Geography and Public Safety

Cityscape image in black and white

A Quarterly Bulletin of Applied Geography for the Study of Crime & Public Safety

Volume 1 Issue 1 | March 2008
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The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and the National 
Institute of Justice (NIJ) are excited to bring to you the premier issue of 
Geography and Public Safety, a quarterly newsletter that examines four substantive 
areas. “Practice” examines practices related to crime mapping and problem 
analysis; “Policy” describes policy related to the use of mapping to better 
understand crime; “Technical Tips” aids practioners in completing specific spatial 
analysis tasks. “News Briefs” and a list of upcoming geography events, such as 
conferences and training opportunities, complete the newsletter. This newsletter 
will be useful for police practitioners at all levels who are interested in geography 
and its relationship to crime, as well as for researchers, policy makers, and others 
interested in understanding the impact of geography on public safety. 


David W. Hagy,

Acting Principal Deputy Director

National Institute of Justice

 


Carl R. Peed, Director

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

U.S. Department of Justice


Images of David Hagy and carl Peed's signatures.


Contents 

1 
Applied Geography for the Study 
of Crime and Public Safety

4 
Targeting Crime in Hot Spots 
and Hot Places

8 Using ModelBuilder for 
Geographic Information System 
Tasks

11 Highlight: California University of 
Pennsylvania’s Crime Mapping 
Center Helps Police and Students

12 News Briefs

14 Crime News Events 2008

What Is Applied Geography for the 
Study of Crime and Public Safety?

Ron Wilson 

Mapping and Analysis for Public Safety Program & Data Resources 
National Institute of Justice

Kurt Smith

Redlands (California) Police Department


With widespread use of desktop Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 
since the mid-1990s, crime analysts have been using geographic principles 
to understand law enforcement and public safety issues. During the last decade 
crime mapping has expanded from tracking criminal activity on maps with dots or 
pushpins to using advanced spatial statistics to understand and analyze crime. In 
the coming years, crime analysts will be able to use applied geography to assess why 
crime occurs where it does and the characteristics of high-crime environments. 

This publication was developed to assess the many ways crime mapping can be used 
to advance public safety. Ideas for this publication were drawn from two books—
Mapping the Next Millennium: How Computer Drive Cartography Is Revolutionizing 
the Face of Science1 by Stephen S. Hall, and Rediscovering Geography: New Relevance for 
Science and Society2 by the National Geographic Council’s Rediscovering Geography 
Committee. 



G&PS | March 2008

2


2


Mapping the Next Millennium looked at the 
impact of digital cartography on common 
geographical analysis and on mapping a wide 
variety of spatial patterns. Hall calls this a 
“renaissance” of geographical thinking:

Here, we are poised to enter the next 
millennium, and we find ourselves in 
the midst of what is arguably the greatest 
explosion in mapping, and perhaps the greatest 
reconsideration of “space”... (p. 6)

Hall refers to the way in which computerized 
mapping has had an impact on understanding 
crime and public safety problems. Today, 
mapping is a common procedure for many 
police departments, emergency management 
agencies, and homeland security organizations.

Where Hall described the “explosive” growth 
of new mapping technology, Rediscovering 
Geography describes the resurgence of geography 
as an aid in solving society’s problems. An early 
chapter provides an accurate description of why 
geography is needed when studying crime and 
public safety:

Geographers focus on “real world” 
relationships and dependencies among 
the phenomena and processes that give 
character and location to any location or 
place. Geographers also seek to understand 
relationships among places: for example, 
flows of people, goods and ideas that reinforce 
differentiation and enhance similarities.
(p. 10)

No place is unaffected by neighboring 
places. The book’s authors suggest that by 
understanding the way that one geographic 
place affects surrounding places, a person can 
understand why events happen in that place 
and how they happen. When translated to 
the field of crime mapping, for example, if 
an analyst knows that a poor, overcrowded 
neighborhood is located near a wealthy 
neighborhood, he might predict that robberies 
would occur most frequently on the border 
between the two neighborhoods. 

Together, the two books show that a 
combination of geographic technologies, 
theories, and principles has helped create 
effective applied science. During the past decade, 
such technology has helped research and practice 
converge, helping officers analyze complex 
crime and public safety problems with a full 
complement of tools—including those used for 
data capture, visualization, analysis, modeling, 
and problem solving. Geographic principles 
connect social theories with observations by 
using geographic data to make decisions about 
policing practices and to influence public safety 
outcomes.

Using Software for Crime Mapping 

In the 1980s, geographic analysis principles 
were operationalized into software for use in 
analysis. This software enabled researchers to 
test the theories propounded in earlier decades. 
Public safety problems and policies can now be 
explored with software programs that map and 
analyze the spatial aspects of crime and public 
safety data. 

The most notable software used for crime 
mapping is Geographic Information System 
(GIS) software. This software helps researchers 
visualize data, assess human behavior over 
geographic space, follow spatial patterns, 
validate theories, and examine how geography 
affects crime and public safety. With widespread 
GIS software availability, crime mapping has 
become a common practice for studying the 
spatial aspects of crime and making decisions 
about how best to use law enforcement and 
public safety resources. 

Using Applied Geography to 
Understand Crime and Public Safety

In addition to mapping crime with computer 
software, crime analysts combine applied 
geography, a type of research that uses 
geographic principles to solve problems, with 
criminology theories, often examining a range 
of issues about society and the environmental 
factors that contribute to crime. 

Applied geography informs police chiefs and 
other decision-makers about the physical 
environments in their jurisdiction, using data 
from two primary sources. The first is incident 
data, which include data from calls for service, 
incidents, or arrests. The second is base data, 
or data that contain information about the 
physical, demographic, and economic makeup 
of the jurisdiction. Base data include street 
information, building footprints, land use data, 
and census data. The combination of applied 
geography, crime theory, and crime mapping 
help crime analysts turn a working theory into 
a real-time solution. 



3


Putting Theory into Practice

The foundations of crime mapping came 
from environmental criminology, the study 
of how crime and victimization relate to 
geographic places and the individuals and 
organizations that occupy those places. 
They include a variety of theories, such 
as defensible space, situational crime 
prevention, routine activity theory, analysis 
of crime patterns, and social disorganization 
theory. These theories have been used as a 
basis for inquiry in the field since the 1950s, 
but until recently had not been tested. 

Problem-oriented policing puts the results 
of crime mapping, applied geography, and 
theoretical analysis into practice in the field. 
In addition to helping investigate individual 
crimes, this work has supported law 
enforcement in field and special operations, 
staffing and deployment decisions, and 
event planning. Crime and public safety 
analysts have begun to use crime data to 
answer questions about budgets, community 
development and redevelopment inquiries, 
environmental impact reports, traffic 
engineering considerations, and more. 

These practitioners must examine empirical 
research in their analysis to respond to 
crime and other law enforcement challenges 
proactively. Although GIS system and 
spatial analysis data address the underlying 
elements that lead to crime and disorder, 
without external empirical research, crime 
analysts can only decide how to respond 
to an immediate situation and will have 
less success implementing a long-term 
plan for patrolling and intervention. For 
instance, analysts may observe a hot spot 
on a city map and send patrols to resolve 
the situation; however, studying empirical 
research would help them decide how to 
patrol the area over the next year, assess 
what factors were causing crime in the area, 
and devise a way to intervene. Analysts 
who recap crime counts and map locations 
without applying the lessons of research are 
acting only as “crime summarists.”

Creating Policy to Prevent Crime

Once research and technology have been 
combined to produce a working practice, 
law enforcement may be interested 
in proposing policy solutions to city 
officials, and operational decisions about 
crime and public safety problems. Policy 
implementation has six outcomes, the first 
two of which rarely occur:

Nothing happens.

The problem completely vanishes. 

The problem diminishes.

The problem disperses.

The problem intensifies.

The problem is replaced by another 
problem.

The last possibility can occur following any 
of the other outcomes. Often, one problem 
is replaced with another because of open 
opportunities to move into a geographic 
area or because a conflict occurs and the 
more pervasive problem begins to dominate. 

GIS and spatial analysis software can help 
visualize and analyze trends that result 
from new policies. When analysts and 
policymakers understand where problems 
are, they can create focused solutions to 
resolve them, or follow them if they change. 

Putting It All Together 

To support practical decision-making, 
applied geography uses theories and 
techniques that describe where crime or other 
public safety problems occur and why they 
occur in those places. Crime analysts can 
use theories and research to make real-time 
decisions for practice. They integrate the 
spatial and geographic aspects of criminology 
into police planning, problem solving, and 
catching particular offenders, bringing the 
researchers and practitioners together. 

Intention for This Newsletter 

As a community, we should commit 
to delivering high-quality geographical 
research and practice. This will improve 
the effectiveness of police departments and 
other public safety agencies that use these 
applied techniques and strategies to develop 
better policies.

This publication hopes to provide a resource 
for applying geographic principles to law 
enforcement problems and public safety 
issues. Crime-related topics may include 
geographic profiling, resource deployment, 
urban geography. Other topics may 
include motor vehicle crashes, parolee 
and probationer tracking, and evacuation 
planning. We will also highlight important 
events for practitioners and policymakers, 
discuss work being conducted through the 
National Institute of Justice’s Mapping and 
Analysis for Public Safety (MAPS) program, 
and review books and other materials.

Informative discussion on a variety of topics 
will demonstrate that better policy decisions 
can come from these forms of analysis. 
Technology articles will illustrate how 
applying geographic principles to spatial 
analysis can be used to solve problems. 
Other articles will discuss how policy 
results from practical decisions, such as 
where to deploy resources or how to change 
agencywide practices. 

We hope that this publication will enable 
readers to apply geographic principles in 
their practices and encourage further crime 
research. Future issues will entertain ideas 
from the field—please send topic ideas to 
Ronald.Wilson@usdoj.gov. 

Notes

1. 
Hall, Stephen S., Mapping the Next Millennium: 
How Computer Driven Cartography Is Revolutionizing 
the Face of Science. New York, New York: Vintage, 
1993.

2. 
National Research Council Rediscovering Geography 
Committee, Rediscovering Geography: New Relevance 
for Science and Society, Washington, D.C.: National 
Academies Press, 1997.

GPS Technology: Mapping in the Future

Around 10 years ago, law enforcement officers began to leverage new desktop GIS 
software and automated dispatch and records data to support crime intervention and 
suppression strategies. Today, the widespread availability of global positional system 
(GPS)-equipped devices and the spatial data sets they can produce have set the stage for 
another fundamental change. These technologies will help analysts evaluate long-standing 
questions about where offenders spend their time and how officers patrol areas. 



4

Katie Filbert

National Institute of Justice (Contractor)

Targeting Crime in Hot Spots and Hot Places

Crime has a tendency to concentrate in 
specific problem areas, known as “hot 
spots,” rather than spreading out evenly 
across space. Crime can be extremely 
localized and varies widely from address 
to address. Hot spots are areas with a 
greater than average number of criminal or 
disorder events or higher than average risk of 
victimization. 

Crime theories and practical studies support 
the idea that focusing police efforts at crime 
hot spots can effectively reduce crime. Efforts 
may include directed patrols1 or problem 
solving for individual hot spots. Situational 
crime prevention measures that address 
criminogenic characteristics (e.g., vacant lots, 
bad lighting) of a place may result in longer 
lasting effects. Additionally, research has 
shown that hot spot policing may improve 
crime reduction beyond the boundaries of 
the hot spots. 

Crime analysts in police departments work 
with crime incident data to find and analyze 
hot spots and provide information to crime 
and justice professionals. They often work 
with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 
software to create crime maps to visualize 
data and identify patterns and hot spots. 
GIS and related mapping and analysis tools 
have been advancing to include sophisticated 
statistics software that allows rigorous 
analysis of crime hot spots and testing against 

Crime hotspot map of Washington D.C.

Figure 1. This is a hot spot map for robberies 
during 2007 in Washington, D.C. The Adams Morgan-
Columbia Heights area, U Street/Shaw, and 
Chinatown have experienced gentrification in recent 
years, with homicide rates going down. Robberies 
remain a problem in specific locations. The 
hot spot map identifies places and street segments 
that help the police deploy resources and 
resolve crime problems in these places.



5

random patterns and variation. In addition 
to statistical analysis, researchers use 
spatial analysis to devise problem-solving 
approaches and reduce crime and disorder.

Theories for Countering Crime 
in Small Places or Individual 
Residences 

The term “places” describes small areas—
such as residences, bars, or restaurants—
that are known spots of criminal activity. 
When assessing hot places and creating a 
crime intervention strategy, researchers ask 
questions about crime, police response, and 
analysis techniques. 

For instance, a researcher may ask, “Which 
bars experience frequent assaults and which 
do not?” Once they have identified these hot 
places, analysts use crime theories to assess 
and respond to the problem.

Routine activity theory. Routine activity 
theory helps explain why crime is often 
concentrated at certain places. This theory 
suggests that an establishment’s management 
affects the behavior of its patrons. For instance, 
a bar with frequent assaults may employ staff 
who do not regulate the behavior of patrons to 
minimize the chances of an assault.

Behavior regulation has three effects. It 
directly prevents criminal activity through 
early intervention (e.g., controlling the 
number of drinks a patron can consume), 
it attracts customers who desire a well-
regulated location over a weakly regulated 
place (and are less likely to create problems), 
and it repels customers who desire a weakly 
regulated location over a well-regulated place. 

Police response. Police response to a 
problem varies depending on the scale of 
the problem. Offenders may be attracted to 
places where people congregate (e.g., bars, 
bus stops, parks). These places present crime 
opportunities and have a large number of 
potential victims with minimal levels of 
social control. 

Situational crime prevention measures (e.g., 
improving lighting in a high-crime area) 
or other specific responses (e.g., working 
with agencies that regulate liquor licensing 
to issue sanctions) may help reduce crime 
at a hot spot or hot place. Increased police 
presence can also help guard these places 
and reduce opportunity for crime. Several 
patrols could come to a crime hot spot in 
succession, each remaining for 10 or 15 
minutes. 

Theories for Countering Crime 
in Neighborhoods

Neighborhoods are often too large for 
concentrated patrols. Researchers have 
identified a number of theories that may 
explain and help control neighborhood 
violence.

Landmark discoveries. In Social Factors 
in Juvenile Delinquency (1931), Shaw and 
McKay observed persistent concentrations 
of deviancy in the 1920s. They suggested 
that some neighborhoods had high levels 
of juvenile delinquency year in and year 
out, decade after decade, regardless of who 
lived in the areas. Since that time, many 
explanations for differences in neighborhood 
crime levels have surfaced. Most of these 
theories focus on local residents’ ability to 
control deviancy.

Social disorganization theory. This 
theory suggests that people’s natural ability 
to control deviancy in their neighborhoods 
is impaired in some areas by constant 
residential turnover and the number of 
residents who leave the neighborhood. 
These changes disrupt social networks or 
prevent them from forming. Since these 
networks are responsible for most social 
control in neighborhoods, their absence 
leads to higher levels of deviancy. Other 
factors, such as poverty and racism, also 
have been identified as undermining social 
networks.

Social efficacy. Social efficacy is a 
characteristic of groups of people, or “the 
willingness of local residents to intervene for 
the common good” (Sampson, Raudenbush, 
and Earls, 1997). Social efficacy may help 
prevent crime—neighborhoods that have 
high social efficacy have less crime and 
disorder. 

Broken windows theory. The broken 
windows theory claims that in most 
well-functioning neighborhoods, small 
transgressions of social norms (e.g., failure 
to keep one’s yard tidy) result in social 
pressures to bring the offending party 
into compliance. Once a place becomes 
untended, it undermines the willingness 
and ability of residents to enforce social 
order. Consequently, further deviancy 
occurs, residents experience withdrawal and 
fear, and the neighborhood begins to spiral 
downward. 

Crime opportunity theories. Routine 
activity theory and related theories point 
to crime opportunities as the principal 
cause of crime. Rather than concentrations 
of offenders or the absence of social 
controls, opportunity theories suggest that 
analysts should look for concentrations of 
crime targets. For example, a dense urban 
neighborhood with no off-street parking 
will have many cars parked on the street 
and may become an area hot spot for thefts 
from vehicles. 

Another example might involve a 
suburban subdivision with dual-income 
families that have few people at home 

What are “Hot Spots” and “Hot Places”?

A neighborhood or cluster of blocks may be 
a crime hot spot. However, places (e.g., a 
bar, liquor store, bus stop, or park), street 
segments, or stretches of road may also be 
considered hot spots. Because of their small 
geographic size, these spots are usually 
referred to as hot places. Crime hot spots 
and places can be very different in size, 
and the techniques used for mapping and 
analyzing them will vary depending on 
their geographic level.

What other factors make an area hot? 

Crime may occur more frequently at “hot” 
times of the day and week. For example, 
assaults most frequently occur between 3:00 
and 7:00 a.m., where as residential burglaries 
are more likely to occur during daytime hours 
on weekdays. 



66

during weekdays. Since the property is 
unprotected, their neighborhood can 
become an area burglary hot spot. In this 
situation, several layers of hot spots can exist 
simultaneously. Some streets in the suburban 
neighborhood may have greater numbers of 
burglaries, and some of the homes on these 
streets may be broken into multiple times. 

Identifying and Analyzing 
Hot Spots 

Identifying Hot Spots

A number of approaches can help identify crime 
hot spots. These include creating density maps and 
using spatial statistics. 

Analysts may want to use crime incident data 
and call-for-service data in hot spot analysis. 
Call-for-service data capture reports of 
disturbances and other forms of disorder that 
are not collected in crime incident data. 

Identifying incidents on multiple 
geographic levels. Some hot spots may cluster 
in small areas, such as street segments, street 
corners, and other such places. These could 
include a small entertainment district or strip of 
bars that has a high number of assault incidents 
clustered there. For identifying these types 
of hot places, point mapping is also needed. 
For incidents in a particular neighborhood or 
cluster of blocks, analysts may wish to map 
with graduated color (i.e., choropleth) maps 
and density maps. 

Creating Density Maps

Kernel density maps show crime rates as 
they vary continuously across space without 
boundaries. Analysts use these maps to identify 
crime hot spots. Areas with high concentrations 
of crime stand out on density maps. 

GIS packages with raster (i.e., grid) mapping 
capabilities, such as ArcView Spatial Analyst,2 
can be used to create density maps. CrimeStat,3 
a free software program for analysis of incident, 
or “point,” data, also has kernel density analysis 
capabilities.

Density maps are created when an analyst 
takes a point map of crime incidents (or calls 
for service) and places an arbitrary grid on the 
map. Each grid cell is then assigned a score 
based on the number of incidents (points) in 
each cell. The score also takes into account the 
number of points in nearby cells or within a 
search radius determined by the analyst. A high 
score indicates a high incidence of crime in a 
particular area.

The result of this mapping technique is a grid 
map. The color of each grid cell varies based 
on the cell’s score. Cells with high numbers of 
points may be shaded bright red, to indicate 
high crime rates while areas with lower levels of 
crime may be shaded cooler colors. 

Using Statistical Tests to Find 
Hot Spots

When analysts want to create and examine 
a crime map, they must make a judgment 
call about the size of the geographical area 
portrayed on the map. Once analysts have 
created a map, spatial data analysis software 
can be used to apply statistical tests that help 
identify areas with high levels of crime and 
analyze crime data. Statistical tests can help 
find where crime is clustered in certain places 
or areas on the map compared with crime that 
occurs randomly. 


Figure 2. This map shows hot spots at 
the scale of specific places or streets in 
Washington, D.C. There is a higher rate of 
robberies around the Metro station entrance, 
as well as a more intense hot spot two 
blocks north. Once the hot spot has been 
identified, an analyst can look at specific 
incident reports. Most of the robberies in 
the hot spot involved victims who were 
using the ATM, often in the evening or later 
at night. As a result of the analysis, the 
bank has since limited the ATM hours to the 
daytime. 



Software for hot spot analysis. Two 
software packages that can be used for hot 
spot analysis are CrimeStat and GeoDa.4 
Both software packages are free and can be 
downloaded online. 

CrimeStat is used to analyze crime incidents 
or other types of point patterns. CrimeStat 
uses point data on a map to produce 
statistics that indicate clustering, or to what 
extent crimes cluster in specific areas. A 
number of statistical tests can provide a 
single statistic, or number, which describes 
how much clustering occurs across the 
map. Statistical tests available in CrimeStat 
include the Nearest Neighbor Index (NNI), 
Moran’s I, and Geary’s C statistic. 

CrimeStat and GeoDa use another type of 
statistics to compare and analyze clustering 
in more localized parts of a map, for 
example, finding several adjacent clusters 
of high or low rates of crime, or finding an 
area with low crime rates that is adjacent 
to several crime hot spots. These statistics 
are called Local Indicators of Spatial 
Autocorrelation (LISA) statistics. Analysts 
can also create LISA maps to show where 
clustering is occurring. 

More information on density mapping and 
spatial statistical approaches for identifying 
and analyzing crime hot spots is available 
in a 2005 publication from the National 
Institute of Justice entitled Mapping Crime: 
Understanding Hot Spots. Information 
on using CrimeStat, links to the GeoDa 
web site, and information on training 
opportunities can be found at www.ojp.
usdoj.gov/nij/maps.

Conclusion

Spatial data analysis software has advanced 
in recent years, giving researchers the 
ability to perform a more sophisticated 
analysis of crime hot spots. Being able to 
identify these hot spots and hot places, and 
direct policing efforts and crime prevention 
measures to them, has become a promising 
way to reduce crime. 

Effective crime reduction, however, also 
requires law enforcement agencies to 
hire crime analysts. Analysts should be 
encouraged to learn more advanced analysis 
techniques to better identify crime hot spots 
and to understand the underlying factors 
that influence hot spot patterns.

References 

Eck, J.E., S. Chainey, J.G. Cameron, M. Leitner, 
and R.E. Wilson. Mapping Crime: Understanding 
Hot Spots. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of 
Justice, National Institute of Justice, 2005. NCJ 
209393.

Sampson, R.J., S.W. Raudenbush, and F. Earls. 
“Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel 
Study of Collective Efficacy,” Science, 227(1997): 
918–924.

Shaw, C.R., and H.D. McKay. Social Factors in 
Juvenile Delinquency, Vol. 2, No. 13. Washington, 
D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931.

Notes 

1. 
Directed patrols are police units that respond to 
incidents or places that need special attention.

2. 
ArcView Spatial Analyst can be found online at 
www.esri.com/software/arcview.

3. 
CrimeStat was developed by Ned Levine and 
Associates, through a grant from the National 
Institute of Justice. CrimeStat can be found 
online at www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/
crimestat.html. 

4. 
GeoDa was developed by Luc Anselin and other 
researchers at the Spatial Analysis Laboratory 
(SAL) at University of Illinois, Urbana-
Champaign. GeoDa can be found online at 
www.geoda.uiuc.edu.

Data sources:

Map data comes from the D.C. GIS, which is run by the District of Columbia Government’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer 
(OCTO). http://dcatlas.dcgis.dc.gov

Crime incident data comes from the Citywide Data Warehouse program of the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) 
and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). http://data.octo.dc.gov/Metadata.aspx?id=3

Disclaimers:

“The data made available here have been modified for use from the original source, which is the Government of the District of 
Columbia. Neither the District of Columbia Government nor the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) makes any claims as 
to the completeness, accuracy, or content of any data contained in this application; makes any representation of any kind, including, 
but not limited to, warranty of the accuracy, or fitness for a particular use; nor are any such warranties to be implied or inferred with 
respect to the information or data furnished herein. The data are subject to change as modifications and updates are complete. It is 
understood that the information contained in the dataset is being used at one’s own risk.”

7



TECHINCAL TIPS


88

Using ModelBuilder for Geographic 
Information System Tasks

Philip Mielke

Redlands (California) Police Department


Crime analysis requires a Geographic 
Information System (GIS)—a software 
program for capturing, managing, and 
analyzing geographic and spatial data—to 
process data and create data products (e.g., 
printed maps, pamphlets) for a wide audience. 
Crime data can change daily, which makes 
producing maps and other products a daunting 
task for many analysts. Automating regular 
tasks will save time and allow for more 
sophisticated tools for analysis. 

Crime analysts need a mapping program that 
allows them to regularly update data in a timely 
fashion. Environmental Systems Research 
Institute’s (ESRI) ModelBuilder is a component 
of a type of GIS software called ArcMap1 
that allows for drag-and-drop development 
of complex geoprocessing tasks (e.g., placing 
points on the map based on addresses, 
summarizing data). It helps crime analysts 
expedite their daily geoprocessing tasks for map 
production.

Advancing Earlier Modeling Tools

ESRI’s ModelBuilder is a drag-and-drop 
process modeling environment that 
comes standard with ArcMap version 9.x. 
ModelBuilder is an advancement of ArcView 
3.x’s Geoprocessing Wizard Extension. 
Where the Geoprocessing Wizard was limited 
to tasks like spatially joining, merging, 
and clipping data, ESRI introduces all of 
ArcMap’s functional capabilities (e.g., spatial 
analysis, geoprocessing) into the Toolbox. 
A large number of different tools and tasks 
can be strung together in the literal sense of 
a systems technology: data go in, a process 
occurs, and data come out. The potential to 
string complex tasks together and automate 
them to run regularly makes ModelBuilder an 
attractive option for any Crime Analysis Unit.

Introducing the User Interface

Getting started.

Press the menu button to open ArcToolbox 
as a window in ArcMap. This window is similar 
to the Table of Contents window.

Toolboxes can be expanded by clicking the 
[+] sign to the left of the toolbox symbol.

Toolboxes are arranged by task subdivision 
(e.g., Geoprocessing), and by extension (e.g., 
Spatial Analyst). This arrangement allows 
users to expand levels of tools within this 
arrangement, and create customized toolboxes 
to contain frequently used tools. 

Note that some toolboxes require users to 
license extensions. Check license availability 
with the Desktop License Manager, which can 
be found under the ArcGIS install directory.

Finding and using tools.

The “Index” and “Search” tabs at the 
bottom of ArcToolbox help analysts locate 
tools. The “Index” tab lists tools by title, 
and the “Search” tab will find any word 
within the tool’s title and description. 

Double-click tools to use them. 

When a tool is being used, a window 
interface will request input and output data 
locations2 as well as parameters available 
for each tool. Input data can include raw 
data, layer files, and selections from the 
ArcMap project. Output data can be saved to 
shapefiles or feature classes in a geodatabase. 

To create a new toolbox, right-click at the 
top of the tool tree and select “new toolbox.” 
This toolbox stores models, scripts, and tools 
within one “.tbx” file. 



9

Initially, the new toolbox will be placed 
in the “Documents and Settings” folder 
in the application data. Accessing 
or transferring these “.tbx” files is 
impossible without system administrator 
rights. However, a new feature to 
ArcMap version 9.2 lets a user create and 
store toolboxes in geodatabases. 

Name the new toolbox with a clear 
description and title. 

Create a new model by right-clicking 
on the new toolbox and selecting “New 
Model.”

Right-click and select “edit” to view the 
blank ModelBuilder stage.

Drag tools from existing toolboxes 
onto the model window. Tools that are 
dragged onto the window will require 
blank input and output data locations. 
Double-clicking the tool within 
a model will bring up that tool’s 
interface window. Users can establish 
data paths here. 

The following section describes two ways to 
use ModelBuilder for crime analysis. 

How to Geocode Data with 
a Composite 1.0 Geocoding 
Service

Crime data are constantly in a state of flux. 
Analysts must geocode data regularly to be 
able to work with timely data. As counties 
and cities grow more sophisticated in their 
use of GIS, using multiple mapping layers 
can ensure that the addresses given in a 
records system will help analysts find the 
most accurate location on the map. This 
example uses two layers, a street file and 
a geofile,3 to order the automatic location 
selection process inherent in a composite 
address locator.4 

Before beginning the geocoding process. 

Have the necessary geocoding layers 
available and entered as address locators. 

Keep all geocoding layers and address 
locator services in one geodatabase. 

Store this model in the geocoding 
geodatabase while storing output data 
in an alternate database. This will help 
reduce schema locks5 on the geocoding 
geodatabase while viewing the geocoded 
incident file. It will also promote 
a general organization system for 
geocoded data. 

After the toolbox is added to the 
geodatabase, the folder structure will 
resemble the following image:

Geocoding data. 

Right-click the geocoding geodatabase 
and select New>Toolbox. 

Right-click the Toolbox and select 
New>Model. 

Right-click the newly created model 
and select edit to see the empty 
ModelBuilder stage. 

From ArcToolbox, find the Geocode 
Addresses tool from Geocode Toolbox 
and drag that onto the model stage. 

Double-click the model and enter 
the following required parameters by 
finding or saving them in your working 
directory: 

Input Table

Input Address Locator 

Input Address Fields 

Output Feature Class 

Alternatively, drag the data elements 
onto the stage from the Table of 
Contents and connect them to the tool 
by clicking the Add Connection Tool . 
The following image depicts what your 
model stage should resemble, with the 
systems concepts labeled as Input, Tool, 
and Output. 

Push the Run button . This model will 
produce a new geocoded feature class 
called “Incident1.”

Creating Kernel Densities for 
Hot Spot Mapping

This section describes a model that will 
automate the query and hot spot routine 
that analysts are commonly asked to 
complete. Specifically, this model will 
query the newly geocoded Feature Class 
with a Structured Query Language6 (SQL) 
query and then run a Kernel Density7 
tool from Spatial Analyst. The model 
is assembled in a similar fashion to the 
geocoding model described above. 

This section discusses using the Feature Class 
to Feature Class tool to create a new feature 
class from a query. In this case, the tool should 
break down the full Incident1 feature class 
into an individual crime type and deliver 
the Kernel Density output to the Incident 
geodatabase after the model is run. 

Assume that the model should be 
flexible and that a user needs the ability 
to change some of the tool parameters 
when opening the model. 

Right-click the Feature Class to 
Feature model and hover over Make 
Variable>From Parameter. This will 
bring up a list of parameters that a 
user would usually enter when double-
clicking the tool. 

By selecting parameters here, those 
parameters become a separate piece of 
the model. 

Flow chart. Screenshot of geodatabase structure.

11



Highlight: California University of Pennsylvania 
Opens Crime Mapping Center 

Tom Mueller, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, California University of Pennsylvania

Director, Peter J. Daley Geographic Technology Center


With funding from a 2004 grant from 
the U.S. Department of Justice, 
the California University of Pennsylvania’s 
Earth Science Department was able to open 
a Crime Mapping Center that has helped 
local police departments identify trends 
while helping students interested in law 
enforcement build their careers.

The Crime Mapping Center is equipped 
with Geographic Information System 
(GIS) technology that allows students 
to complete weekly and monthly 
crime-mapping reports for rural police 
departments. Students have been working 
during the past several years for the 
Uniontown, Brownsville, Johnstown, 
and Bethel Park police departments in 
southwest Pennsylvania. The students 
download call-for-service data and process 
them with GIS software for display on 
electronic maps. Students then analyze 
the crime data and show law enforcement 
officers the spatial patterns of crimes 
(either all crimes in the area or specific 
crimes, such as assault or criminal 
mischief). These maps help police monitor 
crime in their jurisdictions.

One example of using such data was the 
creation of a map of criminal mischief 
complaints that occurred near abandoned 
buildings. This hot spot map enabled police 
to track these incidents and look for trends. 
Students also created maps of the “mean 
center” (or spatial average) of robbery 
incidents for three separate months. This 
allowed the police to examine if robberies 
were moving in a particular direction and 
discuss what underlying reasons might be 
causing the geographical shift. The reports 
are also used to support applications for 
federal grants.

Many metropolitan police forces have units 
that concentrate solely on crime mapping, 
but police departments in this region of 
Pennsylvania do not have the funding for 
such units. The partnership with California 
University of Pennsylvania provides these 
police departments with important services 
they could not otherwise afford.

The center benefits students as well. It is 
staffed by student volunteers interested in 
applying what they learn in the classroom 
to real problems facing police. The center 
is run by the university’s Earth Science 
Planning Club, but any student from 
the university is welcome once he or she 
receives training. Working at the center 
has opened career doors for these students, 
many of whom have gone on to become 
professional crime analysts. As analysts, 
they apply the skills and experience they 
gained to problems of resource deployment, 
directed patrols, checkpoint locations, 
traffic accident avoidance, and community 
mobilization. They also help their 
departments address the elements that lead 
to crime and the demand for police services. 

California University of Pennsylvania’s Earth 
Science Department hopes that it will be 
able to expand its crime-mapping services to 
more police departments in the future.

Image of group.Back Row. California University President Angelo Armenti, Brad Clemenson, 
Mayor Norma Ryan of Brownsville Front. Tom Mueller, Chief Stephen Cooper of Connellsville



1122



NEWS BRIEFS
New Jersey Report Highlights City’s 
Crime Hot Spots 

Crime mapping has helped officers analyze 
crime patterns in Jersey City, New Jersey. 
A series of news reports published the week of 
October 15, 2007 drew attention to the city’s 
crime problem and discussed recent initiatives 
to stop crime.

Crime is reported every 3 hours in Jersey City. 
Theft and robbery are the most commonly 
reported incidents. When crime analysts 
used a computer mapping program to map 
recorded incidents, they found four areas in 
the city with the highest levels of crime—the 
Martin Luther King Drive corridor, the Central 
Avenue corridor in the Heights, the Newark 
Avenue strip, and the Montgomery Gardens 
public housing complex. Additionally, the city’s 
Newport Centre Mall had the highest crime 
rate of any single address.

Each of these crime hot spots has its own crime 
problems. For instance, the Martin Luther 
King Drive corridor, which encompasses several 
neighborhoods in the city, has high drug 
activity. The downtown Newark Avenue area 
has problems with car break-ins. The Newport 
Centre Mall deals mostly with theft and 
shoplifting.

Crime mapping has helped officers analyze 
crime patterns in Jersey City, New Jersey. A 
series of news reports published the week of 
October 15, 2007 drew attention to the city’s 
crime problem and discussed recent initiatives 
to stop crime.

Crime is reported every 3 hours in Jersey City. 
Theft and robbery are the most commonly 
reported incidents. When crime analysts 
used a computer mapping program to map 
recorded incidents, they found four areas in 
the city with the highest levels of crime—the 
Martin Luther King Drive corridor, the Central 
Avenue corridor in the Heights, the Newark 
Avenue strip, and the Montgomery Gardens 
public housing complex. Additionally, the city’s 
Newport Centre Mall had the highest crime 
rate of any single address.

Each of these crime hot spots has its own crime 
problems. For instance, the Martin Luther 
King Drive corridor, which encompasses several 
neighborhoods in the city, has high drug 
activity. The downtown Newark Avenue area 
has problems with car break-ins. The Newport 
Centre Mall deals mostly with theft and 
shoplifting.

How Can Jersey City Reduce Crime 
in Public Housing Complexes? 

Within the city’s top 10 crime hot spots are 
three public housing complexes, including 
the Montgomery Gardens public housing 
complex, suggesting that officers must find 
ways to regulate crime in these area. New Jersey 
Housing Authority Director Maria Maio, as 
quoted in the Hudson County Now, suggests the 
high crime rates may have to do with the way 
the buildings are laid out. She said, “These are 
dense, open areas where everybody has access, 
creating a lot of traffic and activity. At Booker 
T. Washington (housing complex), there is a 
vast no-man’s land at the basketball courts, and 
that’s where a lot of the crime happens.”

Experts hope that housing demolition and 
renovation efforts can be used to reduce crimes 
in these complexes. The city has put in progress 
a plan called Hope VI that will demolish 
these buildings and replace them with smaller 
housing units and a mixture of low- and 
moderate- income homes.



Police Use COMSTAT to Combat 
Crime 

In their effort to target criminal activity, 
the Jersey City police reintroduced the 
COMSTAT program in March 2006. 
COMSTAT is similar to the New York 
Police Department’s famous crime-reducing 
initiative CompStat. Using COMSTAT, top 
officers to meet twice a month to review 
crime statistics and maps to find crime 
patterns and trends. This information is 
used to decide the best way to distribute 
law enforcement and combat crime. 
Additionally, the COMSTAT program 
holds officers accountable for crime in their 
jurisdictions. Public officials say COMSTAT 
has reduced violent crime by 8 percent, and 
nonviolent crime by 13 percent. 

But changes in policing and public housing 
are only part of Jersey City’s initiative to 
target crime hot spots. Other initiatives may 
include building taller downtown buildings 
to drive up real estate prices, funding better 
street lighting, and working toward a greater 
police presence. Crime mapping has helped 
the city understand where to start.

For more information, see: www.nj.com/
hudsoncountynow/index.

How to Understand 
Crime “Blobs” on a 
Map 

Crime maps are created when analysts use 
software to mark each reported crime in a 
given area over a certain period of time. They 
place a grid over the map and measure the 
crime density within each square on the grid. 
With a little bit of number crunching and 
the use of specialized software, they can show 
where in a given area crime rates are highest, 
and where crime is not a problem. An article 
by Rob Gebeloff in Newark’s Star-Ledger 
describes how to understand mapping data 
for crime observed in Newark, New Jersey 
over the past 2½ years using a map with 
34,000 points.

For more information, see: http://blog.
nj.com/statattack/2007/10/whats_the_deal_
with_those_crim.html.

New Jersey Makes 
Crime Maps Available 
to the Public 

Newark’s Star-Ledger and the Jersey Journal 
have placed crime maps and incident 
information on the web and made them 
available to the general public. Data cover 
crime that occurred in Jersey City between 
January 1, 2006 and July 23, 2007 and 
crime in Newark between January 1, 2005 
and August 1, 2007.

For more information, see: www.nj.com/news 
bythenumbers.

News Bites 

The Chicago Police Department’s 
Citizen and Law Enforcement Analysis 
and Reporting (CLEAR) system won 
Harvard University’s 2007 Innovations 
in American Government Award. The 
CLEAR system provides real-time crime 
data and allows police agencies to share 
criminal data.

Police in Fargo, North Dakota, have 
been using a new crime mapping system 
to examine crime patterns and target 
criminal activity. The system has already 
proved its efficacy, helping police solve a 
string of burglaries committed in 2005 
by a robber nicknamed “Shoe Boy.”

Chicago gang crime expert Phil Cline 
may be putting his expertise to work 
in the suburbs. Cline will use his 
computerized mapping system to 
identify crime patterns and hot spots in 
suburbs surrounding the Chicago area.

Oakland, California, has produced an 
interactive crime map of the city. The tool 
is expected to help educate the general 
public on crime patterns and trends. Find 
it at oakland.crimespotting.org.

San Jose, California has created a crime 
mapping web site in conjunction with 
crimereports.com. The system lets users 
report crimes and provides the police 
with easy mapping for dispatch.

Close-up of keyboard.COPS Grant Information 
at your fingertips

The Response Center provides 
information on:

COPS Grants

Grant Applications

Grant Management

COPS Online, passwords, 
financial status reports, etc.

Community policing training 
available from the Regional 
Community Policing Institutes

COPS Publications

Contacting your state Grant 
Program Specialist or Staff 
Accountant 

To contact the Response Center

Phone: 800.421.6770

Fax: 202.616.8594

E-mail: askcopsrc@usdoj.gov

Mailing address:

COPS Office Response Center

1100 Vermont Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20530

Hours of Operation:

Monday to Friday, 9:00 – 5:00 
Eastern Time

After-hours voicemail – call returned 
next business day

Information available 24 hours a day 
at www.cops.usdoj.gov

Ask us for materials to address 
a specific problem in your 
community.

www.cops.usdoj.gov

13

COPS Logo

G&PS | March 2008

14

Crime News Events 2008

Dealing with crime problems in a local law enforcement agency sometimes means reaching out to 
other local agencies (e.g., city planning) to come up with a solution. The events listed here are good 
opportunities to learn what mapping professionals and those in related areas are doing, get new ideas, 
and present your work. 

2008 Indiana GIS Conference

February 19–20, 2008 in Indianapolis, Indiana

www.in.gov/igic

TuGIS 2008 (Annual Geographic Information 
Sciences Conference)

March 17–18, 2008 in Towson, Maryland

tugis.towson.edu

Southern Regional Science Association (SRSA) 
Annual Meeting

March 26–30, 2008 in Arlington, Virginia

www.srsa.org

URISA/NENA Addressing Conference 
(formerly GIPSC and URISA’s Street Smart 
and Address Savvy Conference)

Cosponsored by the National Emergency Number 
Association and URISA. 

April 7–10, 2008 in Portland, Oregon

www.urisa.org/conferences/Addressing/Info

IALEIA/LEIU Annual Conference

April 7–11, 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts

www.ialeia.org

2008 Annual Meeting of the Association of 
American Geographers (AAG)

April 15–19, 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts

www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/index.htm

California GIS Conference

April 23–25, 2008 in Modesto, California

www.calgis.org

Pennsylvania GIS Conference

May 14–15, 2008 in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania

cgis.hbg.psu.edu/conference/home.aspx

9th Annual International Conference on Digital 
Government Research

May 18–21, 2008 in Montreal, Quebec

www.dgo2008.org

2008 ESRI International User Conference

August 4–8, 2008 in San Diego, California

www.esri.com/events/uc/index.html

Tenth Crime Mapping Research Conference

September 17–20, 2008 in New Orleans

www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/maps

GIScience 2008

September 23–26, 2008 in Park City, Utah

www.ai_geostats.org/index.php?id=215

2008 California Crime and Intelligence Analysts 
Association (CCIAA) 

September 23–26, 2008 in Pleasanton, California

www.crimeanalyst.org

Urban and Regional Information Systems 
Association (URISA) 46th Annual Conference

October 7–10, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana

www.urisa.org/conferences/aboutannual



15

The NIJ Conference 2008
July 21-23 2008
Crystal Gateway Marriot
Arlington, Virginia
Featuring the plenary panel "Making Smarter Decisions: Connecting Crime Mapping with City Officials"
For more information, visit 
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/2008.htm
Mapping and Analysis for Public Safety
The Tenth Crime Mapping Research Conference: Solving Problems with Geography and Technology
September 17-20, 2008
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel
National Institute of Justice
The Tenth Crime Mapping Research Conference

Editorial Staff

Nicole Scalisi

Research Analyst

Community Oriented Policing Services

Ron Wilson

Program Manager/Social Science Analyst 

National Institute of Justice

Katie Filbert

Research Associate (Contractor)

National Institute of Justice

Judith Beres

Editor

Community Oriented Policing Services

Ariel Whitworth

Communications Editor

National Criminal Justice Reference Service

Sandra Sharpe

Production

Community Oriented Policing Services

Esteban Hernandez

Production Coordinator

Community Oriented Policing Services

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

1100 Vermont Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20530

To obtain details on COPS programs, call the 
COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770

Visit COPS Online at www.cops.usdoj.gov

COPS LogoNational Institute of Justice 

810 Seventh Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20531 

Visit NIJ Online at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij


NIJ Logo