Rachel Laisne

CRIME ANALYSIS DATA

CRIME ANALYSIS WITH CRIME MAPPING

CJS5760 Tech and GIS in the CJ System

Dr. Murray C. Widener

Submitted: May 1, 2016

This paper briefly explains a short summary of chapter 5 of Rachel Boba Santos’

textbook, Crime Analysis with Crime Mapping, 3rd Ed. It will examine briefly crime analysis

data collection and the collation of such data. It also covers such topics as data matrix, databases

used in crime analysis, geographic data, records management systems, primary data collection,

crime data standards, data integrity and hardware/software considerations.

KEYWORDS: Crime Analysis Data Collection, Collation of Data, Data Matrix, Databases

Geographic Data, Records Management Systems, Primary Data Collection, Crime Data

Standards, Data Integrity, Hardware/Software, Call for Service Data.

Part 1

Summary

“Scientia Potentia Est”—Latin for “knowledge is power.” With information readily

available at the fingertips of a computer, those in power have the needed knowledge to analyze all

sorts of information. Governments rely on information to maintain security of a nation, businesses

depend upon information to provide feedback that increases profits, and police turn to collected

information to watch criminals in criminal activity, to stop crime, and to foretell future crime

before it happens.

Crime analyist date back to the London Metropolitan Police in the Eighteenth Century,

around 1840 providing the police force with crime statistics in the year 1847. The work of the

London Metropolitan Police analyst led to the concept of a criminal’s modus operandi when the

term appeared in the mid nineteenth century (Bruce, Gwinn, Cooper, & Hick, 2008).

Our textbook, chapter 5 to be specific, looks at, and defines definitions of key concepts

relating to Crime Analysis Data.

A Data Matrix is built with the collection of data (organized information) which is sorted

into tabular categories to help identify the information and sort it for easier retrieval at a later date

within a computer database. Databases contain infinite amounts of information that can be

reviewed within a complex relationship amongst numerous tables known as relational databases.

Some of the information stored would be geographic data used in geographic information

systems also known as GIS. Then there is tabular data that one finds within a database. This is

such information as crime reports and vehicular accidents. Primary data is collected primarily for
analyst who obtain this information firsthand through such means as interviews, surveys, field

research and direct observation. Secondary data is information that is normally information

collected in an ongoing basis and used by government, law enforcement agencies to assist analyst

in their review of the information collected. There are two types of secondary data; qualitative

and quantitative (Boba Santos, R. (2013).

There are approximately eleven specific databases used by crime analyst in their work.

These eleven include: data related to actual crime incidents. An arrest database used by crime

analyst contains numerous variables stored within an arrest database; such as: number of arrests,

date and time, charges, geographic information as to where the crime was committed, the address

where the criminal resides, a person’s date of birth, and that person’s physical attributes. Another

database used by analyst would be the call for service database which contains information

including the number of incidents called in, the dates and time of calls, the type of calls, and the

location of a request for service. Accident databases store information relating to traffic accidents,

containing such useful details as an accident report number, the date of the report, the date and

time of the occurrence, the location and violations associated with the traffic accident (Boba

Santos, R. (2013).

The above noted are only a few of the databases used by crime analyst. Some other

categories would include a “persons database, a vehicle database, a field information database, a

traffic database, known offender database and registered sex offender database. The collection of

such data has not been regulated by the Federal government however, there has been, in more

recent times, an effort to develop a nationally based classification system to help keep “consistent

count” of crimes and criminal activity. The Uniform Crime Report having its beginnings in the

1930’s, thus, the federal government, in an effort to improve the collection of criminal data has
created a reporting system knowns as the National Incident Based Reporting System or (NIBRS)

(Boba Santos, R. (2013).

Part 2

Criminal Justice Administrator Issue

State Court Administrator – A Much Needed Computerized Database System

As a criminal justice administrator working within a courthouse, we are facing a problem

with outdated computer tracking systems for court costs and court fines. Up until now, we have

been using paper trail accounting of such information. When an individual is ordered by the

court to pay a court fine that individual would come to the clerk’s office, pay the fine by check or

cash, be given a handwritten receipt and be on their way. The clerk’s office would then post the

money received in a handwritten accounting journal. Fines could not be paid for online, but had

to be paid in person. Court costs could not be paid by debit or credit cards or electronic transfer

and had to be paid in person or by mail. Often times mailed payments were received after the

pay-by-due-date because of delivery issues with the U.S. Postal Service, with holidays and tax

season causing exceptionally late arrivals of mailed in payments. Cash receipt of such money

has been difficult to accurately track and employee theft has been difficult to prove without the

proper safeguards for cross matching of payments with accounting practices. A great deal of

court costs and court fines are uncollected because of human error, poor record keeping

practices, and a parties failure to appear in person to pay their fines, by those charged with such

fees. This has left me, the court administrator with the need to get a computerized database

records system into the court where information can be collected, maintained and accurately

analyzed for future modifications of collection data.

installation of this type. I must go to my state’s legislative body and request 2.1 million dollars

to install the computers and databases and pay for training to get this project off the ground. My

state is in economic woes at this time and the likely hood of my receiving such funds is dismal.

Thus I perform an audit of the funds that have been collected within the past ten years, the funds

still on the books uncollected, and the cost to the court to track down many of these people who

are often times transients. With this information, I then prepare a proposal that includes the

current lost revenues and compare to the income generation such a computerized database would

provide. Income can be generated with an updated system not only in the collections of such

fines and court costs, but this database will also allow the court to go online with electronic filing

of court documents that can be purchased by attorneys for a pre-determined fee.

My calculations indicate that the revenues generated by installation of this databased

computerized system would not only provide a source of ongoing revenue to the court budget,

but that the earning potential will pay for the entire database system within 4 years. With this

proposal I am prepared to present my findings to the legislature. With their approval, I am

granted the funding for the next fiscal year to proceed with this project.

In anticipation of the roll out of such a system, I begin working with groups of

individuals in the courthouse to begin organizing the data that will need to be stored. There will

be a need to identify the person’s information, name, current address, last known address, date of

birth, attorney’s name and contact information, charges pending, charges dismissed, judge’s

rulings in a matter, criminal docket number, prosecutor in charge of the matter, their contact

information, fines ordered, fines paid, court costs charged, court costs paid, outstanding debts

owed to the court from previous matters, interests and fees for unpaid fines, police department
associated with this matter. In regards to being able to provide attorney’s with online

documents through an e-filing system, the court documents will need to be scanned and

converted to pdf format which will require a database of information for easy search and

retrieval of said pdf files. That information will also require various data fields such as case

number, parties to the legal matter, attorneys representing the parties, contact information for all

parties to a matter, dates of various court pleadings, trials, hearings, motions, and orders.

With so much data to be collected and organized, I begin working with teams to organize

this information into batches that can be input into my database system as soon as we are

prepared to roll this new system out. It’s going to be challenging to get court employees trained

and willing to work with a computerized system because many of my employees are state

unionized workers who have been within the court system for 20 plus years. Many are old

schooled and have little computer training. Many don’t see a need for this technology because

they believe that since we’ve been doing it this way for so many years, they have an attitude that

we should upset the applecart. It’s imperative to bring the courthouse into a stable financial

environment that is less dependent upon state funds to operate while working diligently to

generate income for the state court system during these hard economic times. I am determined to

help my employees see the benefit of this technological advance and with committees of those I

know are dedicated to their job security and some of my most talented employees, I begin

organizing plans with them for this future challenge.

Several years later, the system is in place, but not without undergoing many obstacles and

challenges, however, as my initial analysis outlined, the costs of implementing such a system

was recouped within a short period of time and the state court system is generating much larger

than anticipated and much needed revenues. We are able to track people who move frequently
because we have coupled our system with that of the Department of Motor Vehicles, thus giving

us updated information about residency, therefore, “Unable to Deliver” responses from the U.S.

Postal Service have been reduced by approximately 76 percent. A remarkable achievement.

Politically speaking, my efforts to undertake this project and see it through to completion

has secured my position as State Court Administrator for years to come. I hope!
 References

Boba Santos, R. (2013) Crime Analysis with Crime Mapping. (3rd ed., pp. 5, 23, 67, 115). Los

Angelos, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington, D.C.: Sage. ISBN 978-1-4522-

0271-6

Bruce, C., Gwinn, S., Cooper, J., & Hick, S. (2008). Exploring Crime Analysis. Smart Policing

Initiative, International Association of Crime Analyst. Retrieved 29 April 2016, from

http://www.smartpolicinginitiative.com/sites/.../files/iaca_fundamentals.pdf