CHAPTER TWELVE: CONCLUSION

Geographic information systems carry both a challenge and a promise for the citizens of North Carolina, for their elected officials, and for the law enforcement community.

The Promise of GIS

Crime mapping promises to contribute to community improvement, making North Carolina communities better places in which to live. The contributions of crime mapping include better allocation of law enforcement resources, better anticipation of crime patterns, closure of more criminal cases, more interagency and inter-jurisdictional cooperation, and more effective involvement of communities in the mission of law enforcement. For instance, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections has implemented GIS in its Racine Area Project, which uses an SQL server to download and geocode information for the SCOPE database (System for Corrections Offender Profile enhancement). Through this system, officials can immediately verify the addresses of offenders at the time of intake, analyze the location of sex offenders in proximity to schools, define neighborhoods based on offender concentration for purposes of allocating staff, alert police when a crime occurs where a previous offender has committed an offense, and assign new cases based on offender location.

The Challenge of GIS

The challenge of GIS for most small to medium jurisdictions starts with the problem of lining up all the elements which make start-up possible. The very success of large-city models such as New York's CompStat or the nationally recognized efforts of Charlotte-Mecklenburg can suggest to small to medium jurisdictions that crime mapping is beyond their reach. GIS is not only within the reach of even modest-sized jurisdictions, its implementation is necessary to maximize the effectiveness of local law enforcement. At the same time, full realization of the potential of GIS in law enforcement will require serious exploration of the possibility of regional approaches to crime mapping. Ultimately, the challenge of GIS is to draw law enforcement and community planning policymakers together in efforts to promote community wellness through increasing community understanding of and involvement in deterrence of crime and in addressing the social problems underlying crime.