Spatial monitoring of geographic patterns: an application to crime analysis

This paper describes a new procedure for detecting changes over time in the spatial pattern of point events, combining the nearest neighbor statistic and cumulative sum methods. The method results in the rapid detection of deviations from expected geographic patterns. It may also be used for various subregions and may be implemented using time windows of differing length to search for any changes in spatial pattern that may occur at particular time scales. The method is illustrated using 1996 arson data from the Buffalo, NY, Police Department.

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