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GIS technology supports Surrey neighbourhood policing strategy
image courtesy of Surrey Police.
Operational data captured by Surrey Police’s Intergraph I/CAD command and control system and the force’s crime recording database are helping to improve performance and service levels...
Modern policing involves many points of contact for the Public (spanning 999 emergency calls, non-emergency contact centres, Neighbourhood Officers, Targeted Patrol Teams, the Crime Investigating Department, etc.) and many police personnel may be involved in the response to a crime or incident. Hence, there is an obvious need to provide consistent and readily accessible information across the lifecycle of an incident from collection, through response to analysis and downstream application. However, the diverse and often highly specialised applications used by Police forces can make this an elusive objective.
Surrey Police has deployed a range of map-based applications aimed at improving performance and service levels by enabling the wider user base to harness existing operational data captured by their Intergraph I/CAD command and control system and their crime recording database. For example, their neighbourhood mapping tool interfaces the data warehouse to plot incidents and crimes in each neighbourhood so that the local officer can see what the main issues are on their neighbourhood beat. They then use this visual, map-based information to establish a patrol strategy.
The same data warehouse system also allows Surrey Police analysts to zero in on the cause of those neighbourhood issues. Particularly where social disorder and crime occur at the same location or in the same area there will typically be a connection.
Data analysis benefits the public
By analysing the data they can provide the constables and community support officers on the ground with detailed information on what issues and which types of people they should be looking out for in the neighbourhood they serve.
"Technology helps us use the information we already hold to benefit the public," says Surrey Police Superintendent Charlie Doyle, who is responsible for the delivery of neighbourhood policing across the Force. "The latest generation of our command and control software allows us to 'layer' data - and is enabling the new initiative that links neighbourhood web pages to I/CAD".
Surrey Police's neighbourhood teams 'own' local web pages list the issues that have the highest local policing priority and explain how police and partners are working with the community to address these issues, in consultation with members of the public in that area. The I/CAD-to-local-web-page interface allows Surrey Police operators to review the calls they take in the light of those neighbourhood issues. The operator has a 'hot key' that gives them instant access to the relevant neighbourhood support officer's local web page, located by post code. If the operator sees that the subject of the incoming call is a local priority issue they can respond accordingly.
And to the future
In the near future I/CAD's data layers will also allow Surrey Police to segment geospatial and other data by each of the 665 Surrey County neighbourhoods the Force has identified. Refinements within I/CAD will enable Surrey Police to manage information within its data warehouse to extract very granular, detailed data on each of the neighbourhoods, selected by (say) particular types and times of incidents. This will then inform policing at local level, both strategically and tactically.
