Abstract

Finding a Geographic Denominator in a Diverse Urban Setting
Track: Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice
Author(s): Chad Smith, Larry Hoover

The Dallas Police Department is engaged with Sam Houston State University in an evaluation of the efficacy of crime interdiction tactics by uniformed patrol. The evaluative design required three matched pairs of high crime areas, with each matched pair demographically similar and experiencing parallel crime patterns, but dissimilar to one another on both dimensions. Dallas PD analysts used GIS to find a common geographic denominator to identify potential study areas. Data were then refined to consider both quantitative and qualitative crime patterns. Existing political and social boundaries were rejected for lack of consistency and uniformity. Instead, artificial boundaries were created to track and analyze the impact of variation in patrol tactics. This presentation reviews the complexity of combining widely varied geospatial datasets.

Chad Smith
Dallas Police Department
1400 S Lamar St
Dallas , Texas 75215
United States
Phone: 2144968240
E-mail: chad.smith@dpd.dallascityhall.com

Larry Hoover
Sam Houston State University
PO Box 2296
Huntsville , Texas 77341-2296
United States
Phone: 936.294.1636
E-mail: larryhoover@shsu.edu