Geography & Public Safety Bulletin
The MAPS program at NIJ, together with the COPS office, is now publishing a quarterly bulletin on geography and public safety. Topics covered in the Bulletin include mapping, problem analysis, and other issues pertaining to the geography of crime. The Bulletin is geared towards practitioners in law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. Articles in the Bulletin are intended to inform the reader of topics current with regard to spatial analysis of crime, but also to push the reader to new levels.
Current Issue
Volume I, Issue III — Home Foreclosures
Issue III of Geography and Public Safety examines how the nationwide home foreclosure crisis has affected crime, police practice, and public policy. Articles show that geographic information systems can assess how foreclosures influence crime trends and improve city cleanup of graffiti and blight. Additionally, the issue describes the tenets of the broken windows policing theory, and how this theory explains why police and public planners must react quickly, before crime has a chance to escalate.
Volume 1, Issue III - Fall 2008 (pdf, 20 pages)
Past Issues
Volume I, Issue II — Traffic Safety and DUIs
Issue 2 of Geography and Public Safety focuses on how police can use geographic information systems and related technologies can be used for traffic safety analysis. Expert authors discuss traffic safety issues, highlighting ways to target drunk driving and excessive speeding. The issue provides a variety of features on these topics, including an editorial, police discussion, technical piece, and series of news briefs.
Volume 1, Issue II - Summer 2008 (pdf, 20 pages)
Volume I, Issue II — Hot Spots
The first issue of the Geography & Public Safety Bulletin is focused on the topic of hot spot analysis. There is also a technical section, about using ESRI's ModelBuilder, an article about how a university is helping smaller, rural police departments with crime mapping, an "In the News" section, and a list of events.
Volume I, Issue I - Winter 2008 (pdf, 16 pages)