Keep Your Citizens Informed – MapNimbus: Public-Facing Crime Analysis Software

Crime analysis has grown significantly over the past few years.  Organizations have begun to leverage the power of GIS to discern patterns and predict crime.

	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.

Your citizens can access MapNimbus anytime, anywhere. It is compatible with Android, Apple, and Windows mobile devices, in addition to functioning on Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox. Citizens can use the application without any training.  Hinton notes, “Intuitiveness, ease-of-use, and pizzazz are the hallmarks of MapNimbus.  This application exceeds any of its predecessors.  I am so glad my hometown uses the application.  I stay informed about activity around my house, my parent’s house, my church, and my children’s school.  This is what sharing data with citizens is all about!”  Returning users can create an account and set up a notification zone, and will be notified whenever an event happens in their indicated area. For a personal touch, they can name notification zones whatever they want- for example “Potential Home”, “Kendall’s School”, or “Mom’s Work”.  Users can  also  choose  to toggle  certain events on and  off,  change  their  search dates, categories, and map views. Data charts are viewable to see which events are the most common in an area of your choice, and this can be printed or shared with friends. MapNimbus integrates with social media, which means if a citizen sees an increase in crime near their home, they can alert their neighbors via Twitter or Facebook. James Kelt, Public Safety Solutions Specialist, states, “We constantly see public facing GIS applications that are painful to use and don’t meet the needs of the public.  We have spent years researching the needs of the public safety agencies and their constituents.  MapNimbus is the result of this effort.”