[Freegis-list] Re: Freegis-list digest, Vol 1 #486 - 4 msgs

[Don Dietrick]

I thought this was the Free *GIS* mailing list, not the free *BS* 
mailing list.

Anyway, Knox, it sounds like your biggest problem might be geocoding 
the crime scene locations.  You could get some TIGER shape data for a 
map of your neighborhood (you can find it for free with a web search, 
available from the Census Bureau), and that might help in locating the 
scenes spatially (I'm assuming that you just have addresses, and that 
the crime scene locations don't have lat/lon attributes).  You'll have 
to look up the addresses in the .dbf file, and then reference the 
street geometry in the .shp file in order to figure out how to position 
your data on the map.

Like Berhard said, you will probably need to have a little coding done 
to cobble this process together.  OpenMap components could be used to 
do this, and you can download the package at http://openmap.bbn.com.

Good luck,

Don

On Saturday, January 18, 2003, at 06:00  AM, 
freegis-list-request at intevation.de wrote:

> How to lie with maps 101:
>
> I hope you are not going to claim that you are mapping "crime" unless
> you include the graft, corruption, embezzlement, perjuries and the 
> other
> upper class crimes in that great capital city. DC, and its cigar 
> smoking
> forces of repression, is famous for talking up all the crimes committed
> by the poorer segments of society. Then, those crimes are labelled
> "crime" or "violent crime" so as to get citizens believing that the
> crimes of the poorer segments of society are the crimes to worry about.
> No doubt they will gladly feed you the relevant statistics as they
> hassle and insult the homeless while chomping on big fat cigars. (Yes, 
> I
> had a wonderfully peaceful experience watching the "peace" officers
> during my last visit.)
>
> So enjoy the free software for your political goals whatever they may
> be, but don't be surprised if people like me throw labels out at the
> sites that purport to map "crime" and merely map "maps that help keep
> the system of violent repression strong."
>
> best of luck to do this well,
> adrian
>
>
> On Thu, 2003-01-16 at 11:14, Knox McIlwain wrote:
>> Dear FreeGIS Community -
>>
>> I am looking for a simple, web-based GIS system that I can use to map 
>> crime
>> statistics by location, date, time of day, and type of crime. I am 
>> new to
>> GIS applications, and am somewhat overwhelmed by the options. Can 
>> anyone
>> give me advice on which systems to pursue or groups I should contact?
>>
>> I live in a neighborhood in Washington, DC that has seen a recent 
>> increase
>> in crime. Many of the citizens - myself included - are actively 
>> working with
>> the police and on our own to make our neighborhood safer. All of the 
>> crime
>> GIS data that we want exists, but the DC government has failed to 
>> make it
>> available in a useful manner. We can get paper reports, but not 
>> access to
>> their GIS application (which they said they would make public, but 
>> never
>> have). As many of you have heard, we have a barely functioning city
>> government, so we are looking to ourselves for answers.
>>
>> The most important thing we need to be able to do is identify "hot 
>> spots" of
>> criminal activity and days or times of day when crime is more likely 
>> to
>> occur. With this information we can better coordinate civilian 
>> patrols and
>> present hard data to the police (who, in the absence of data, 
>> frequently
>> tell us to leave them alone and let them do their job).
>>
>> Any resources you could point me to for a GIS system I can use to 
>> plot and
>> analyze crime data would be greatly appreciated and help make our
>> neighborhood safer.
>>
>> Respectfully,
>>
>> - Knox McIlwain
>>
>> PS - Please forgive me if my questions are newbie or off topic - if 
>> so, I
>> will look elsewhere for advice.