54 important areas of crime. By this, you can analyze spatial relations between these dots, and you can go back and look at historical cases.” “It’s important that you can see here there’s quite a close proximity,” added Kira Lappé, another BK spatial crime analyst, as she scanned the screen. “In the general report management system [that predates the Crime Atlas], the police officers in Vienna could only check on what’s happening there, but not here,” Huberty said, indicating Lower Austria. For the EGS, an investigative unit of Austria’s federal police that investigates street crimes and property crimes including burglaries, the atlas has altered the entire caseload workflow. “Every day, they do an analysis with the Crime Atlas, looking for clusters and patterns, and then plan their patrol based on that information,” Huberty said. “It’s not that they have fewer questions for us, but they can answer the smaller ones on their own,” Lappé said. “Which means they’re coming to us for more in-depth analysis. That’s a real shift.” Thematic Maps Inform Prevention As BK analysts study the atlas and uses advanced methods to aggregate data, they sometimes make “thematic” maps that are disseminated across police agencies. Lappé pulled up one for burglaries committed during twilight hours, a popular time to strike particularly in winter months when it gets darker earlier. “Here, we can see burglaries from the last three days, over the whole country,” Huberty said. With a few clicks, some of the burglary spots turned red, signifying a twilight burglary. “If some patterns persist,” he continued, “it will be added to a hot spot list. We can see the cluster and send out a bulletin saying that burglars might be in this region, so please do some prevention work, but also inform the patrol.” The local police, in turn, can do things to alert residents, such as post notices. The Life of Crime Atlas Austria Crime Atlas Austria is very much a living document. Users can import their own data and visualize it in the map. As it continues to accrue daily data, historical patterns emerge. Schabauer also imagines the atlas becoming even more of a personalized tool. “I’d like to make it more interactive,” he said. “Police often approach us and ask us to have a deeper look at something, to see if it might indicate a series or pattern.” Schabauer sees the atlas extending from visualization to support analysis and strategy. “Police could feed more information into it if they see something that they think might be a phenomenon,” he said. “Our investigation teams could then provide more input about why this crime is happening and offer measures to tackle the problem.” The home screen of Crime Atlas Austria has links to allow investigators to explore and analyze the data and see trends on the map.
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