GIS used increasingly to aid in public safety

Reginald Johnson

Friday is the closing day of another successful Esri Federal GIS Conference here in the District of Columbia. The conference has always managed to bring together government executives, GIS professionals and managers, along with representatives of nongovernmental entities, but some might not thing about geographic information systems being used to fight crime.

In Lorain, Ohio, i2’s Analyst’s Notebook was used by law enforcement officers to catch a suspected burglar who had hit numerous businesses on the city’s west side of town. i2, an intelligence analytics for crime and fraud prevention company, was acquired by IBM to accelerate its (IBM’s) business analytics initiatives and help clients address crime, fraud and security threats.

Last year Lorain Police Department Lt. Mark Carpentiere said, „It can try and predict when the next crime may occur, where it may occur, and even specific times, and that’s what happened…“ (more on examiner.com)