GIS 4048: Week 5 - HLS DC Crime Mapping

This week's assignment was like a dream come true.  I have always loved law enforcement with a huge passion and have always been so fascinated and curious by everything they do. When it comes time for me to find a new job, I'm strongly considering becoming a crime analyst for a local police department.  The assignment this past week was to create a map showing the crime occurrences in relation to local police departments within Washington DC.  We were also asked to create a map showing the crime density for burglaries, sexual abuse, and homicides in the DC area. 

The map shown below portrays the total crime in relation to local police departments.  The different types of crime are listed and color coded based on their severity.  Theft, being the most common, is also the least violent.  You could also find out that information by referring to the graph in the lower left of the map.  The graph shows the number of crimes committed and the severity of those crimes.  The police stations are shown using graduated symbols, which represent the percent of crimes by those departments.  I displayed the block groups by use of graduated colors and a Natural Breaks classification method.  The different colors represent the population density throughout Washington DC. 
I strongly debated on showing the different crimes on the map because I felt it looked too cluttered. However, since I was asked to provide the map with a proposed police station, I thought it best to include the crime layer.  That way, you're able to see the severity of crimes in relation to the proposed police stations. 

The map shown below represents crime density showing burglary, sexual abuse, and homicide within Washington DC.  These maps were created using a search radius of 1500 in the Kernel Density tool.  The density analysis portrayed are based on the following counts of each offense.  Burglary: 339 cases, Sexual Abuse: 15 cases, and Homicide: 9 cases. The density shading is also overlaid over a population density by square mile.  As you can see, burglaries are very much higher in concentration around the more densely populated area. This is still true for sex crimes, however these increase to the mid and mid east DC areas. Homicides, on the other hand, are less frequent and are less centrally located.

Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment.  It gave me an idea as to what I might accomplish as a Crime Analyst.  I found this assignment to be one of the most fascinating ones, yet.  On top of it all, I got to learn how to use a new tool.  I don't think there were any huge challenges for me this past week.  However, the map displaying the crimes in relation to the police departments took a lot longer than expected.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of the Homeland Security assignments, and seeing what else I can do.