Evaluation of Location-Based Services for Police: GPS-Enabled cell Phones and Laptops for Applications of Law Enforcement Patrol
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used by police departments to visualize the location of crime events and addresses of persons of interest stored in a centralized database on a digital map and to model crime patterns for criminal activity prediction. Most police departments, however, have not yet integrated their GIS data with Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) and Global Position Systems (GPS) for use in their field operations. This lack of integration inhibits law enforcement capabilities, in terms of being able to identify points of interest like the address of an individual with a recently issued arrest warrant.
This study examines laptop and hand-held computing devices that integrate geospatial technologies for use by Lincoln police officers. Geocoded police data will be incorporated into the moving map of an AVL system, so that police officers are constantly being presented with information about events or persons of interest (sex offenders, paroles, gang members, etc.) relevant to their current position. The ability to instantaneously visualize information is expected to increase efficiently serving warrants, monitoring parolees, or recognizing crime patterns. Participants for this study will be police officers from the Lincoln Police Department with oversight from , Tom Casady project Co-PI.
Key Partners
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Lincoln Police Department
Funding
United States National Institute of Justice (Geospatial Technology)
Media
Lincoln police employ smartphone technology to fight crime. NET Radio. 06-14-11.
