NCJ Number
185436
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 27 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2000 Pages: 208-211
Date Published
October 2000
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article describes a new software toolkit that makes it easier for small police departments to predict crime patterns in certain areas and help curb crime in rural localities.
Abstract
The package, called ReCAP-SDE (Regional Crime Analysis Program -- Small Department Edition), is designed to enable small police departments to track and analyze crimes in their jurisdictions. The ultimate goal of the software is to help police agencies anticipate the time and place of likely criminal activity, which allows the more efficient allocation of resources. This software toolbox, available free online (http://vijis.sys.virginia.edu/ReCAPSDE.html) from the University of Virginia's Institute for Justice Information Systems, works with existing records management systems, geographic information systems, and data mining tools. A fee will continue to be charged for ReCAP, the more complex version of the software used by larger urban police agencies. The ReCAP-SDE package includes several features, including a set of mapping tools, one of which allows the analyst to select all crimes, or specific types of crimes in a given area, and view those crimes in the form of a list. There is also a control-chart tool that allows the user to determine whether the number of crimes is unusually high or low. if the number of crimes is higher than usual, corrective action may be needed. Another feature is a time-charting tool that plots the number of crimes that occur at a particular time of day, day of the week, or day of the month. Finally, the tactical-analysis tool permits the analyst to calculate similarity between crimes. ReCAP-SDE also makes it easier to create reports about the number and location of crimes, reducing the time and cost of such reporting. ReCAP-SDE has no licensing or user fees, other than the cost to license the mapping component of the program, which is $100 and is paid directly to the mapping vendor.