[Freegis-list] GIS and Crime Data

[Adrian Custer]

Hello,

The issue is the claim that people are "mapping crime." We know we are
not doing such a thing so we should be careful to state what we are
doing. It's worth the ten-twenty minutes to think carefully about the
semantics of what we want to present to the Whole Wide World. So if you
are mapping crimes that could potentially hurt individuals and families
through direct physical violence, then that is how you should try to
present it. 

My research in ecology and spatial analysis is all about what we can
correctly claim to know and demonstrate. That's my personal kick. I hope
to get a few people to think a tiny bit more about this correctness. GIS
is deeply influencing public policy and I see an inherent tendency to
assume that if a map shows an effect, the effect must exist. If we are
going to do better than that then we will have to work pretty hard to
really understand what we are doing. One of the first steps is to try to
state what a map shows with as directed a language as possible. 

cheers,
adrian

P.S. I assumed you were doing something cool. Most people on this list
are 1) supporting Free software which is very cool 2) decent people
willing to help others which is also very cool. Actually, I'd change the
'Most people' to 'Everyone.'

Thanks for building housing in DC. The Habitat for Humanity affiliate
there got me to spend some time in a few new parts of town. D.C. could
be a fantastic place with some commitment and hard work.

The cigars reference came out of an incident of three cigar smoking
policemen, two of whom were dragging and hassling a homeless man up near
Adams Morgan in August 2001. When they realized that I was going to
stand there and witness the whole incident, they funnily enough stopped
dragging the man, took their cigars out of their mouths, started
speaking more politely and finally gave up and drove away. Something
about the juxtaposition of two big policemen smoking cigars and one
frail, half drunk or really tired homeless man being dragged summed up
my feelings about the state of the police force in DC.

My other comments come from years dealing with the police officers in
DC, going to court, reading the papers and tracking the money. Your
project has been played out before (16th street when the cops wanted a
raise back in the late 1980's if I remember correctly) so it gets me
worked up. As you know, DC claimed to be "murder capital of the world
for a while". You have to figure, with the sheer size of the US budget,
it must be "embezzlement capital of the world" as well but no one has
*ever* mentioned that.

Apologies for my earlier posting. It was neither subtle, nor tactful,
nor effective. Again, good luck doing whatever it is you are doing. 



On Mon, 2003-01-20 at 07:41, Knox McIlwain wrote:
> Dear FreeGIS Community -
> 
> Thank you so much for your generous help. I have a lot to chew on, but many
> great pointers. I may be back with more questions in a bit. When we get a
> system up and running, I will send you the link.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> - Knox McIlwain
> 
> PS - Adrian - I work for a non-profit affordable housing developer, not the
> city or federal government. This is a volunteer citizen effort to decrease
> the rate of armed robberies, rapes, and other violent assaults in my
> neighborhood. I am pleased that you do not have these problems in Berkley -
> maybe you can help us solve them. And DC power brokers don't smoke cigars -
> that was the mid-90s.
> 
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