Geographic Information System for Crime Prevention: A Geo-Spatial Analysis in Colombo Suburbs, Sri Lanka

A link between spatial technology and criminal investigations has been growing fast for several decades. One of the main proposes of present criminological studies is to predict the possible ways of incidents occurring so that prevention measures can be adopted to the process of strategic planning. This study demonstrates the applicability of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for identifying such possibility through spatial analysis on different crimes recorded. Spatial data analysis through GIS is becoming more popular in crime mapping and crime analysis in public safety agencies. This research paper attempts to identify the spatial and temporal distribution of crimes in one of the densely populated urban suburbs in Colombo; Peliyagoda Police Area. Recorded crimes during a particular period were the main data set of the study. In data analysis, different data models were created using GIS techniques and applied spatial tools such as Multiple Buffer Analysis, Density Analysis, Hot Spot Analysis and IDW Analysis. One of the main findings of this study is that the highest rate of criminal incidents have been reported within two km range from the Police Station. A specific temporal trend is progressive moving of crimes from South to the North during the period of past ten years. The spatial analysis model formulated by this research can be used to maintain the real time crime data at local, regional and global level.