ABSTRACT
One of the police’s main roles is the prevention and detection of crime. In order to demonstrate their effectiveness in these tasks it will be necessary to provide an accurate record of the number of crimes that occur in any given area each year. A great deal of police work involves the recording of crime information and the compilation of annual statistics. Once recorded, comparisons can then be made between crime rates in different regions or changes in the crime rate over time. However, the accumulation of such data can also be of benefit to a police force in allowing crime analysts to identify any trends in the pattern of crime. Analysts can, for example, identify crime ‘hot spots’ and, as a result, allow resources to be deployed more effectively. Analysis of crime data also allows crime reduction initiatives to be evaluated.
