CrimeSeen grants access to statistics

The service, which allows the general public to view statistics and information for crimes reported in Springfield, has been online and evolving for several years, according to Police Chief Lynn Rowe. CrimeSeen is available at www.ci.springfield.mo.us/spd/, under the “Miscellanea” header.

But the technology behind CrimeSeen has produced ties to other department applications and funding issues are threatening the system’s sustainability.

After the Nov. 8 failure of the Greene County Community Safety Initiative at the polls, the department’s hopes for purchasing updated equipment – which can cost more than $500,000 – were dashed.

At five years old, both hardware and software applications can already be deemed outdated in the ever-changing arena of computer technology, said Nichole Plowman, senior computer programmer/analyst for the city of Springfield.

“Even personal computers that are five years old are considered archaic,” Rowe added.

Rowe said the department is obligated to continue the CrimeSeen service in the future, and he expects that an alternative funding source will be explored.

How CrimeSeen works

Plowman said that police reports are entered into a records management system.

Reference points – such as type of crime, address and date – are pulled from the database. The address goes through a geographical coding process and is matched to its mapping program counterpart. The result is a color-coded point on the CrimeSeen map. Colors are determined by types of crimes.

The general public can enter an address, a date range (the program is limited to the past five quarters) or select from a series of 14 crime categories to view.

Rowe said the service helps to educate the public and can provide residents with a better understanding of what types of crimes are being committed in their neighborhoods. And business owners may benefit from CrimeSeen by taking extra precautions if, for example, a recent series of robberies was occurring in their neighborhood.

Plowman said the CrimeSeen Web page receives approximately 2,000 visits per quarter.

Intelligence information

As for other applications, the police department uses the same information to detect trends and develop intelligence information, Rowe said.

“In the big scheme of things, we have to have a lot more in-depth information for informed and intelligence-led policing,” Rowe said.

Rowe said that the information available on CrimeSeen is raw data; that data must be analyzed before it becomes intelligence information.

But analyzed information does have the potential to become important to national security.

The Springfield Police Department has taken the May 2004 National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan, which calls for sharing of all intelligence information across all levels of law enforcement, a step further, Rowe said.

The same collection and analysis of data to produce an intelligence end product can be used locally to maximize the Police Department’s scarce resources. For example, more officers can be deployed in certain areas of the city where a crime trend appears.

That maximization will depend on finding alternative funding for the department needs.

“But that’s a couple of years down the road,” Rowe said.