Abstract
Recent publications have highlighted the benefits to policing of an integrated intelligence environment, and the current move in both British policing and beyond is towards a level of information gathering and analysis that is focused at the local area command level. Local intelligence gathering is seen as both effective and economical, though much of the literature concerning the integration of local intelligence concentrates on the use of surveillance, informant handling and the development of intelligence databases. These documents concentrate on the gaining of information about criminal activity that is not known to the police and little is said about maximising the analysis of information already in the possession of the police. Digitalisation of both recorded crime records and calls for service provides a wealth of information about local crime activity that is readily retrievable from modern computer systems. The possibilities and potential benefits of mapping and analysing these types of data have been known for some time, though technical and other difficulties have often hindered the implementation of crime mapping systems. This paper acts as an introduction to crime mapping, presents a model of the required inputs and potential outputs of two types of crime mapping systems, and sets a framework for the integration and control of crime mapping in an intelligence environment. The result of a survey of every police force in the UK indicates that although some successes exist, many forces still have technical and human implementation hurdles to overcome.
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