CRIME MAPPING & CRIME ANALYSIS

Historically, law enforcement agencies and police organizations used hardcopy pin maps to chart
criminal activity; but these maps were static and, as crime rates increased, difficult to maintain. In recent
years, with advances in quick and user-friendly software, manual pin mapping has given way to
computerized crime mapping.

What is Crime Mapping?

Crime mapping is a law enforcement tool which allows personnel to represent crimes visually
on a map or grid of a region. By organizing crimes this way, law enforcement officers can identify patterns,
areas of concern, and other information of interest which they can use in order to be more effective. It is
common for such maps to be released to the general public so that citizens can stay informed about areas of
concern and patterns of crime in their areas.

Contributions of Crime Mapping

Similar with situation map, crime mapping serves to contribute to sound decisions in police planning
and operational activities, as follows:

1. To display crime situation and criminal elements dispositions operating in particular

geographical jurisdictions.
2. To provide a basis for comparison in order to determine the significance of newly received data
pertaining to criminal elements.
3. To provide a background for and basis for briefings, and other required intelligence reports pertaining
to crimes and criminality situation.
4. To provide the basis for overlays which graphically portray the criminality situation in a given
jurisdiction.
5. To assist in the determination of patterns of activities of criminal elements, as well as future plans and
operations.
6. To focus attention on possible intelligence gaps that requires re-direction of the information collection
efforts.

Usefulness of Crime Mapping

Crime mapping is useful in supporting a number of police processes and operational activities that
includes the following:

1. Responding and directing police and community-members calls for service, and information collection.
2. Supporting the briefing of patrol officers by identifying crimes that have recently occurred in the
areas that have patrolled or are soon to patrol, and what may happen in the future.
3. Identifying crime hotspots for targeting, deploying and allocating suitable crime reduction responses,
including human and material resources for more effective policing activities.
4. Thorough pattern analysis with other local data, helping to effectively understand the crime distribution
and explore the mechanism, dynamics, and generators to criminal activities.
5. Catching serial crime offenders, more particularly those involved in the commission of crimes against
persons and properties.
6. Monitoring the impact of crime reduction initiatives as an outcome of the utilization of crime
maps, not only with the community-members, but as well as the criminal elements.
7. Using crime map as a media to communicate to the public the crime statistics in their area, and
the responses that are being implemented to tackle crime problems.

Creating a Crime Maps

Crime mapping has its roots in cartography and comes with its own set of rules and limitations. When
publishing an article, authors always cite information resources. When constructing a map,

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cartographers always cite the source of the data and the software used to create the map. If citations are left
out, the map is incomplete and users may misinterpret the information displayed.

It is also recommended that mapmakers include disclaimers or additional information to eliminate any
misinterpretation of the material. A variety of crime maps can be created using GIS software, but the three most
common are pin maps, thematic maps, and association or integrated maps.

For example, a map can be created to show when and where a crime occurred with what type of
weapon was used, whether a victim was present, whether the victim was male or female, and so forth. Once
data, such as the income level of female victim between ages 18 and 25, is entered into a GIS database, the
user can overlay that information with a specific crime, such as recent occurrences of homicides or rapes.

Overlaying specific crimes with ethnic origins, age, and gender may inadvertently reveal the identity of
a victim. Therefore, the creators of GIS data layers must be aware of confidential and sensitive data and the
need to take precautions to protect victims’ rights and privacy.

In addition to plotting the geographical attributes of criminal phenomena, law enforcement agencies
and police organizations seek answers to why a specific crime occurs in a certain area. By highlighting aspects
of a crime on a map with neighborhood attributes, crime analysts can contextualize the data and gain insight
about why crimes occur.

Some law enforcement agencies and police organizations use crime mapping to show where registered
child sex offenders live. They compare the locations of child sex offenders with the locations of the town’s
schools. A buffer zone is drawn around each school to observe how close the known offenders live to these
potential target areas.

Types of Crime Maps

Hereunder are some of the types of crime maps useful in police operational activities, it must be given
considerations by law enforcement administrators and police executives in the field units:

1. Pin Maps

Pin maps—which use push pins to identify important locations—have long helped police officers
patrol neighborhoods and detectives investigate crimes. It enables the police to create, update, duplicate, and
distribute pin maps more easily.

Victim service providers can display the vicinity of crime victims to better coordinate their efforts with
other providers. The pin map is one of the easiest maps to create. Although the points on the map only show
location, they reveal a spatial significance that cannot be discerned using a tabular query.

2. Thematic Maps
A thematic map can identify the density value of particular attribute, such as the number of physical
injuries, crime victim service centers, or victim compensation claims in a geographically defined boundary
composed of a police station, police-community precinct, neighborhood census tract, or victim service
provider center.
Density values are used to create a map, with shaded colors representing the different values between
the boundaries that allow users to examine patterns across selected boundaries. The shading of thematic maps
ranges from light to dark, with the lightest shade representing the lowest value and the darkest shade
representing the highest value.

3. Integrated Maps
Integrated maps are usually a combination of a pin map and a thematic map. In this map, physical
injuries and public housing units are identified with points, while the population demographics are represented
with various shades of the same color and organized by police district boundaries.

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 With this type of map, it can view income, population, gender, ethnicity, and other factors within the
boundaries of police work. By re-aggregating census data, information has been made more applicable to the
police needs. The map allows strategic decisions based on contextualized data.

What are Hot Spots?

Areas of concentrated crimes are often referred to as hot spots. Experts and police executives use the
term in many different ways. Some refers to hot spot addresses, other refers to hot spot blocks, and others
examine clusters of blocks. Like police executives, crime analysts look for concentrations of individual events
that might indicate a series of related crimes.
They also look at small areas that have a great deal of crime or disorder, even though there may be no
common offender. Analysts also observe neighborhoods and community-clusters with high crime rates and try
to link these to underlying social conditions.

Types of Hot Spots

For purposes of clear understanding the concepts of hot spots and its correlation with crime mapping,
its types are briefly discussed hereunder for the benefits of the would-be police executives:

1. Repeat Places Hot Spots

The most basic form of hot spots is a place that has many crimes. A place can be an address, street
corner, store, house, or any other small location. Places typically have a single owner and specific function-
residence, retail sales, recreation, and school. Crime often is concentrated at a few places, even in high-crime
areas. Although hot places often are concentrated within areas, they often are separated by other places with
few or no crimes. Because such hot spots are best depicted by dots, they have a dimension of zero.

2. Repeat Victimization Hot Spots

Repeat victimization refers to the multiple attacks on the same individual, regardless of location. This
often confused with repeat crime places. For, example, a person could frequent a bar where he is assaulted on a
number of different occasions. But if repeat victimization is distributed over many locations, it will not show
up on a map as a hot spot place--zero. Repeat victimization could show up as line—one dimension, if the
victims are repeatedly attacked along the same thoroughfares, or a polygon—two dimensions, if victims are
repeatedly attacked in the same neighborhoods.

3. Repeat Street Hot Spots

Repeat streets are those thoroughfares or streets with a high degree of victimization. Repeat places and
some repeat victimization hot spots show up as dot on crime maps. If one increases the dimension of the hot
spot from zero to one, hot spots that form lines appear. Linear hot spots are likely to be the results of one
interaction of targets and offenders along streets. It is described as the search behavior of offenders, and it
points to the importance of street patterns for how offenders look for targets.

Important Purpose of Hot Spots

Crimes, other incidents, and even violation of special laws are not spread evenly across maps. It
clumps in some areas and it is absent in others. People use this knowledge in their daily activities. They avoid
some places and seek out others. Their choices of neighborhood, schools, stores, streets, and recreations are
governed partially by the understanding that their chances of being a victim are greater in some of these places
than others.

In some other places people lock their cars and secure belongings. In other places they do not. Along
some streets people walk swiftly and view approaching strangers with suspicion. Along other streets they
casually stroll and welcome the next interesting person they might meet, and notice others by making the same
choices in the same areas.

Some might argue this behavior merely shows that people are unreasonably fearful of some areas but
not of others. This may often be true, but the fact that people are not equally fearful of all

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places this suggests that they understand that crime is not evenly distributed. People might be mistaken about
the risk of some places, but they are not mistaken their risk of being a victim of crime is not geographically
constant.

Police use this understanding every day. Decisions about how to allocate scarce resources are based
partially on where the demands for police are highest and where they are lowest. Police officers are told to be
particularly attentive to some behavior in some areas, but are given no guidance about other areas where this
behavior is scarce.

Community-policing is particularly attentive to high-crime neighborhoods, where residents have great

difficulty exerting controls. Problem-oriented policing pushes police executives to identify concentrations of
crime or criminal activity, determine what causes these concentrations, and then implement responses to reduce
these concentrations. Much of what is called crime analysis is dedicated to locating concentrations of crime hot
spots—and much of crime mapping is devoted to their prevention, detection, and investigation—-proactive
and reactive.

Usefulness of GIS to Law Enforcement

Using Geographical Information System (GIS), the crime analysts and police executives can overlay
Getting Started with GIS
other datasets such as census demographics, locations of pawn shops, schools, etc., to better understand the
underlying causes of crime and help law enforcement administrators to devise strategies to deal with the
It is easy to talk about what GIS will do, but getting started is another matter. Recognizing this problem,
problem. GIS is also useful for law enforcement operations, such as allocating police officers and
there are a couple of steps to consider. Hereunder are some points in making the GIS works:
dispatching to emergencies.
1. What Are the Needs and Goals?
Underlying theories that help explain spatial behavior of criminals include environmental
To build a GIS to address the needs and goals of the police organization and your agency, you must first
criminology, routine activity theory, and rational choice theory. In recent years, crime mapping and analysis
identify those needs. How will you use GIS? Will you use it to support management decisions, to evaluate
has incorporated spatial data analysis techniques that adds statistical rigor and address inherent limitations of
existing initiatives and projects, and/or as a predictive modeling tool to identify the location of future sub-
spatial data, including spatial auto-correlation and spatial heterogeneity. Spatial data analysis helps one
grants?
analyze crime data and better understand why and not just where crime is occurring.
2. What Types of Queries Needed?
If you purchase an off-the-shelf GIS software package, the system likely will contain an ad hoc type of
querying capability. In other words, any data that you have loaded or integrated into the system can be accessed
and queried. However, you may choose to customize the application to address your specific needs.

3. What are Base Maps?

Base maps are the foundation of a GIS. Typically, they comprise a street centerline and a geographic
backdrop such as the census tract, ZIP Code, and/or geographical locations or boundaries. Street centerlines of
almost every municipality, city, province, or region can be purchased from vendors or downloaded free from
the internet.

4. What Data Needs to Be Collected?

In addition to using your own data, you may want to integrate additional data from other sources, such
as census figures, law enforcement data, and transportation information. The only instance in which this should
occur would be if more than one agency is working with crime victims and the information sharing is
allowed by state law or by informed consent of the victims.

5. What is the Data Formats?

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 Mapping systems can integrate various data formats. However, the most common format is that of
a database file, a file extension ending in .dbf. Fortunately, most spreadsheet tables can be converted easily to
database files to make them ready for integration into a GIS.

6. Is the Data Accurate and Timely?

It is critical that you know your data before using it in GIS. This is a problem many users face when
they begin to use their data in a spatial environment. Most agencies have been collecting address-level data for
years. Generally, the quality of this data has been left to the discretion and integrity of the person entering the
data. The accuracy and standardization of this data will contribute to the overall ease or difficulty with which
the data is integrated into your GIS. Another issue to consider is the timeliness of data.

7. What is the Hardware and Software Requirements?

Some of the above questions can be answered by police officers who are familiar with the data your
agency collects. However, when it comes to hardware and software requirements, it is better to consult with
information technology (IT) professionals who can help you define the GIS requirements based on the needs
and budget of the police organization, more particularly at the city and municipal levels.

PHILIPPINE COASTGUARD (PCG) OPERATIONS

The Philippine Coast Guard is the country’s vanguard against the entry of unsafe
foreign vessels into the country through its Port State Control . At present, the Philippine Coast
Guard has seven (7) PSC Centers and fifteen (15) PSC Divisions all throughout the archipelago. The PSC
Center in Manila has the bulk of all inspections based on frequency of foreign ship calls.

Pursuant to RA 9993, the Philippine Coast Guard is mandated to enforce regulations in accordance with
all relevant maritime international conventions, treaties or instruments of which the government is signatory
and national laws.

1. MARITIME SAFETY or MARSAF function is designed to help prevent or minimize unnecessary loss
of lives and properties at sea.
a. Mandatory Pre-Departure Inspection- The seaworthiness of every vessel leaving the port is
ensured through the intensified Inspection which include the compliance of vessels to safety
standards and prevention of vessels from sailing for failure to comply with the standards.
b. Random Emergency Readiness Evaluation and Operational Readiness Evaluation in the ports.
c. Publication of Notice to Mariners (NOTAM)
d. Implementation and enforcement of navigational rules and designation of sea lanes,

Further, the PCG is also responsible in issuing permits and supervises all marine salvage operations. It
is mandated to destroy or tow floating hazards to navigation such as, but not limited to illegal fish traps and
vessels.

Moreover, navigational safety is ensured by operating and/or maintaining and servicing 565 lighthouses
and more than 44 navigational buoys around the country which guide and ensures safe voyage to mariners.

2. MARITIME SEARCH AND RESCUE (MARSAR)

The Philippine Coast Guard, in accordance with the Convention of Safety of Life at Sea
(SOLAS), is the national maritime search and rescue service of the country. The Coast Guard Action
Center (CGAC) at the PCG Headquarters in Manila, by virtue of the current functions and facilities,
serves as the coordinating centers for all search and rescue operations. The twelve Coast Guard Districts
are designated as Maritime Rescue Coordinating Council (MRCC) within their areas of responsibility
while the 59 Coast Guard Stations are designated as Maritime Rescue Sub-Centers (MRSC). The
detachments under these stations are designated as SAR units.

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 The PCG’s SAR organization maintains constantly-manned watch centers that operate 24 hours
a day, continuously monitoring distress frequencies and conducting coastal foot and seaborne patrol
within their area of responsibility. There is at least one division or squadron of Coast Guard
Auxiliary in each MRSC where watch can be set and assistance can be obtained when required.
Likewise, at least one Deployable Response Team composed of Special Operations Group, Medical
Team, K-9 and rescue swimmers is organized at each Coast Guard District or MRCC which can be
dispatched immediately to any maritime and land base search and rescue operations.

3. MARITIME SECURITY (MARSEC)

a. Maritime Security is another important function of the PCG. Considering the archipelagic
character of the country, it is vital to enhance the security of its different maritime zones to
protect the integrity as a nation. In the performance of this function, the PCG contributes to
maintain good order at sea by conducting regular patrols and surveillance for the safety of
navigation of ships, to safeguard ships from illegal acts and to promote freedom of
navigation.
b. The PCG is likewise mandated to secure exploration and resource utilization activities within
the country's maritime jurisdiction.
c. In its Sea Marshal Program, the PCG manages composite security forces composed of AFP,
PNP and PCG elements to protect voyages of passenger-laden vessels in domestic routes. The
Coast Guard also boasts of a newly established nationwide K-9 unit composed of highly
trained sniffing dogs deployed in the major ports throughout the country.
4. MARITIME LAW ENFORCEMENT (MARLEN)
a. The PCG is likewise mandated to conduct MARITIME LAW ENFORCEMENT (MARLEN)
and implement laws on fisheries (and poaching), immigration, tariff and customs, forestry,
firearms and explosives, human trafficking, dangerous drugs and controlled chemicals, and to
implement the revised penal code and all other applicable laws within the country’s maritime
jurisdiction and battle transnational crimes.
b. The PCG is authorized to board and inspect all watercrafts suspected to be involved in or used
in illegal trade. PCG personnel are also deemed agents of BFAR, Immigration, Customs,
DENR, PDEA, and INTERPOL in the performance of its MARLEN function.
c. As a maritime organization under RA 9993, it is deputized by 21 government agencies to
perform maritime law enforcement functions directed towards the suppression of piracy,
smuggling, poaching, illegal fishing, illegal entry, human smuggling, illegal logging, drug
trafficking, gun running and terrorist activities.

CRIME ANALYSIS
• is a law enforcement function that involves systematic analysis for identifying and analyzing patterns
and trends in crime and disorder.
• The qualitative and quantitative study of crime and law enforcement information in combination with
socio demographic and spatial factors to apprehend criminals, prevent crime, reduce disorder, and
evaluate organizational procedures.

Socio-demographic
• This type of information refers to characteristics of individuals and groups such as sex, race, income,
age, and education.
• Spatial- The location where crimes or activities occur and the relationship of those places to one
another and to other information is an important factor in the analysis of crime.

GOALS OF CRIME ANALYSIS

1. Apprehending criminals. The main function of crime analysis is to support law enforcement
endeavours.
– One of the primary goals of crime analysis is to assist in the apprehension of criminals. For
example, a detective may have a robbery incident in which the suspect has a snake tattoo on his
left arm.
2. Prevent crime- prevent crime through methods other than apprehension.
3. Reduce disorder- Crime analysis can assist with efforts reducing crime by providing research and
analysis of disorder indicators such as traffic accidents, noise complaints, or trespass warnings that can
assist officers in addressing these issues before they become more serious problems.

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 4. Evaluate organizational procedures- assisting with the evaluation of organizational procedures. Several
examples include resource allocation, the assessment of crime prevention programs, realigning
geographic boundaries, forecasting staffing needs, and developing performance measures for the
police department.

Types of Crime Analysis

1. Intelligence Analysis
- The study of “organized” criminal activity, whether or not it is reported to law
enforcement, to assist investigative personnel in linking people, events, and property.
2. Criminal Investigative Analysis
- The study of serial criminals, victims, and/or crime scenes as well as physical, socio-
demographic, psychological, and geographic characteristics to develop patterns that will assist
in linking together and solving current serial criminal activity.
3. Tactical Crime Analysis
- The study of recent criminal incidents and potential criminal activity by examining
characteristics such as how, when, and where the activity has occurred to assist in problem
solving by developing patterns and trends, identifying investigative leads/suspects, and clearing
cases.
4. Strategic Crime Analysis
-The study of crime and law enforcement information integrated with socio-
demographic and spatial factors to determine long term “patterns” of activity, to assist in
problem solving, as well as to research and evaluate responses and procedures.
5. Administrative Crime Analysis
-The presentation of interesting findings of crime research and analysis based on legal,
political, and practical concerns to inform audiences within law enforcement administration,
city government/council, and citizens.

Analysis Products
• A crime analysis product can include one or more of several types of analytical output, which can
include tables, charts, graphs, maps, images, and narratives. In a law enforcement setting, a balance
of one or more of these components should be used in any one product, and including all or just one
component should be avoided.

Types of Analysis Products

• Crime bulletins- Short one to two-page documents that describe a tactical short-term trend or
pattern.
• Memos- A document in letter form that summarizes a request, explains the analysis, highlights the
interesting findings, and, in some cases, makes recommendations for response or further analysis.
These should be included as cover letters for research and special reports.
• Weekly/monthly/quarterly reports and maps- Documents and maps that convey the same
information in regular intervals to inform about activity and allow for identifying problems. These
products should be consistently formatted to ensure recognisability by customers and allow
comparison.
• Annual reports- Reports that provide information aggregated by year and are published on a yearly
basis. They would include breakdowns by geography, months, and types of activity (e.g., types of
crime, types of calls, and accidents) and comparisons among years. They might also include
comparisons to other similar jurisdictions as well as to state and national figures.
• Research reports. Reports that provide a description of the data, methodology, and analysis of a
research project (i.e., problem solving projector evaluation of a program) as well as the results of the
analysis, interpretations of the findings, and recommendations for response or future research.
• Special reports. These are reports that are requested on an ad hoc basis and address a particular issue
such as traffic accidents around schools or efficient allocation of a new squad of officers. The analysis
that makes up these reports is less rigorous than the research reports and subsequently takes less time.

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