Week 5 Homeland Security - DC Crime Mapping

The focus of this week’s module was Homeland Security, DC Crime Mapping.  Our goals were to learn to establish workspace environments, analyze data stored in excel, create data using the xy tool, create an address locater, geocode tabular address data to point features, explore various marker symbol options, organize and prepare data for use in a geodatabase taking care to use proper nomenclature and logical naming conventions, calculate fields using the field calculator within attribute tables, create buffers and spatial joins, implement the swipe and flash tools for use in analysis, create multiple data frames to convey information, perform crime analysis using multiple spatial join options as well as Kernel Density, present information and use the analysis to propose a location for a new police station.  For the first part of the lab we created a map which included a graph of total crime by offense in the DC area, Police Stations/percent crime by station using thematic range graded symbology, percent crime with buffered distances from police stations and finally the location of the proposed police station.  I chose to display the buffered distances in a table format for clarity.  In the second portion of the lab we created kernel density maps showing burglaries, homicides and sex abuse crimes within the DC area.   This process was completed using the Spatial Analyst Tools, Density, Kernel Density.  We experimented with different search radii, 605, 1500 and 5000 square kilometers.  The smaller the radius the more detail, the larger the radius the more generalized it is.  I selected 1500 as it provided a smooth, easy to interpret kernel density.  Resulting Maps: