Flexible Geospatial Visual Analytics and Simulation Technologies to Enhance Criminal Justice Decision Support Systems

Among other purposes, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides funds to preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery and to provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health. In addition to supporting the goals of the Recovery Act, this project also supports the purposes of the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program by helping to increase the economic efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement activities. This project will address law enforcement technology requirements and priorities in the areas of ' public safety, geospatial technologies, information sharing, and decision-making. In consideration of the goals, objectives, and intended impact of the Recovery Act, priority consideration has been given to proposals that demonstrate the potential for increasing law enforcement efficiency and effectiveness and/or support job creation or preservation on an expedited time frame. The project by the research team at ASU's GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation is to develop a flexible methodological framework, integrating new technologies for geospatial visual analytics and spatial econometrics with state of the are geocomputation technologies to yield the basis for an enhanced decision support system for criminal justice interventions. In addition to methodological efforts, the proposed research will yield an open source and cross-platform modular software toolbox that will be delivered through a multitude of user interfaces. The research team has also recognized the importance of job creation and preservation. The project will create jobs both directly at the university and also in the local area in support of the project. ca/ncf