Police crime recording and investigation systems - A user's view

This paper provides an overview of the role computer software plays within police forces with particular attention paid to crime analysis and investig ation computer systems. A distinction is made between major crime (e.g. mur der, violent assault, rape, etc.) and volume crime (e.g. domestic burglary, shoplifting, etc). Illustrate systems that are in practical use for tackli ng both major and volume crime are described. Particular attention is paid to the attempts that have been made to apply artificial intelligence techni ques to tackling the volume crime of burglary. A topic of current research is the use of data mining techniques for automatically detecting patterns i n reported crimes. The paper concludes by looking at the problems and benef its such systems may bring.