Crime, as we know, is a specific act committed in violation of the law or it is the habit of doing illegal/things that are against the rules of that society. Over the years, the rate of successful crimes has been alarming maybe because the police were not informed early at the cause of the incident or because the police were overpowered by the criminals in that action.
The geographic information system is a world-wide known technology that has been designed to capture, store, and analyze any form of data. This system is designed to solve issues easily by placing the data in maps, presenting and solving them immediately. A GIS helps in planning and in carrying out various analyses in which, we will talk about its application of crime below.
GIS in correlation with remote sensing is an important tool in the analysis of crime scenes because they pose better chances than any other method out there in getting to the root of the crime and taking its bull by the head. With the intelligence of man through the building of such a classy technology, it will take only the smartest of criminals to get away with their evil deeds without being caught by the police.
A GIS helps to solve crime in diverse ways, let’s take a look at the few applications of GIS in crime and how it will be helpful.
1. Crime Investigation
Using GIS as a technique to capture criminals through investigations is very easy as the criminals cannot hide under satellite images. GIS in partnership with GPS will help to know the whereabouts of the criminals after they’ve left the crime scene.
With these above techniques, there is no way the police department would not become successful in each of their criminal cases. For better usefulness and productiveness of the GIS, there must be good partnership and coordination between the GIS and the police as it helps in many ways. Getting to the root of a case is not easy when done manually, that is, by just the police officer, it becomes easy and interesting to investigate a criminal case with GIS.
2. Hostage location/Discharge
The intelligence of GIS is top-notch as it gives the police department an edge over their enemies which are the criminals. For example, criminals who are in great need of money or information will want to keep the hostage of important personnel until their wish is granted. With the help of GIS, satellite images would help to locate the exact location of these criminals, therefore plan a way to hijack and rescue the hostages.
These cases are mostly called kidnapping, which was very successful in those days, but with the improvement of technology, it will be foolish for a terrorist to go into hostage keeping unless a brutal and dangerous one. Hostages can be in a warehouse, moving vehicle, ship, and even aircraft, notwithstanding, it is an easy task for the police in correlation with GIS.
3. Recordkeeping/Storage of data
In the police department, it is expedient that the records of past criminals be kept safe in case of an emergency. GIS method or technique is the best and safest for record-keeping as the risk of losing this data is small compared to when these data are stored in files on shelves.
GIS platform is top-notch and is used by high-security intelligence agents who are based on solving global crimes. Apart from that above, a whole lot of other important information is stored in GIS and used when they are needed. With GIS, it will be difficult for criminals to escape from a long case issue.
4. Crime mapping
In recent years, government security agents have begun to see the benefits of GIS and use it to the fullest as the case may be in crime. Crime mapping is the application of GIS to map crime scenes, actions that have taken place and are likely to take place in the nearest future.
With GIS, a crime action would be analyzed and known before it even happens, although it has to relate to a past crime action. Crime mapping gives the police and other security personnel strategies to counter any acts of criminals. Nations around the world need this kind of system for a better performance of their security officers. Having GIS at their disposal will surely give them an edge over the criminals as they could detect crime before it even happens.
5. Emergency response
GIS is now being used in emergency call routing to the police department in most parts of the globe. With GIS, rays would be detected easily and the location would be known forehand, and then immediate actions will be taken. For sure, this is a modern technology that reduces the success of crime in homes and warehouses, unlike normal successful crimes.
When normal emergency calls are phoned to the police department, they would want to ask for your name, place, and present issue. But, GIS provides an accurate and dependable means of not giving your whole details before an action is taken. With just a call,
6. Decision making among police officers
There is a lot of false alarm on crime actions on scenes that are not appropriate to security officers. This alarm could be raised to either ambush the police officers or to serve as a distraction for another crime to occur elsewhere. Most modern terrorists are intelligent and can do anything to achieve their goals, so the introduction of GIS in your security systems is the best for now. With GIS, the officers can locate if a crime is about to happen or it’s a false alarm. They can also know the kind of crime that is about to happen, thereby enabling them to pick the right combat equipment and other resources to use.
In conclusion, with the few given applications of GIS, we come to understand the fact that without advanced technology, the rate of crime in our society or country would increase daily which is disheartening. GIS is a technology that shouldn’t be criticized but embraced with open arms as it will be the best for everyone.
