Milwaukee Police Dept: More Than Dots on a Map

Just a few weeks ago, I described how Milwaukee PD could be inspired by Martin O'Malley. From a recent JS Online article, it looks like MPD has made some substantial improvements already. While not mentioned directly, GIS is obviously part of the solution. The best quote of the article follows (and hits on a gripe of mine - that GIS is more than a spatial inventory of features and events - its about locational analysis. An inventory alone doesn't solve problems, analysis does).

"[Detective Lt. John] Hagen compared past efforts at data-driven policing to a 1980s arcade game. 'We’d put some maps up and dots up. You might as well play Pac-Man like in the old days and go ‘goop, goop, goop, goop, goop’ and eat the dots. It meant nothing,' he said. Now, Hagen said, the data is more up to date and more usable, helping police assess trends, identify specific hot spot neighborhoods and fight crime, which was down 4.5% in the first six months of 2008 compared with the same time last year."

JS Online 8/21/2008