How To Combat Crime Using Geographic Information System by Michael-Sam Jnr

***ITS TIME!!! Use Geographical Information System (GIS) to Fight Crimes in Ghana says Michael-Sam Jnr.***

Introduction
After 60 years of independence as a country, Ghana cannot emphatically brag of an effective police (security) operating security system but rather, we are noted as the hub for Corruption, Greed and Innocent Killing.
In today's world of fiscal uncertainty and ever-increasing budget constraints, law enforcement agencies are forced to find ways to meet higher service demands with fewer resources. To meet these challenges, police agencies need to maximize their return on investment (ROI). This means using every available asset to optimal effect.
Below are some of my professional reasons why it’s time we allow GIS operate to its max in Ghana;

GIS integrates available resources to locate crime scenes.
Ghana is blessed to high giant telecommunication companies (MTN, AirtelTigo, Vodafone, etc.) , the Ghana National Data Center, Financial institutions (Eco Bank, Barclays Bank, Ghana Commercial Bank, etc.), Hospitals and other data collecting institutions, the police can make use of a GIS integrated system which would make available high level information to track and locate perpetrators.  With the availability of mobile technologies, computer-aided dispatch (CAD), records management systems (RMS), and automated vehicle location (AVL) systems, the police department using Geographical Information Systems to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data to fight crime in Ghana. The combined data, software, and analysis tools from these systems serve many functions, including the delivery of fast, effective call response times; managing crime reports; and improving the effectiveness of intelligence-led, and place-based policing methodologies.

GIS provides planning and analysis to fight crimes.
With the available data from the police department, effective police work can be done with intimate knowledge of criminal behavior and illegal activities. Over the past years, the research, investigating and reporting department in the Ghana police quarters have recorded various crimes with their specified locations. These available information would be used to predicting trends and continuously reevaluating tactics and strategies using past and present records. Yet understanding exactly these issues in a holistic manner is difficult. The comprehensive analysis tools available in GIS gives frontline supervisors the opportunity to proactively fight crime and perform community policing by monitoring and reporting. With the help if spatial information, police can view and analyze crimes and event data to help officers make arrests and holds them to the highest accountability standards.

GIS ensures an effective Police Operation
Every day, we see Ghana police patrol cars moving to-and-fro performing various forms of operations. We can then establish the fact that the primary function of most police agencies is to patrol. Our police officers have long focused on random patrols of their assigned beat areas and responded to calls for service as assigned. If after 60yrs we cannot have GIS provide an information-based map interface to expedite and improve this process, then clearly our leaders have failed us and our generation to come. We must the now fight the lateness and allow technology with GIS do the simple magic. GIS can tell commanders where their personnel should be deployed for optimal effectiveness, including factors by time of day and day of week. GIS can also be used to predict crime spikes and spot trends as they develop. Dispatchers can use GIS to quickly see the location of a call. They can then use AVL to see where officers are on a map and deploy the closest officer based on this information.

Real-time crime centers (RTCCs)
Obviously, RTCC are becoming more prevalent in law enforcement. As calls come in, the RTCC with GIS can map and analyze the information as well as bring up previous calls to that location and compare similar activity from other locations around the reported incident. Let’s take a perfect example of the recent crimes that have occurred in our society – The Royal Motors Day Light Robbery. If citizens are effectively educated to call the police in times of events like this, the RTCC would send information to the closet police patrol to move to the scene. This additional intelligence allows officers to better understand the situation they are entering. Mobile devices can be used by officers to receive information from RTCCs or dispatch centers and help them identify suspicious activity, access suspect information, and perform on-the-fly crime analysis in the field.

In conclusion, I believe the government together with other leaders can take high priority-effective-necessary steps to address the security issues in our country. It very sad to see that our police department becomes proactive only when alarming security threats hits our country and innocent lives are lost. Let’s stop politicizing everything. Ghanaians are tired of seeing of effect police commanders like Kofi Boakye made redundant, unnecessary police shake-up, deployment of CCTV cameras to police quarters, inadequate police tools and equipment (including GIS), and what have you.
GIS is a complete system to ensure law enforcement. It's affordable and scalable and fits into existing IT or operates as a stand-alone solution.

The benefits of GIS is widespread and must be utilized to the fullest. Employ fine brains to put Ghana on the global map

Written By: Michael-Sam Jnr.
GIS Analyst

Cc: The President Of Ghana 
The IGP and the police department
All News Agencies
Security Expects
Citizens of Ghana