timeliness is key for crime data. The data that lags by weeks doesn't help to keep people informed about what's happening now in their neighborhoods. Once Fredericton Police Department automate the process it will increase in efficiency.

The details related to crime are very important with crime data for mapping, but some details need to be safeguarded to protect those impacted by the incident, though these privacy exemptions should not be a barrier to data release. To improve current crime map the crime location should be geotagged with at least postal code or adding block number, also the crime map should have time and date of crime ( which many other cities are having on their crime map reports ) along with very brief description of crime ( just as city of Toronto crime map showing ). The use of GIS is essential for crime data. We know that every crime problem is related to some location, whether it’s an address, street, postal code, or district every crime generate some statistics. GIS can help Fredericton Police Department to leverage the locational aspect of the data to analyze, understand, and build solutions to the problems. The Crime mapping using GIS techniques has been helping in many other countries to track crime incidents and produce density maps who shows the overall crime trends. Fredericton Police Department should leverage with GIS in developing maps and analyzing trends of crime. The best tool that is widely being used in many countries for mapping and analyzing crime data is