UCL offers police high-tech help to reduce crime

The UK's first 'Crime Mapping' conference will be hosted by UCL on March 26th and 27th at the Institute of Education, London.

The event will focus on how the use of 'Crime Mapping', a variety of sophisticated geographic modelling techniques which identify patterns in criminal behaviour, can significantly reduce crime in the UK.

UCL's Jill Dando Professor of Crime Science, Gloria Laycock, said:

"The co-ordinated use of crime mapping in New York has significantly reduced the crime rate over the past few years. We hope that through our work here at the Institute of Crime Science, the UK police force can produce a similar reduction in crime."

The conference will provide a forum for the discussion and presentation of new techniques in crime mapping from projects across the UK. It will also call on the Government for better resources for crime analysts in the UK along with the infrastructure needed to carry out this valuable work.

Notes to Editors:

The UK's first Crime Mapping Conference will be held on 26th and 27th March 2003 at the Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London.

The Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at UCL is the first in the world devoted specifically to allying scientific techniques and methods to reducing crime. It does this through teaching, research, public policy analysis and by the dissemination of evidence-based information on crime reduction. The Institute enjoys a close working relationship with businesses, law enforcement agencies and policy makers which ensures that teaching and research are based on practical, real-world problems and solutions.