Lab 5 - DC Crime Mapping

GIS 4048

For this week's lab we took a bite out of crime in the Washington, D.C. area.  My first task was establishing a quality workspace by modifying the environment settings.  Once this was accomplished I saved the map twice in order to preserve my settings for the second map.

In the above map, I utilized a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet and the Display XY data tool to identify and display multiple crimes that were committed in Washington, D.C. on January 2011.  The analysis conducted was to locate where a new proposed police substation should be.  Using the street addresses provided from a spreadsheet that contained a list of all Washington, D.C. Police Stations, I was able to Geocode their precise locations using a Locator Tool and the Roadway layer provided by Tele Atlas.  Then I was able to mark those locations with unique symbology on the map.  Using a multi ring buffer tool I was able to determine how many crimes were committed within .5, 1, and 2 miles of a police station.  Those findings are in the map.  I was also able to use a spatial join to tie each crime to the closest police station.  With this link I was able to calculate a percentage that each police station covers, compared to the other departments.  With the analysis completed I identified a location on the map that I felt would be the best location for an additional Police Substation.  The location of the substation is ideal to fight the two highest crimes in the city, Theft and Theft from Auto.

The second map that I created was focused on specific crimes.  The Kernel Density tool was used to display these crimes in a "Hot Spot" style of mapping.  Areas where the specific crime occurred in greater frequency showed up on the map in a darker shade.  These areas were compared to the population density using the Swipe tool, and the results were somewhat surprising.  Homicides occurred in low to medium population density areas.  Sex Abuse was more predominant in medium population density areas.  Burglaries, although wide spread throughout the city, were more concentrated on heavily populated areas.  

Overall the project was a great learning experience.  I had some trouble with selecting the proper size of my maps so that there was not too much unused space.  I believe in the end I have a well balanced map and clearly provide the readers with the information I want to present.