{"id":706212,"date":"2024-12-17T06:40:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T14:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=706212"},"modified":"2024-12-17T13:51:22","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T21:51:22","slug":"crime-atlas-changes-austria-policing","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/crime-atlas-changes-austria-policing","title":{"rendered":"How a Crime Atlas Is Changing Policing and Crime Fighting in Austria"},"author":671,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[490792,490802,490782,1171,9412],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[490742],"esri_blog_department":[478242],"class_list":["post-706212","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-austria","tag-burglary","tag-crime-mapping","tag-open-data","tag-transparency","esri-blog-category-law-enforcement","esri_blog_department-public-safety"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"In Austria, the national policing agency's crime atlas allows all 30,000 officers in the nation to visualize criminal activity.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"In Austria, a digital crime atlas helps police visualize crimes, identify patterns, and collaborate on investigations and crime prevention efforts.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Criminal Intelligence Service Austria maintains Crime Atlas Austria, a centralized crime map for the country.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>The atlas makes it possible for different agencies and jurisdictions to collaborate on investigations and crime prevention.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Officers use the Crime Atlas to access data and look for patterns in criminal activity.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The acid thieves were bound to hit Vienna. Austrian law enforcement had been on the lookout for this trend. Although Austria\u2019s violent crime rate is low, property crimes persist.\r\n\r\nThe acid thieves don\u2019t steal acid. Over the past few years in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barrons.com\/news\/wave-of-burglaries-using-acid-hits-swedish-capital-543f3c1f\">several European cities<\/a>, burglars have gained access to buildings by <a href=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2024\/07\/15\/nitric-acid-is-the-hot-new-way-to-pick-locks\/\">using nitric acid<\/a> to melt door locks. When thieves tried this tactic to Vienna, the burglary popped up on a map shared by law enforcement agencies across Austria.\r\n\r\nMapping crime is not a new idea. We\u2019ve all seen detailed crime maps covered with pushpins in TV shows and movies.\r\n\r\nNow, digital crime maps are answering questions like, could the five thieves charged with 90 acid burglaries in Paris be part of a larger group?\r\n\r\nAuthorities are not sure, yet. But in Austria, police have a map-based visualization tool and cross-jurisdictional data sharing for location intelligence. What\u2019s known as Crime Atlas Austria uses an enterprise geographic information system (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/what-is-gis\/overview\">GIS<\/a>) to map all crimes committed anywhere in the nation\u2019s nine federated states. Whenever a new crime is reported to the police, the data is added to the Crime Atlas within one hour, making it available to the rest of the agency.\r\n<h3><strong>Spotting Hot Spots and Trends<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThe atlas, maintained by Criminal Intelligence Service Austria (Bundeskriminalamt or BK), the nation\u2019s central police agency, has been online for two years. Historical crime data within the map helps police understand long-term trends. The visualization of current crime data helps them identify developing crime hot spots and see hidden relationships in the data.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe Crime Atlas really has a specific purpose,\u201d said Jacques Huberty, BK\u2019s head of spatial analysis. \u201cIt should support investigations, and it should support prevention.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[717442,717462,717452]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Every day, federal and local police find constructive ways to use the Crime Atlas. Last summer, gang violence rocked Vienna when youth gangs with roots in Chechnya battled gangs of Syrians. The map clearly shows these violent crimes being committed in parks and train stations.\r\n<h3><strong>Criteria for the Crime Atlas<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nBurglaries are perhaps the best way to grasp how the Crime Atlas is changing policing in Austria. Hot spots are quickly identified, especially in this area of crime, and measures such as patrols and prevention can be carried out quickly and in a geographically targeted manner.\r\n\r\nSay you want to see where the acid burglaries have occurred. Huberty pulled up the basemap of Austria. \u201cYou just type in \u2018acid,\u2019\u201d Huberty demonstrated, as a series of dots appeared on the map. \u201cThere you have the whole series for all of Austria.\u201d\r\n\r\nBeyond acid burglary updates, the atlas was designed to make accurate data accessible to the nation\u2019s 30,000 police and detectives in different police departments.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe had three criteria,\u201d said Horst Schabauer, a spatial crime analyst at BK. \u201cThe first was usability\u2014nobody should need a handbook. The second was that the data had to be good. And the third was that everyone should see everything, all of Austria.\u201d\r\n\r\nEverything police do \u201ccan be encompassed by this platform,\u201d Huberty added. \u201cThe investigators, prevention people, everyone can go to this platform to have all the daily information.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[717752,717482]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3><strong>Changing How Police Investigate Crime<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nComplete access to crime data has had important implications for how crimes are investigated in Austria.\r\n\r\nHuberty zoomed in on an area that showed where Vienna borders the state of Lower Austria to the south (Vienna is both a city and its own state.). Dots in various colors appeared on the screen, on both sides of the border.\r\n\r\n\u201cThose orange dots are car burglaries,\u201d Huberty said. \u201cThe different colors symbolize a selection of the most important areas of crime. By this, you can analyze spatial relations between these dots, and you can go back and look at historical cases.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s important that you can see here there\u2019s quite a close proximity,\u201d added Kira Lapp\u00e9, another BK spatial crime analyst, as she scanned the screen.\r\n\r\n\u201cIn the general report management system [that predates the Crime Atlas], the police officers in Vienna could only check on what\u2019s happening there, but not here,\u201d Huberty said, indicating Lower Austria.\r\n\r\nFor the EGS, an investigative unit of Austria\u2019s federal police that investigates street crimes and property crimes including burglaries, the atlas has altered the entire caseload workflow.\r\n\r\n\u201cEvery day, they do an analysis with the Crime Atlas, looking for clusters and patterns, and then plan their patrol based on that information,\u201d Huberty said.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s not that they have fewer questions for us, but they can answer the smaller ones on their own,\u201d Lapp\u00e9 said. \u201cWhich means they\u2019re coming to us for more in-depth analysis. That\u2019s a real shift.\u201d\r\n<h3><strong>Thematic Maps Inform Prevention<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nAs BK analysts study the atlas and use advanced methods to aggregate data, they sometimes make \u201cthematic\u201d maps that are disseminated across police agencies. Lapp\u00e9 pulled up one for burglaries committed during twilight hours, a popular time to strike, particularly in the winter months when it gets darker earlier.\r\n\r\n\u201cHere, we can see burglaries from the last three days, over the whole country,\u201d Huberty said.\r\n\r\nWith a few clicks, some of the burglary spots turned red, signifying a twilight burglary.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf some patterns persist,\u201d he continued, \u201cit will be added to a hot spot list. We can see the cluster and send out a bulletin saying that burglars might be in this region, so please do some prevention work, but also inform the patrol.\u201d The local police, in turn, can do things to alert residents, such as post notices.\r\n<h3><strong>The Life of Crime Atlas Austria<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nCrime Atlas Austria is very much a living document. Users can import their own data and visualize it in the map. As it continues to accrue daily data, historical patterns emerge. Schabauer also imagines the atlas becoming even more of a personalized tool.\r\n\r\n\u201cI\u2019d like to make it more interactive,\u201d he said. \u201cPolice often approach us and ask us to have a deeper look at something, to see if it might indicate a series or pattern.\u201d\r\n\r\nSchabauer sees the atlas as extending from visualization to support analysis and strategy.\r\n\r\n\u201cPolice could feed more information into it if they see something that they think might be a phenomenon,\u201d he said. \u201cOur investigation teams could then provide more input about why this crime is happening, and offer measures to tackle the problem.\u201d\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nLearn more about how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/law-enforcement\/overview\">law enforcement agencies across the world apply GIS to keep communities safe<\/a>.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - 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