Computerized Crime Tracking Information System

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of The Study
Man by nature is social, gregarious and cannot live in isolation. To maintain
peace and harmony in the society, man has to fashion out conduct and some
laws to govern the conduct of members of the society. When people
appreciate these codes of conduct and laws, protection of lives and
properties are guaranteed.
Generally tracking is the observing of persons or objects on the move and
supplying a timely ordered sequence of respective location data to a model
e.g. capable to serve for depicting the motion on a display capability.
The traditional and age-old system of intelligence and criminal record
maintenance has failed to live up to the requirements of the existing crime
scenario. Manual processes neither provide accurate, reliable and
comprehensive data round the clock nor does it help in trend prediction and
decision support. It also results in lower productivity and ineffective
utilization of manpower. The solution to this ever-increasing problem lies in
the effective use of Information Technology. Crime Tracking Information
System uses computer-generated records as an interface for integrating and
accessing massive amounts of location-based information.
Crime tracking system allows police personnel to plan effectively for
emergency response, determine mitigation priorities, analyses historical
events, and predict future events. Crime tracking system helps identify
potential suspects to increase investigators suspect base when no leads are
evident. The ability to access and process information quickly while
displaying it in a spatial and visual medium allows agencies to allocate
resources quickly and more effectively. In the ̳mission-critical‘ nature of
law enforcement, information about the location of a crime, incident,
suspect, or victim is often crucial to determine the manner and size of the
response. Crime tracking software helps co-ordinate vast amounts of
location-based data from multiple sources. It enables the user to layer the
data and view the data most critical to the particular issue or mission.
It is used world over by police departments, both large and small, to provide
solutions for crime analysis, criminal tracking, traffic safety, community
policing, Intranet/Internet mapping, and numerous other tasks.
Crime tracking system helps crime officers determine potential crime sites
by examining complex seemingly unrelated criteria and displaying them all
in an interface. It also helps them map inmate populations, fixtures, and
equipment to provide for the safety of inmates by separating gang members,
identifying high-risk or potentially violent inmates, and identifying
hazardous locations in an area. It reduces the potential for internal violence
by providing better command and control. Traditionally, these activities
have been supported by paper and pen. Police officers now have the ability
to immediately generate crime report directly relevant to the situation at
hand. Police agencies collect vast amounts of data from many sources
including called-for-services, arrests, first information reports and daily
report. The same information provides a powerful decision making tool for
investigators, supervisors, and administrators.
1.2 Statement of Problem
The Nigerian Police, which is used as a case study, has an existing criminal
Tracking System, but this system is not automated. The documentation of
criminal records is done on paper and pen. The storage of these criminal
records is not something to write home about.
Case files are dumped in heaps while some are kept on shelves. With the
moldy nature of the state such important documents quickly get dusty and
because of lack of proper storage, some criminal documents are seriously
damaged by rats that feed on them. With this kind of situation, it becomes
highly difficult if not impossible to track down known criminal, access past
criminal history of a suspect and know the status of some concluded cases.

1.3 Purpose of the project
The project intends to computerize the existing Criminal Tracking System at
the Nigerian Police. Specifically, the project will accomplish the following:
1) Design and develop a central database system that would serve as
statewide repository of criminal data. The smaller database system
at the sub-police station will be networked to the central database
to access criminal data on cases not handled at the local station.
This database system will be updated by local police station within
the state as well as the police headquarters. (acting as a criminal
data collection centers)
2) The central database system will be resident on a server at the
police headquarter and will be linked to both the local police
station and the Central Criminal Registry via a client- server
between station as well as Criminal Justice, the rendering of
Criminal Justice.
3) The database system will capture detailed information about crime
suspect right from the time the crime was reported at the police
down to the point the suspect appears before the court for
prosecution as thereafter.
4) The systems will posses features that will enable criminal data to
5) be purged from the system, updated and queried.

1.4 Justification
Implementation of a crime information system by the Nigerian police will
help the police and the masses to get useful information on individuals with
crime records. The system developed will among other things:
1. Maintain a database of all crime records
2. Enable a quick search on the database to retrieve crime information
3. Enable Nigerian police to track previous crimes committed by a
suspect
4. Make crime control easier for the police

1.5 Scope of the project
Basically any Criminal Tracking System as an integral part of the Criminal
Justice Information System consists of three major sections, that is:
a) The Criminal Identification Division
b) The Magistrate Segment, and
c) The prisons.
However, because of lack of time, funding and the scope of the system, the
project was limited to the development and implementation of software –
base criminal tracking information system that will automate the processes
involved in tracking down criminals by the Nigerian Police.

1.6 Limitation of the Project
Due to time and financial constraint, I was unable to visit few of the police
stations in Nigeria to gather information on the existing crime information
system. Few police stations were visited and the information gathered
from the officers in charge forms the basis for the design of the new
system.
The project did not cover the Prison and the Magistrate Segment, which
could also be automated.

1.7 Project Report Organization
The project is organized as follows;-
Chapter one introduces the project; the background of the project is also
discussed. The objectives of the project, its significance, scope, and
constraints are pointed out.
A brief history of the Nigerian police and review of literature on Criminal
Tracking System are subject matter of Chapter two.
Chapter three discusses system Analysis and design. It deals with detailed
investigation and analysis of the existing system and problem identification.
Chapter four covers the system implementation, testing and integration
Chapter five was the summary of findings, limitations of the project,
recommendations, bill of engineering measurement and evaluation
conclusion, bibliography, appendix A and Appendix B of the project.

1.8 Definition of Terms
Crime: A normative definition views crime as deviant behavior that
violates prevailing norms – cultural standards prescribing how humans
ought to behave normally
Criminalization: One can view criminalization as a procedure deployed by
society as a pre-emptive, harm-reduction device, using the threat of
punishment as a deterrent to anyone proposing to engage in the behavior
causing harm.
FIIB: Federal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau
IGP: Inspector General of Police
DIG: Deputy Inspector General
FCID: Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) is the highest
investigation arm of the Nigeria Police NPF.