Crime Analysis

Tempe Police Department's Strategic Planning Analysis & Research Center (SPARC) focuses on long-term analysis including strategic and administrative crime analysis as well as traditional police planning and research work. SPARC’s GIS is an integral component that allows them to carry out their mission to research, plan, and evaluate.  SPARC wanted help with the development of methods and tools to help analysts map activity spaces and crime densities. The GRS lab reviewed 4 years of crime data in order to analyze hot spots and pick up temporal trends. The project included repeated interactions with subject matter experts to evaluate statistical analysis techniques in regards to crime behavior. GRS worked alongside Tempe PD to investigate what type of analysis suited the department’s needs. The project began by individual analysis of the crime data using a variety of techniques. Ultimately, GRS used Model Builder to develop a tool using the preferred methodology. The tool allows the client to input a subset of crime data which will then be analyzed and mapped allowing for more efficient police distribution.