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Congressman Jack Quinn, New York 30th District, introducing Dr. Christopher Rump

Christopher Rump, State University of New York, Buffalo, presenting "Optimal Police Enforcement Allocation"

Local law enforcement agencies are starting to recognize the value of GIS. Recent advances in GIS technology are beginning to aid in resource allocation and other law enforcement decisions. Computer- aided crime analysis and mapping are also valuable resources for law enforcement agencies.

This project researches theoretical methods for predicting the displacement of crime in response to law enforcement, such that police resource allocation decisions will have the greatest beneficial effect.

Mobile criminals with economic motivations commit many crimes, such as burglary, robbery and auto theft. Using qualitative observations of this type of criminal behavior, SUNY Buffalo researchers have developed a socio-economic quantitative model that attempts to predict the number of crime incidents within a police jurisdiction.

The goal is to use this model to help determine the optimal allocation of police enforcement resources among adjacent neighborhoods. The optimal allocation depends on the objective. The project examines two: (1) minimizing the total number of crimes among the neighborhoods, and (2) minimizing the difference in the number of crimes between neighborhoods. Since the allocation policies for these two objectives may not coincide, the project also explore policies that yield a comprised solution.

This research is supported by a Department of Justice grant.

For more information:

Dr. Rajan Batta

Dr. Christopher M. Rump

Department of Industrial Engineering

State University of New York at Buffalo

Buffalo, NY 14260-2050

(716) 645-2357, fax (716) 645-3302

Email: batta@acsu.buffalo.edu,

crump@eng.buffalo.edu

Web site: www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~crump/proj/nij.html