Why Geographic Information Systems in Spatiotemporal Crime Analysis? Attitude of Kenyan Police Officers
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Date
2019
Authors
Barakaa, Gachie Eliud
Murimi, Shadrack Kiana
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Online
Abstract
Security management is becoming complex in today’s society due to
increased transnational crimes, which are enhanced by technological
advancements. To address this challenge, police agencies need to continuously adopt and effectively apply more innovative decision-support
tools in policing. Kenyan police officers are however still using push-pins
on paper-maps to analyze crime. The goal of this study was therefore to
determine how crime is documented, mapped and analyzed in Kenya, and
to assess Kenyan police officers’ attitudes toward adoption of Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) in spatiotemporal crime analysis. A descriptive
survey targeting 120 police officers was carried out at the Kenya National
Police Service (NPS) headquarters in Nairobi. Only 94 subjects (78%) of the
targeted sample responded to the study. The study reveals that crime
recording by NPS is done on paper-based occurrence books (OBs), statistical analysis is executed on Ms Excel and spatial analysis is performed
using paper-maps. Among the respondents, 70% believed GIS technology
would be useful in spatiotemporal crime analysis while 57% were uncertain the technology would be easy to use. As such, 64% of the respondents were optimistic that they would be satisfied with GIS technology in
spatiotemporal crime analysis. The study therefore concludes that
although crime recording and spatial analysis were done manually,
Kenyan police officers had an open mind towards adoption of GIS tools
in spatiotemporal crime analysis. The study recommends sensitization
about and training on GIS applications to Kenyan police officers as well
as an evaluation of manual versus computer-based crime analysis tools to
assess user-preferences.
Description
Article
Keywords
GIS, police, security, spatiotemporal crime analysis
Citation
Baraka, G. E., & Murimi, S. K. (2021). Why geographic information systems in spatiotemporal crime analysis? Attitude of Kenyan police officers. Police Practice and Research, 22(5), 1453-1468.