In this study we focused on a system designed for the Law Enforcement Agents to empower their officers to create
and maintain crime and accident reports more effectively and more efficiently by improving the current paper based measures.
Beyond the digitalization of existing forms, the activity of creating new reports in the field is enhanced through a mobile
application that utilizes built-in sensors in mobile devices such as tablet computers and smart phones to capture location and
other relative information together with rich media such as pictures and videos. A central repository is used to allow fast and
easy access for relevant stakeholders, and we demonstrate how this repository can be used together with GIS data to create
powerful crime mapping tools. While in the early phases we reveal the feasibility of the proposed solution through
implementation of prototypes and isolated studies of core modules in the architecture and a first iteration of the interface design
based on interviews with stakeholders in the organization and analysis of the current workflows.
Through this paper we have looked at crime and accident
reporting using mobile devices; the digitalization of a
paper based system toward a system with a centrally
managed repository; and shown how this together with
GIS data can be used to create interactive crime maps to
aid decision makers in the Police organization. We argue
that if a full scale system were to be implemented
throughout a police organization it would have massive
benefits over a paper based systems both with regards to
effectiveness and efficiency. We also argue that the
necessary technology is available and will only get better
and cheaper. Thus we believe that moving towards an
effective crime mapping solution is a scalable and
sustainable approach - with huge potential in leapfrogging
the "heavy" integrated ICT systems and infrastructures that
are usually put in place to establish such functionality. But
there are still many challenges to be addressed, not least
those that arise at the human-computer interfaces.
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