The use of GIS technology has been heralded as a significant contributor to the drop in crime in many communities. A residual benefit of mapping crime for internal purposes is the availability of accurate data that can be shared with the public. Many companies have created mapping applications for sharing public safety information with citizens. Some companies have gone as far as to give their products away at no cost. However, the old adage, “you get what you pay for” is very true in this case. Most public facing crime applications are cumbersome, non-intuitive, and frankly, cause more problems than they solve. That is why the leading local government Geographic Information Systems (GIS) firm, Geographic Technologies Group (GTG), created a new and much more user-friendly and innovative toolset, MapNimbus. Curtis Hinton, President of GTG points out, “It makes sense for a mapping/GIS firm to create the best public crime mapping application. Other attempts just don’t focus on the user experience and leveraging the latest GIS tools. If an application requires more than a few clicks from its users, it is worthless to the public.”
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Public Perception of Crime Rate at Odds with Reality: Number of people saying there is more crime in the US than one year ago vs. Actual crime rate decline. |