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Atlanta Police Department Creates Crime Statistics Web Site

The site informs Atlanta's residents about crime in their neighborhoods.

ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Police Department has selected strategic mapping technology to create an interactive, Internet-based crime information source for its citizens. This new system uses MapInfo's MapXtreme, the company's Internet mapping server, to enable Atlanta-area residents to access visual data about citywide crime statistics and patterns.

Citizens can access the Web site to quickly and easily view reported crimes from the current month from across the city or by street address. By selecting a specific type of crime from a drop-down menu (e.g., motor vehicle theft, robbery), Web site visitors can see locations where that particular type of crime has occurred, as indicated by a symbol. This helps police determine where crime is more likely to occur and alerts citizens to areas of the city that might be more at risk than others. The department plans to work with the company to create a more advanced mapping system in the near future.

"As part of our weekly Command Operations Briefing to Revitalize Atlanta (COBRA) meetings, MapInfo is used to identify areas with high criminal activity so that we can formulate and implement strategies to reduce crime and improve the quality of life for those who live, work and visit Atlanta," said Chief Richard J. Pennington of the Atlanta Police Department. "With the assistance of MapInfo, in 2003, Atlanta's crime was reduced by 6 percent and violent crimes were reduced by 15 percent."
Miriam Jones is a former chief copy editor of Government Technology, Governing, Public CIO and Emergency Management magazines.