The technical development team at the Federal Department of Town and Country Planning (FDTCP) is working together with the Royal Malaysian Police to extend the mapping capabilities of its Safe City Monitoring System (SCMS) to other divisions of the police force.
The Safe City Monitoring System is a web-based GIS crime mapping tool which aims to not only help authorities identify high crime areas, but to also allow them to study crime patterns and potential variables and determinants on causes of crimes.
The system was developed by the FDTCP and is now currently being used by 51 police stations and 12 municipal councils. By end of 2012, 254 police stations is expected to use the system.
Peter Amandus Jr. and Mustafah Dahlan, both town planners and GIS experts at FDCP, told FutureGov that the Department is set to improve the mapping system’s capabilities by way of integrating it with the RMP’s C4i (Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Integration) system and its Narcotics and Traffic divisions.
“Now that we have seen the benefits derived from using GIS in crime response and analysis we are looking into extending this capability to the Narcotics and Traffic Divisions soon to further improve their efforts in tracking locations and activities of drug dealers and as well as improve the police force’s response during road emergencies,” said Amandus
Since it was launched in 2011, SCMS has helped the RMP and municipal councils monitor or identify crime locations, guide allocation of funds (lighting & CCTVs) and human resources (police enforcement, strategic location police presence, community awareness and initiatives) to reduce crime.
The SCMS is a winner of the Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award. The SAG Award ceremony is held at the annual Esri International User Conference and presided over by Jack Dangermond, the president and founder of Esri.