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Gazette - Police technology may help military
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NEWS NOTES
By Caroline Ross
Sgt Jerry Kean, DND
A geographic profiling system developed for police work may help the Canadian military counter the threat of improvised explosive device attacks, like this one in Afghanistan in 2005.
A “geographic profiling” system first implemented by Canadian police to help locate and apprehend serial criminals is now being evaluated by the Canadian military for use in counter-insurgency operations overseas.
The system, developed by former Vancouver police officer Kim Rossmo in the mid 1990s, allows trained users to input the geographic co-ordinates of sites where serial crimes like murders, rapes and burglaries are committed. The system then generates a “probability map” showing areas where the perpetrator is most likely to live based on the locations of the crimes.
“It’s basically just least-effort principle,” says Ian Laverty, President and CEO of Environmental Criminology Research Inc. (ECRI), the Canadian company that now develops and distributes the geographic profiling software. “The most probable home site is simply the place from which it takes the least effort to travel to all the crime sites.”
Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) is now working with ECRI and other partners to determine if the tool can be used to help combat improvised explosive device (IED) attacks and detect threat.
“We’re basically trying to take this policing tool and adapt it for military use, so that instead of reacting to IEDs, we’ll be able to take a more offensive approach,” says Major Dave Waller, project director for the Counter-IED Technology Demonstration Program at DRDC.
The project is in its early stages, but Waller credits knowledge transfer from police as a key enabler for future research and development. In partnership with ECRI, RCMP geographic profiler Carl Sesely runs the software training program at DRDC, sharing his seven years of police profiling experience and teaching foundational theories on the geography of crime.
“Having that kind of expertise has been instrumental in generating acceptance of this (tool’s) capacity (within the military community),” says Waller, adding that many geographic profiling concepts can apply to both police and military operations.
Eighty-two police agencies in North America and Europe currently use ECRI’s geographic profiling software.
For more information on ECRI’s geographic profiling software, visit www.ecricanada.com .
