Visualization and spatial analysis of police open data as a part of community policing in the city of Pardubice (Czech Republic)

ABSTRACT Different types of spatial analyses and visualizations can be used in the police practice for investigation, crime prediction, and planning of police forces. The public availability of crime data is one of the often discussed issues for the police, general public and academia. The efforts to open police data are rooted in the philosophy of the so-called ‘community policing’. In this article, we demonstrate the possibilities of spatial analysis and cartographic visualization of open crime data. We provide two use cases based on the data gathered by the municipal police in Pardubice, Czech Republic. We investigate the impact of gambling sites on crime offence intensity and found that gambling sites considerably influence their surroundings within 100 m. The other use case is focused on traffic offences caused by cyclists. We extracted hot spots of these offences and tried to identify their causation, since the police should not only carry out repressive measures, but also strive to eliminate the causes (e.g. add cycle lanes, bike paths, underpasses or overpasses). Different types of cartographic visualization have been designed and discussed for both use cases. The advantages, limitations and future development of the described concepts are commented on in the conclusion.