UCL MEDIA RELATIONS

UCL today appointed Mr Spencer Chainey as the new Director of Geographical Information Science at the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science. Currently Head of the Consultancy Services team at InfoTech Enterprises Europe, Mr Chainey will take up his position on 6 May 2003.

Prior to joining InfoTech, Mr Chainey spent three years as Corporate Geographical Information Systems Manager at the London Borough of Hackney and one year as the lead figure for the award winning Brent Crime Mapping project.

His work in crime mapping and analysis, regeneration mapping and neighbourhood renewal, housing management systems, social exclusion analysis, and web-based mapping is recognised and used as examples of best practice by amongst others; the Cabinet office, The Department for Environment, The Home Office and The United States Department of Justice .

Spencer’s work is much published and includes authoring the Home Office Crime Reduction Unit’s Focus Areas and Hotspots toolkit, and the soon to be released US Department of Justice ‘Understanding hotspots’ booklet.

Following the announcement of his appointment Mr Chainey said:

“Crime has an inherent geography about it. By bringing geographical science and crime science together, we can better understand why, where and when crime occurs and help in reducing it. I am delighted with my appointment and relishing the opportunity to establish the Institute as a world leader in the field of crime mapping and analysis research and education.”