Geography & Public Safety Bulletin
The Geography and Public Safety bulletin is a collaborative publication by NIJ and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). The bulletin highlights how geography can be applied to solve crime and public safety problems. Issues feature successful research stories, describe policy initiatives, present technical tips for using GIS and highlight recent news.
Current Issue
Volume 2, Issue I — Sex Offender Residency Restrictions
This issue focuses on how mapping and spatial analysis can help jurisdictions understand the effects of sex offender residency restrictions. Specifically, it discusses how residency restrictions affect recidivism - whether they hamper offenders' reentry process and make it less likely that they will get treatment and services. Articles include a discussion of whether residency restrictions are a good idea, a study of residency restrictions in Minnesota, a report on the use of GPS monitoring for sex offenders in Florida, and a description of a spatial analysis technique for tracking sex offenders piloted by California Department of Corrections data.
Volume 2, Issue I - May 2009 (pdf, 16 pages)
Past Issues
Volume I, Issue IV — Districting and Resource Allocation
Issue IV of the Geography and Public Safety Bulletin focuses on how police can use geographic information systems (GIS) and statistical analysis to create police districts that balance officer workloads, and how they can best allocate resources. Articles focus on how two communities redrew district boundaries, and highlight techniques and technologies that can help police respond faster and more effectively to emergency situations. The issue also provides highlights successful redistricting projects in the news, and discusses two of the MAPS program’s internal research projects.
Volume 1, Issue IV - Winter 2009 (pdf, 20 pages)
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)
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 I, Issue II - Summer 2008 (pdf, 20 pages)
Volume I, Issue I — 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)