Dr. Payne attends Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS) workshop

APD crime map showing density of person crimes.

Dr. Troy Payne, Justice faculty, attended the "Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS)" workshop hosted by the Anchorage Police Department (APD) on July 26 -28, 2011 in Anchorage.  Attendees included representatives from Alaska state agencies.

DDACTS involves the use of geo-mapping to identify areas that have high incidence of crime and crashes, and to determine effective and efficient means for deploying law enforcement and other resources based on this data.  The goal of DDACTS is to reduce the incidence of crime, crashes, and traffic violations across the nation.  This program is supported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Bureau of Justice, and the National Institute of Justice.

The APD crime map shown is an example of how geo-mapping uses color to indicate density of crimes; in this instance, red equals a high value and denotes a high density of person crimes in particular areas of Anchorage in June 2011.